Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Previewing Tuesday’s Crucial Matchup with Florida
By Austin Sapin
The last time the Florida Gators traveled to Coral Gables for a matchup on the hardwood with the Miami Hurricanes was 2005. In that game, the likes of Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer led a stacked Gators squad to a 77-67 win and would eventually carry that team to their first of back-to-back national championships.
Fast forward to 2015 and with the roles reversed, it’s the stacked Miami roster that will look to beat Florida on the way to their own national championship.
When the two teams met last year, it was an instant classic with Angel Rodriguez bailing the Canes out and leading Coach Larranaga’s squad to a 69-67 victory in Gainesville.
While last season’s win was tremendous, the Hurricanes were lucky to miss out on having to play against Dorian Finney-Smith. The 6’8’’ forward missed last season’s game as part of a three-game suspension for violation of team rules. Barring any late setbacks, the Canes will have to find a way to stop the Gators’ leading scorer and rebounder this year.
Averaging 14.3 points a game and nine rebounds a game is impressive, but perhaps the fact he is a solid three-point shooter as well makes him such a difficult matchup.
Coach Larranaga will likely go to a multitude of defensive options ranging from Kamari Murphy to Davon Reed and maybe even Amp Lawrence at times to try and stop Finney-Smith. The troubling sign for Miami is the last time they faced a 6’8’’ power forward that could shoot the basketball was this past Tuesday against Nebraska’s Shavon Shields, and that didn’t end too well.
Shields got pretty much every shot he wanted whether it was in the paint or from the perimeter and finished the game with 28 points. If Miami has a chance to win this game, there’s no doubt they are going to have to figure out a game plan or a player that can at least limit Finney-Smith’s production.
While Finney-Smith has been a consistent presence in the Florida program for a few years now, sophomore center John Egbunu has been a breakout star in his first year on the court in Gainesville.
The 6’11’’ center went to USF his freshman year and made the AAC All-Rookie team by averaging 7.4 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. After transferring and sitting out last season, his first year with the Gators has been extremely impressive.
Egbunu is second on the team in points and rebounds per game with 12.7 and 8.3 respectively and has also managed to average 1.4 blocks a game. It isn’t like he’s just padded his stats against cupcake teams either, as his best game came against No. 21 Purdue where he finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.
The battle between Egbunu and Tonye Jekiri on Tuesday night should be a phenomenal one and could be crucial in deciding the outcome of the game. It is also important for the likes of Kamari Murphy and Davon Reed to help Jekiri on the boards to limit Egbunu’s impact on the glass.
So far Florida’s real calling card has been their defense and their rebounding. Despite not playing the toughest competition, the Gators have given up just 58.7 points a game which is good for 9th –best in the country and have averaged 46 rebounds a game which is tied for 4th in the nation.
If the Hurricanes want to come out with a victory on Tuesday night, they’ll need to continue to exhibit their balanced attack which is hard to defend and also find a way to win the battle on the boards. If they do those things, they’ll be able to claim their second consecutive win against their rival from up north.
The 6-1 Gators are a hard team to figure out, especially when looking at their schedule thus far. Florida has played just one KenPom Top 50 team in Purdue and lost by 15. They do have wins over Richmond and St. Joe’s, but those teams won’t likely find their way into March. Tuesday’s test will certainly be a measuring stick for them and could dictate how the rest of their season goes.
For Miami, this game is another huge chance at bolstering the resume. When taking a look at the KenPom rankings, the Gators currently sit at No. 23, which would give Miami a tremendous non-conference resume if they could win on Tuesday. As we saw last year though, the Canes played Florida when they were No. 8 in the country and they then proceeded to finish at 16-17. Nevertheless, beating Florida at the moment would be a solid victory and would give them five possible quality wins in the non-conference (UL-L, Utah, Butler, Nebraska, Florida?).
Considering what the Hurricanes have to look forward to with the potential to add even more quality wins in the ACC, their resume could begin to really solidify itself with a win on Tuesday night at the BUC.
When the Gators visited that last time in 2005, they brought a roster with a couple guys that had NBA-ready talent. Now, this year’s Miami s team probably doesn’t have that same amount of guys with NBA-type talent, but who cares, this Miami team does have really good NCAA-level talent and come March, that’s all that matters.