Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Canes Look to Rebound in Matchup With Nebraska

R-E-L-A-X. Relax.

The great Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers once spelled out that very word after his team had struggled to a 1-2 start at the opening of the 2014 season.

After the Miami Hurricanes fell to Northeastern this past Friday, every fan of the Miami Hurricanes basketball program needs to heed Mr. Rodgers’s advice.

While it did come on a buzzer-beater, losing to Northeastern at home may not look like a very good loss for those unfamiliar with their team. The Huskies though brought back four starters from a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season and nearly took out Notre Dame. Just as we were excited, but didn’t overreact after Miami’s performance in Puerto Rico, we can’t overreact in a tight loss to a solid team who had an excellent night shooting from the floor.

The Canes will have certainly gained a big learning experience though from Friday night, especially after dominating the opposition in the first five games of the season. Unfortunately for Coach Jim Larranaga and his Canes, their next opponent won’t be a cupcake to get them back on track.

In a tough matchup, the Hurricanes will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers as the Miami basketball program looks for their first road win in the 11 years of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.  The two schools met up in the exact same scenario two seasons ago and Nebraska handled the Hurricanes with a 60-49 home victory. With Miami not only looking to exact revenge, but also bounce back from the loss in their last game, I’d expect this year’s game to be a bit different.

The Cornhuskers won’t roll over by any means as Coach Tim Miles brings his team into Tuesday night’s game with a 5-2 record. Their two losses thus far have come against two undefeated teams in No. 11 Villanova and an underrated No. 24 Cincinnati squad.

In the first seven games of the season, the Big Ten team has been led by junior small forward Andrew White and and senior forward Shavon Shields.  The Kansas transfer, White, leads the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game and had a strong game against Villanova as he finished with 18 points. Against a much bigger and more physical Cincinnati squad however, the junior struggled with just eight points on the night. The Hurricanes will have to find a way to slow White down from outside too as the 6’7” small forward has shot 47.4% from three-point range to start the year.

For Shavon Shields, he not only averages 13.7 points per game, but also leads the team in rebounding with 5.3 a night even as just a 6’7” forward. The senior should be an interesting matchup against both Ivan Cruz Uceda and Kamari Murphy, who I feel might be better suited for this matchup.

If the Hurricanes can find a way to shut those two down, they might find themselves coming out of Lincoln with an easy victory.

Miami played decent defense in their loss on Friday, but Northeastern just shot the lights out. I think we’ll see an improved defensive performance on Tuesday night in Lincoln and see more of that swarming pressure that we saw in Puerto Rico.

On the other end of the court, Miami will look to keep up the balanced scoring attack that has resulted in five players averaging 8.8 points a game so far. I think a big key to the Nebraska game though is getting a solid scoring performance from the bench. In their loss to Northeastern, the reserves had just 17 points and 13 of those came from one source in Ja’Quan Newton.

It certainly isn’t time to panic after just one loss to a solid Northeastern team and while the Hurricanes ranking may drop Monday afternoon, just remember one thing, R-E-L-A-X.