Coming into the 2014-2015 season, Jim Larranaga had the tough task of meshing together 12 players from different parts of the world, nine of which had never played together in an actual game. Searching for camaraderie, Coach Larranaga took the team on a trip to Spain, playing against much less talented teams from around Spain. His plan wasn’t to play against top competition overseas, it was just a way to get the team to know each other off the court before they get ready for the grind on it.
Once the season started, it was all good from the Hurricanes. Angel Rodriguez was beating Florida all by himself and the team won the Charleston Classic in dominating fashion.
After a couple of (major) hiccups to teams like Green Bay-Wisconsin and Eastern Kentucky, the Canes hung in and forced double overtime with then number two Virginia, and then absolutely destroyed a Duke team that’s currently in the Final Four. Oh, and at Cameron Indoor, nonetheless. Miami followed that up with a close loss to Notre Dame and wins against talented Syracuse and North Carolina State teams. All signs pointed to the Canes playing in the NCAA tournament.
Unfortunately, the 2014-2015 Miami Hurricanes team will always be known as the team that beat Duke on the road but was maddening inconsistent. In fact, Jim Larranaga called this team the most inconsistent team he’s ever coached after a disturbing 20-point home loss to a Georgia Tech that had no ACC wins before that game.
Even with all the disappointment — and headaches — this team caused Canes fans, it was still a fun group to be around. Once the NCAA committee left them off the field of 68, the season felt like a failure but after an exciting run in the NIT, this group reminded us of how good this program could be for the next couple of years.
Next season, the Canes return pretty much every single key contributor from this team. The only player that will not be on the Miami roster next season will be Joe Thomas. Tonye Jekiri, Sheldon McClellan, Ivan Cruz Uceda and Angel Rodriguez will all be entering their last year of college basketball, and when you add in an extra year of experience for guys like James Palmer, Ja’Quan Newton and Omar Sherman, things start to look up for the 2015-2016 Hurricanes. Manu Lecomte will be entering his junior season and if he makes the same improvement as he did last summer, he’ll be the most talented third point guard in the nation.
While Miami losses Thomas, Kamari Murphy, a transfer from Oklahoma State, is eligible to play for the Canes and he can provide immediate help to a Canes frontcourt that struggled to rebound for the most part. Jim Larranaga also went out and landed a ESPN Top-100 recruit in forward Anthony Lawrence from Lakewood High in St. Petersburg.
A measure of how good and deep next season’s team is? Lawrence might redshirt his freshman season. Let me know the last time Miami could afford redshirting a top incoming freshman. I’ll wait.
The Canes came up just short in the NIT Championship game but even after such a heartbreaking defeat, there was a sense of disappointment in the loss, but an excitement about the possibilities next season could be.
Miami will always be a football driven school, and that’s okay, but the future of the basketball program is as bright as it’s ever been, and next season could be the start of an exciting run for Miami Hurricanes basketball.