The Miami Hurricanes announced that starting point guard Ja’Quan Newton has suspended for three games. The suspension commenced with Wednesday night’s victory over Georgia Tech.
The suspension was for violating an unspecified team rule. This is the second year in a row that Newton has been suspended. Last year’s suspension was also unspecified. He missed the final three games of the regular season last year. Newton returned for the ACC Tournament.
In addition to the win over Georgia Tech, Newton will also sit out Saturday’s game against Clemson and Monday’s trip to Virginia. It’s advantageous that two of the those games are at home. With three games in six days though, it severely shortens a Miami bench that was already down to eight scholarship players.
Backup Center Ebuka Izundu took Newton’s place in the starting lineup. Everyone else slid over one position. Freshman Bruce Brown took Newton’s place at the point. He has manned the point this season the majority of the time when Newton goes to the bench.
Brown finished with eight points, five assists and four turnovers against Georgia Tech. Miami finished with 17 turnovers as a team to just 12 for the Yellow Jackets. Taking care of the ball has been an issue for the Hurricanes this season.
Miami has committed 330 turnovers this season to just 301 assists. With guards Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon McClellan doing most of the ball handling in 2016, Miami had a 438-385 assist to turnover advantage.
Newton had started every game this season before the game against Georgia Tech. The junior is second on the team averaging 15.0 points per game. He leads the team with 3.6 assists per game and with 1.1 steals per game.
Brown has done a better assist to turnover ration this season than Newton. He is averaging 3.4 APG and just 2.4 turnovers per game.
The Hurricanes lack of depth took another blow against Georgia Tech. Izundu went out with a knee injury 1:07 into the second half. Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga played only six scholarship players the rest of the way.
Forward Dewan Huell played 21 minutes in spite of an injured foot that he suffered against Louisville that had threatened to keep him out against the Yellow Jackets. Brown has been dealing with tonsillitis all week.
Larranaga does have freshman center Rodney Miller available. Miller has played sparingly this season. He averages four minutes per game in 12 appearances this season.
Newton’s suspension leaves Miami with little flexibility on the perimeter. Larranaga started a big lineup of Brown, Davon Reed, Izundu, Anthony Lawrence Jr. and Kamari Murphy against the Yellow Jackets.
Brown is really the only true guard in that lineup. Reed is more of a hybrid wing/small forward type.
DJ Vasiljevic played more minutes against Georgia Tech than he had in the three previous games combined. He is going to have to give UM quality minutes against Clemson and Virginia. The freshman from Australia produced against the Yellow Jackets. He finished with 13 points on 4-9 from the floor and 3-6 from three-point range.
Next: Miami Hurricanes Outlast Georgia Tech Without Newton
Like Miami, Clemson is fighting for an NCAA Tournament berth. Four of the Tigers top six players are guards. That is going to pose some matchup problems for the Hurricanes. The trip to 14th ranked Virginia is dramatically more difficult without the team’s top ball handler and playmaker.