Canes Warning
Fansided

Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Three Thoughts From Miami’s 91-40 Exhibition Win

By Austin Sapin

facebooktwitterreddit

On Wednesday night, the Miami Hurricanes took on Dowling College in an exhibition game to start the 2015-16 season.  The Canes took home a 91-40 win on the night, but in all honesty results shouldn’t be over-analyzed in these games.  I mean, the 2012-13 team lost to Saint Leo and won the ACC Regular Season and Tournament title.

While the result doesn’t necessarily matter, there are certainly a few things we can take away from the game.  With the start of the regular season just over a week away, here are my three thoughts from the exhibition:

Sheldon McClellan is going to do big things this season.

It may have just been Dowling, but man does Sheldon McClellan look good so far.

The redshirt senior had 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting including 2-of-6 from behind the arc and looked far and away like the team’s top scoring option.

McClellan doesn’t have any real weaknesses in his offensive game and that was on display Wednesday as he drilled threes from deep, hit a few fadeaway jumpers and finished off a couple dunks above the rim.  If the Hurricanes hope to go far this season, they are going to need to ride McClellan.

When it comes to the one-and-done games, you need a big-time scorer that you can give the ball and will go get you points.  McClellan is clearly that guy for Coach Larranaga and his staff.

The transfer from Texas was pretty impressive last year and even saying that, I think he improved tremendously this offseason. He averaged 14.5 points a game in his first year in Coral Gables, but after watching practice in October and seeing him live tonight, I have a feeling Sheldon McClellan’s second year here could be pretty special.

I’d like to see Kamari Murphy in the starting lineup.

When the starting lineup was released prior to the game, there was one glaring hole, no Kamari Murphy. Now I really like Ivan Cruz Uceda who was entered into the lineup in place of Murphy, but I think going forward the Oklahoma St. transfer has to find his way in with the starters.

Again, it’s hard to learn much against a team like Dowling, but Murphy was impressive in his first outing as a Cane. In 22 min, the 6’9” power forward scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked three shots and even picked up a steal. Not a bad first impression.

In my opinion, Murphy’s style of play just fits better with the starters and considering how the second-unit struggled to put up points at times, I’d say Cruz Uceda would be a welcome scoring boost coming off the bench.

When the big Spaniard starts alongside Jekiri, the Nigerian is forced to rebound often all by himself and while that wasn’t obvious tonight, it certainly could become so against more talented and bigger teams down the line.

Cruz Uceda started well and finished with ten points including two threes, but the way in which Murphy rebounds and gets after it on defense is something I feel the starting unit really needs.

It may have just been an experiment for the exhibition game, but going forward I’d love to see Kamari Murphy get his chance with the starters.

This team is going to shoot a lot of threes and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again, this team is a tremendous shooting team, but when you live by the three, you die by the three.

Against Dowling, an undersized and less talented team, the Hurricanes primary option was to spot up from behind the arc. Overall, the Canes finished 7-of-24 (29.2%) shooting from three and while most of the shots weren’t even bad selections, I’d love to see them try to finish inside more.

Last season at times the Hurricanes were stagnant on the offensive end if that deep ball wasn’t falling and it looks like it could be that way in some games again this year.

I know the Canes don’t have a dominant scoring option that they can throw to inside, but sometimes the shot just won’t drop and if you shoot 22 threes a game like they did last season, that could be trouble.

We didn’t see a lot of forced shots from Angel Rodriguez tonight which was a big positive and even Ja’Quan Newton  got in on the act with a three of his own. Looking ahead though, I just hope Miami doesn’t rely too heavily on the three.

More from Canes Warning

If you get real picky there are a lot of things you can break down from any game, even in an exhibition. It’s hard to tell what will carry over from the exhibition and what won’t. If there is one thing for certain though, it’s that this team is really talented and extremely deep.  There may not be any more 51-point wins, but this team will certainly be a treat to watch this season.

Home/Miami Hurricanes Basketball