Coach Jai Lucas pinpoints offensive struggles beyond shooting after the Miami Hurricanes' ACC Championship exit. Key drives and defensive urgency faltered against the No. 10 Virginia Cavaliers.
The Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball squad fell short of reaching the ACC Championship game after suffering an 84–62 loss to the No. 10 Virginia Cavaliers on Friday night. The offense was sloppy, especially from All-ACC seniors Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson, who combined for 16 points. They struggled to make shots from behind the arc, which had been a theme all season, making four of 20 attempts.
Despite the lack of efficiency, coach Jai Lucas believed other factors led to the blowout loss.
“For us, we play to who we are,” he said postgame. “I didn’t think we played to who we were at the highest level. We’re not Virginia. We’re not going to shoot a bunch of threes, not going to make a bunch of threes. We can make the right ones if we take the right ones, but I didn’t think our violence, our drives, our urgency, our speed, our pace, with how we executed offensively and the same defensively, wasn’t to the level of the game. Not when you’re playing a top-10 team in the country and playing a team who’s also trying to win a championship tomorrow [Saturday]. I think that was the case. I don’t necessarily think it was the shooting because we’ve won multiple games like this and having these types of nights. I didn’t think the things we’re supposed to do very well, we did them really well to the level.”
The Hurricanes were last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in three-pointers made and attempted, but finished with a 24-7 overall record, 13-5 in ACC play. The team shot less than 45 percent from behind the arc in 28 total games this season. They’ve thrived by scoring in the paint and crashing the glass, which wasn’t successful against the Cavaliers on Friday, losing in both categories.
As Reneau and Donaldson struggled, there was only so much workload the rest of the team could handle. Junior guard Tru Washington (team-high 13 points) and freshman forward Shelton Henderson (12 points) were the only ones to score in double figures.
The Hurricanes are still likely to make the NCAA Tournament, projected to be a seventh seed, according to ESPN’s Bracketology, facing the Texas A&M Aggies. The official bracket will be announced on Sunday, March 15.
Coach Lucas has enough film from the Cavaliers' loss to show what can be improved in certain situations, such as Reneau facing double teams. A bigger challenge will soon present itself.
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