Miami Hurricanes Basketball: Three Things To Know Before Miami Takes On Princeton

On Tuesday night, the 10-1 Miami Hurricanes will host the 7-3 Princeton Tigers as they wrap up their non-conference slate for the 2015-16 season.

Despite their one buzzer-beater loss to Northeastern, it’s been an impressive stretch for Coach Jim Larranaga’s squad that has wins over Utah, Butler and Florida. The Canes have been able to avoid any stinkers like the 28-point loss they suffered against Eastern Kentucky last season, but they have one more matchup left in which they really can’t afford defeat.

When Princeton visits the BankUnited Center tomorrow night, the Hurricanes will have to match that same focus and aggressiveness that they displayed against La Salle, which led to a 46-point victory.

The Tigers visit will also introduce Miami back against Ivy League competition, as it’ll mark the first time since January 2, 2008 that the Hurricanes have faced a school from that conference. In that last Ivy League matchup, Frank Haith’s Canes faced Penn and came away with an 88-62 victory at the BUC.

With the game a day away here’s what you need to know:

Princeton’s yet to come close against big-time competition this season.

While the Tigers do have seven wins on the year, none of them have come against a team ranked higher than 200th in the KenPom rankings.

In their few tests against KenPom Top 100 opponents, Princeton was blown out by Stony Brook and Maryland and lost by 12 at St. Joe’s.

All of this just means that Miami should have no trouble with Princeton, but that’s on paper. We’ve seen the Hurricanes become a bit lackadaisical against teams of Princeton’s caliber and as we said above, the Canes just can’t afford a loss if they have hopes of earning a high seed come March.

The Tigers are currently ranked 116th in the KenPom, so they do have some substance to them, but if the Canes play at 100% Tuesday night, the Ivy-Leaguers won’t have a shot.

Henry Caruso is Princeton’s man to watch.

Another game, another top scorer for Sheldon McClellan to match up against.

For the third straight game, Miami’s leading scorer will also be tasked with guarding the opposition’s leading scorer and 6’4” Henry Caruso is that man for the Tigers.

Caruso comes into Tuesday’s matchup averaging 17.8 points per game and oddly enough, even at 6’4”, leads the team in rebounding with 7.2 a game. The junior has shot an impressive 57.9% from the field thus far, but is a threat on the perimeter as well with a three-point percentage of 51.9%.

Just like he did against Canyon Berry on Charleston and Jordan Price of La Salle, it’ll be key for McClellan to at least limit the opponent’s top scorer because just like in those last two games, Princeton doesn’t have much behind their top man.

6’1” Devin Cannady comes into the game as the team’s second-leading scorer with 10.0 PPG, but has five games in which he has scored under seven points. 6”4” Spencer Weisz is Princeton’s do-it-all man averaging 9.6 PPG, 6.2 RPG and 3.8 APG, but has struggled against big-time opposition this season.

In the end, it’ll likely come down to whether or not Caruso can be contained and if McClellan does a job like he did on Jordan Price and La Salle, you saw what that can result in.

Miami’s three-point ability should shine against the Tigers.

One thing that has been evident in evaluating Princeton so far is their inability to guard the three-point line, especially in losses.

In their three defeats this season, the Tigers have allowed their opponents to shoot 42.3% from three-point range and that includes a 3-for-16 effort from St. Joe’s in early December. In their seven wins though, they have held opponents to shooting 35.24% from behind the arc. Unfortunately for Princeton, they’ll be facing a pretty good three-point shooting team come Tuesday night.

The Hurricanes are shooting 41.7% from deep as a team and individually they have five qualified shooters hitting at above a 36% clip. You’ll know early on if the Canes are hitting three-pointers like they did at the Palestra last week, the game could be over in the first half.

This game isn’t a high-profile matchup, but it’s one Miami desperately can’t lose. On paper this should be a blowout, but as we all know, this sport especially isn’t played on paper.