Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Puerto Rico Tip-Off Preview

You couldn’t have asked for a better start from the Miami Hurricanes, but as they travel to Puerto Rico, things are about to get a whole lot tougher.

In a field that features Butler, Utah, Temple, Minnesota, Mississippi St., Texas Tech, and Missouri St. there’s no doubt that the Hurricanes will have a difficult matchup no matter who they are playing.

Puerto Rico Tip-Off Bracket: http://espnevents.com/puerto-rico-tip-off/bracket/

While the talented field does present some challenges, the Canes could also take advantage of this significant opportunity to boost their numbers such as RPI and Strength of Schedule that become so important come March.

With the start of the tournament just a day away, we’ll look at Miami’s potential opponents and what the Canes need to do to come away as champions of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

November 19 at 5:00 p.m. – Mississippi State

The Hurricanes will open up this early season tournament with an interesting matchup against the Ben Howland-led Mississippi St. Bulldogs.

The SEC school usually known for their obnoxious cowbells at football games has actually built a ton of momentum for the basketball program this season. While they have been very successful on the recruiting front of late, the momentum hasn’t necessarily carried over to the court to start this season.

On Monday night following a season-opening win against Eastern Washington, the Bulldogs fell 76-72 to Southern University from the SWAC. Following that horrendous loss, I’m sure Howland will have his players fired up and ready to go come Thursday night.

In the first two games, the Bulldogs have been led by senior forward Gavin Ware who has averaged 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game to start the season off. Considering the Canes won’t have Kamari Murphy once again in this matchup, Ware could cause big problems on the interior.

Acknowledging that fact, one of the biggest keys to victory for Miami is keeping Tonye Jekiri out of foul trouble. In both games this season, the seven-footer has had to sit for significant minutes with early fouls and the Hurricanes have then struggled to rebound and defend well on the interior.  If they can keep him on the court for his regular amount of minutes, the Canes will certainly have much more success on the inside.

On the perimeter, Mississippi St. features junior point guard I.J. Ready who has certainly been ready to start the season as he’s averaged 17 points and 5.5 assists per game.

The biggest potential piece for the SEC squad could be freshman Malik Newman who was rated as the No. 10 overall prospect in last year’s ESPN Top 100. Newman who features mostly at point guard was kept out of the team’s opener as he was recovering from a turf toe injury and then played just 17 minutes and scored six points in the team’s loss to Southern. With a few more days to rest before the matchup with Miami, Newman could be very close to 100% and could show his true potential on Thursday night.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game with Mississippi State is the question of who will guard the 6’3” Newman. Clearly, the 5’10” Angel Rodriguez won’t and I don’t know if you want your top offensive threat in Sheldon McClellan guarding him either.  This could change depending on what type of lineup Howland puts out, but I think I’d like to see Davon Reed get the assignment on Newman.

This game is hard to predict because both teams are coming in on opposite ends of the spectrum. Mississippi St. comes in with an embarrassing upset loss and hoping to show Monday was just a fluke. On the other hand, Miami comes into Puerto Rico riding high after they dismantled a solid Louisiana-Lafayette squad.

At the end of the day the Canes balanced scoring attack should lead them to victory and I think ultimately they’ll get the win, but if the threes aren’t falling, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come down to the last few possessions.

November 20th at 5:00 p.m. (Elimination Bracket)/7:00 p.m. (Winners Bracket) – Texas Tech/No. 16 Utah

Depending on how the Canes fare on Thursday, they can either meet up with Tubby Smith and Texas Tech or the No. 16 team in the country, the Utah Utes.

Now for all intents and purposes, we are going to assume Miami will avoid the elimination bracket on Thursday and continue on to the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. While that game certainly isn’t a shoo-in for Utah, I think the Utes will likely come away with the victory in the last game on Day One. If that’s the case, the Hurricanes could be presented with far-and-away the best team they’ve played so far, but in saying that, it also gives them a chance for a real quality win to begin the year.

Unlike Mississippi St. who are a bit of an unknown quantity, the Utah basketball program has become one of the best in the Pac-12 and in the country. While they lost their star from last year, Delon Wright, the Utes still feature three fabulous players that could give the Hurricanes trouble Friday night.

The team’s top scorer thus far is 6’6” senior Jordan Loveridge who’s averaged 22 points a games and is a solid three-point shooter that the Canes will have to be weary of. Loveridge has played all four years at Utah and has averaged double figures in points in every year. This would be another matchup where we would likely see Davon Reed get the assignment and have to come up big defensively for Miami.

While Loveridge presents a threat mostly on the perimeter, the Utes feature a stout frontline with 7’0” Jakob Poetl and 6’9” Kyle Kuzma.

The seven-footer Poetl has averaged 20.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game to start the year and the Utah center will give Tonye Jekiri perhaps one of his most difficult matchups of the season.

In the 6’9” Kuzma who’s averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, the Hurricanes will certainly be glad to have Kamari Murphy back to help Jekiri with the interior defending. Just like the Mississippi St. game but even more crucially, the Canes have to keep those two players on the floor to stand any chance.

While many teams load on cupcakes before these types of tournaments, Utah played a tough San Diego St. team on Monday night and came out with an 81-76 victory.

Against a big time team like Utah, the Canes will certainly need a standout scoring performance from Sheldon McClellan and maybe a sneaky good night from someone off the bench like Anthony Lawrence had on Monday.

If the Canes can pull out a victory, you’ll know this team is for real, but even if they don’t, it’ll certainly be a good measuring stick to see where they are at and how they can improve.

I honestly think these teams are evenly matched, especially considering the fact Murphy will have fully served his three-game suspension and will return Friday night. If the Hurricanes get a big night from McClellan and the frontline of Miami can outplay or at lead neutralize the frontline of Utah, the Canes should come out victorious.

If Texas Tech does pull off the huge upset, which wouldn’t be a surprise considering the mayhem college basketball has seen to begin the year, watch out for Devaugntah Williams. In the Red Raiders first game of the season, the 6’4” senior guard scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out three assists in the team’s 77-73 win over High Point.

November 21 (Final) at 7:30 p.m. – Temple/Minnesota or No. 22 Butler/Missouri St.

Hopefully at this point, we will have to wait until Sunday night to see the Canes play their third and final game in Puerto Rico. If they’ve lost before this point, you can see here on the interactive bracket what time they will play Sunday: http://espnevents.com/puerto-rico-tip-off/bracket/

On the other side of the bracket, I think we will likely see Temple defeat Minnesota and No. 22 Butler cruise past Missouri St.

In that semifinal between Temple and Butler, we’ll probably see a grind-it-out game between two teams that usually play with a physical and edgy style.

For Temple, their opening to the season was probably the most difficult in the country as they took on No. 1 North Carolina in Annapolis. Despite keeping it close in the first half, the Tar Heels ran away with it in the second half as they claimed a 91-67 victory over the Owls.

The Temple team has a few familiar faces that we saw in the NIT semifinals last season like Devin Coleman and Quentin DeCosey. Coleman led the team in scoring against UNC with 19 points, but we’ll see if that was just a one game fluke after only averaging 3.6 points a game last season. With DeCosey who scored 11 points vs. North Carolina we know he’s a more proven product and is also familiar to the Miami coaching staff after starting vs. the Canes at Madison Square Garden last April.

We’ll see if the Owls can rebound from their tough opening game, but in the end, I think No. 22 Butler will be too much for them and will advance to the finals.

If the Canes get a chance to take on another Bulldogs squad, they’ll have an even greater test awaiting them than in the semifinals.

Butler might not have household names for the average college basketball fan, but even if you don’t know this roster well, any fan of this sport knows the Bulldogs are always a well-coached team.

In their opener, Butler scored an astounding 144 points in a 144-71 win over the Citadel. Now the players statistics will certainly be skewed but the number of solid players on this roster is incredible.

The Bulldogs are led by two seniors in Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones that have plenty of experience, but also a whole lot of talent. This team isn’t tall, but they are perhaps the most well-drilled team in the country each and every year and can shoot the lights out.

In last year’s NCAA Tournament, Butler took on an extremely athletic Texas squad and beat them handily. It won’t be a matter of how athletic or physical the Canes will be against them, but it’s more about executing on both ends of the court and limiting your mistakes.

If the Canes do make it to the final and take on Butler, I’d probably pick the Bulldogs to take the title, but with the shooting ability that this Miami team has, they are never out of any game. If they play like they did against Louisiana-Lafayette and can combine that with a nice game from Tonye Jekiri, the Hurricanes may come back to Coral Gables as champions.