Talent, experience, depth, and excellent coaching. Sounds like a recipe for March, right? So you think I am talking about Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Florida, on and on. No, actually this conversation is all about the Miami Hurricanes.
Hey, wait a minute! They’re a football school! Not anymore!
After its 79-78 victory over the NC State Wolfpack in Raleigh Saturday, Miami skated to 8-0 in an ACC where the blue bloods of the three Triangle-based schools look down their collective noses at anybody who dares to challenge Duke, North Carolina, and now the Wolfpack since Mark Gottfried arrived last season and revived the Wolfpack program.
Miami showed how you win and affect the college basketball landscape on Saturday as five players hit double figures. Led by 18 points from guard Durand Scott, the Hurricanes surged late in a game that ended with a Reggie Johnson tip in with eight seconds remaining.
It is a seasoned team that finally has all of its components as it starts four seniors and a dynamic sophomore point guard in Shane Larkin, who was a the hub of Saturday’s heart-stopping win.
Larkin scored 13 points and had five assists and only one turnover in 37 minutes, but his biggest shot of his nine attempts could have actually been a miss.
With the clock winding down under 10 seconds, Larkin dribble-penetrated the right side of the NC State defense and got past freshman Tyler Lewis, who started at the point for the injured Lorenzo Brown. He shot and missed and the 6-10, 292-lb. mammoth center Johnson was on the left side to tip in the miss and give the Hurricanes the 1-point win.
Johnson, who has had injury problems throughout his career, is cementing himself as a force in the league due to his size. The graduate student, who has a 7-foot-2-inch wingspan flexed his muscles on Saturday with 15 points and eight boards as he showed his value in backing up Julian Gamble in the post.
“It means a lot coming to the state of North Carolina,” coach Jim Larranaga said of Johnson, after his heroic play, “We have a number of guys from North Carolina and they all want to play well because they have a lot family here. They rose to the level of the challenge. We were challenged today and were able to come through.”
Miami trailed by double digits on several occasions, but when Larranaga put Johnson and Gamble into the game together midway through the second half, the Hurricanes made their biggest move.
The Wolfpack led 60-52 and Gamble and Johnson combined for 14 of 16 points in a 14-2 Hurricanes run to give them a 68-62 lead. The Wolfpack made one more run to go up by five with under a minute before Durand Scott was able to make it to the line, can four-of-six, and then Johnson made his game-winning play.
“Shane Larkin had a ball screen set up for himself, or to get the ball to the bigs,” analyzed Larranaga, “We got a switch, and Shane got the shot off and I thought it might go in. Reggie was in great position.”