Miami Hurricanes Defense Has Faltered Lately
Through their first 13 games, the Miami Hurricanes were 11-2 and playing elite defense. They have since lost four of their last five, are 2-4 in the ACC and dropped to 13-6 overall.
Miami rode their defense to that initial 11-2 record. They were among the nation’s leaders in several categories on the defensive end. The Hurricane defense has slipped in losing four of their last five, particularly in three of the last four games.
Syracuse, Wake Forest and Duke have scorched the Hurricanes defense. The Orange shot 56.8 percent from the floor, 8-19 on three point attempts in a 70-55 victory on January 4. Wake Forest buried Miami shooting 57.4 percent from the floor and 9-19 in a 96-79 victory on January 18 and Duke reversed an abysmal first half when they scored 26 points on 28.6 percent shooting in a 70-58 victory on Saturday night.
It looked like the Hurricanes had turned their defense around in the first half. The Blue Devils also shot 0-8 on three-point attempts. Duke was particularly on fire from outside after halftime. From ESPN:
"“Duke’s Matt Jones scored all 13 of his points in the second half, 11 coming on shots from outside the paint (4-of-4). Miami was 1-of-9 on shots from outside the paint in the second half after going 7-of-19 in the first half. Duke reversed form, too, going 7-of-11 from outside the paint in the second half after an 0-for-12 first half.”"
Part of the problem has been the opponents ability to get easy baskets and the defense’s inability to create turnovers. Miami is minus 12 in ACC play in turnover margin. They are also committing too many fouls in conference play. Through six ACC games the Hurricanes rank 14th in the conference with 101 personal fouls.
The Hurricanes need to rely on their defense every night if they are going to advance to consecutive NCAA Tournament for the first time since they went to three straight from 1998-00.
The Hurricanes are still among the leaders nationally in some defensive categories, but their performances lately are troubling. They have 12 games remaining in the regular season and sit squarely on the bubble. Six of those games are against ranked teams with three each at home and on the road.
The games against the non ranked teams taken on significant important. That begins with Boston College on Wednesday that begins a three game homestand. Those games will be followed by visits from ninth ranked North Carolina and tenth ranked Florida State.
Miami will also host Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Clemson before a return visit from Duke on Senior Day February 25. Miami’s remaining road games are against NC State, number 12 Louisville, number 16 Virginia and a return visit to Florida State.
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North Carolina and Florida State will pose significant challenges defensively. The Hurricanes are going to have to play good defense to get the crowd behind them. Without much scoring from the frontline, they need Kamari Murphy to continue to be one of the nation’s best defenders and for Dewan Huell and Ebuka Izundu to be rim protectors.