Miami Hurricanes Basketball Game 2 Preview: Florida Gators

It’s been a day and a half since the Miami Hurricanes football team lost to the Florida State Seminoles, and it still hurts just as much. Crazily enough, that isn’t the only rivalry game we’re going to get treated to this week. The Hurricanes basketball team travels to Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators on Monday night. The Canes and the Gators aren’t doing it on the football field, so some people are going to have to settle for this instead.

The Hurricanes took down the Howard Bison on Friday night and started off their season on the right foot and are 1-0. The Gators took care of William & Mary and are also 1-0 to start their season.

The Canes took care of a much weaker opponent in Howard, but the talent level will take a significant leap as the Canes face their toughest non-conference opponent of the season.

Florida Scouting Report

Like I just finished saying, Florida will be the toughest test Miami faces until they get conference play underway. The Gators are the seventh ranked team in the country and have a ton of talented players on their roster.

The Gators are led by Michael Frazier II and Dorian Finney-Smith. Frazier had 12 points against William & Mary, while Finney-Smith led the team with 15. Florida, however, will be without sophomore Chris Walker, who was suspended for the first two regular season games by Billy Donovan.

Frazier and Finney-Smith are the main scoring options for the Gators, but the Canes must also be careful with Devin Robinson. The freshman was a five-star recruit and is a guy that can score when given the chance. Robinson came off the bench for Billy Donovan last game but he put up 7 points on 3-for-8 shooting.

In the middle, we have Jon Horford. Yes, the one that played for Michigan. And yes, Al Horford’s younger brother. Horford isn’t exactly a dominant force down there but Miami must make sure to keep a body on him because he’s really active on the offensive glass.

Florida is an extremely aggressive defensive team, especially when they get you trapped in the corner. The Gators forced 12 turnovers in their first game, while holding the Tribe to just 45 points. William & Mary shot 31% from the field and 9% from three point line. 9 PERCENT. NINE.

After watching the game, some of those misses were because of good Gators defense, but I’m pretty sure that the Canes won’t shoot 22 threes, and much less miss 20 of those 22. I would bet my car on that. And I love my car.

The Gators are a great team on both ends of the ball and Miami will definitely have their hands full on Monday night.

Keys for Miami

In my opinion, the key for the Canes is guard play, and that’s a good sign. The Canes have a plethora of guards that can break down a defense and create for themselves or for others and I think that’s the way to win a lot of big college basketball games. Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan will be the focal point of the offense, but guys like Manu Lecomte and Deandre Burnett will need to provide some scoring touch for Miami.

Tonye Jekiri played a big game on Friday, but now he’ll be matched up with Horford, who is a good defensive guy and a guy that is active around the rim.

The Gators only had one block against William & Mary and don’t have a really good shot blocker and Miami needs to take advantage of that. The Canes should play drive and look to finish, and if that draws the defense in, the start kicking it out to the shooters on the outside.

Also, it’s crucial that Miami doesn’t turn the ball over and give the Gators easy baskets. Nothing gets a packed house more jacked up than fast break dunks, and Miami needs to keep the crowd out of it for as long as they possibly can.

Prediction

This is always the toughest part of these posts, especially just one game into the season. I like the fact that Miami is getting Florida so early in the season because the Gators lost a ton of their key guys from last year’s team. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes are still getting used to playing with each other, as well. I think the Canes have a really good shot at pulling off this upset and would get them into consideration for a top-25 ranking with a win, but I’m going with the Florida Gators sneaking out a 65-61 win on Monday against the Miami Hurricanes in front of their home crowd. But I definitely welcome being wrong on this one.

Tune into ESPN at 7 PM EST for this one, it should be a good one.