Clutch 33... Miami goin' dancin?
Ice cold. Tight. Unclutch. Looking at a fourteenth straight loss to Boston College. That's really the only way you could describe the first half twenty minutes of Miami's home finale this evening.Talk about a tale of two halves.
Jack McClinton was again your superhero. Stifled the first half and scoreless, #33 was unfazed down the stretch. Like all clutch players, it only takes one money shot to turn the tide. 17 of his 21 points came in the final twenty -12 of which were ridiculous three-pointers, all proving to be daggers at the right time.
Jimmy Graham proved another instrumental figure and was a huge reason Miami was only down seven at the half. Early on it was a handful of Graham offensive rebounds, steals and put backs that kept the Canes in the dogfight.
Later in the game, it was a steal and eventual bodyslam of Graham that woke Miami from its slumber. Keeping his cool, #00 made one of two technical free throws and on the ensuing play, McClinton buried his first three-pointer of the night, putting Miami up 41-40.
Down 41-36, BC's Shamari Spears chucked Graham to the hardwood after a steal, in an effort to stop an easy lay up. Moments later, a five point swing and the Canes first lead since 3-2 early in the first.
Lance Hurdle came up big for the Canes, scoring X on the night and going 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the game's final moments. Hurdle had 19 points seven rebound and wound up a perfect 10-for-10 from the line.
Up next, the season finale at Florida State and a little bit o' revenge on Miami's mind. The Canes were punked by the Noles on February 6th, but have gone 6-1 since. FSU is 3-3 since and has zero shot at an NCAA bid after a 5-9 run since mid-January.
Miami? All but in the big dance. 21-8 and 8-7 in the ACC, the Canes look to have done enough to make the final 64 at season's end. A win in Tallahassee will simply be the exclamation point and one last shot of momentum entering the ACC tourney.
Congrats to The U. This bunch overachieved early on and smacked up some lesser competition, only to have their noses bloodied, going 1-6 between January 15th and February 6th - the losing streak ironically starting with BC and ending with FSU.
Here's a shot to close out the 2007-2008 regular season 22-8 and riding a wave of momentum into the NCAAs. Tune in Saturday - 12pm ET.
posted by allCanes at
10:15 PM
3 Comments:
I'm psyched not only by the 2nd half but the energy at the BUC in the final 10 minutes last night. It was just wild: like GA used to be in Football @ the OB (and will never be again in the upper deck at JRS, like the Swamp was in my days at UiF in Canesville and how the Miami Arena was once or twice for UM Basketball.
The crowd was huge last night. We were ready to explode earlier but twice after big stops Anthony King took strange 15 foot jumpers and killed our momentum. But we stepped up late and the crowd reciprocated.
I'm told by an RPI "expert" that I had on my podcast a few weeks back that the only way the Canes can fall off the bubble now would be to lose a first round ACC Tourney game to either BC or Virginia. If we play and lose to GT or NC State it will not be the RPI killer sub 100 loss that BC or UVA will be. So basically even if we lose to FSU, if the right team ends up 11th or 12th we won't sweat it. Our RPI is high enough that it can absorb losses to teams in the 50-100 range (FSU, GT, NC State) but not high enough to absorb sub 100 losses. Now that he told me this fact earlier this morning I am so relieved we didn't lose either of the last two games- they would have been ratings/computer killers. For those who don't know think of the RPI as a BCS for Basketball which is used as a guide by the selection cmte for at-large bids.
Now, if we beat FSU and Clemson beats VT we get a bye in the ACC tourney and will be then just playing for seeding in the 2nd round of the ACC Tourney. We owe FSU a few games we've gifted them. Time to take it now boys, keep the good karma going!
Canes 305, keep the good work going on Basketball! Great stuff from you lately on our fighting winning canes!
Proud of those Canes..Finally making some noise in basketball, but does anyone think that the rest of the country has any idea whats abrewin down here?
As I said b4 I have no doubt about the potential of this team. Da U can be this year's dark horse (UAB, George Mason come to mind). The 1-6 record had a lot to do with 4 of the games being on the road (1 in OT) and a close home loss to UNC. Miami has been undefeated at home since that stretch.
Jack Mack is a legitimate star and has taken this on his shoulders all season long. While a different style of player he reminds me of Dwayne Wade dragging his Marquette team deep in the dance.
I'm guessing we should be ranked anywhere btwn 6-8 anything lower is the committee bowing down to big name schools with worse records (cuse, uk, zona).
And even so, I'm glad we are disrespected and undervalued. That's when we'll hear a couple of canes shouting "no one believed in us..." on camera after yet another upset.
I know I've talk some serious smack here about this team, but there's something about this team that make me believe.
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