Miami Hurricanes Basketball Consensus Top 25 2017-18

With the 2016-17 College Basketball season concluded most of the major media outlets have come out with their early, too early or way too early Top 25 for 2017-18. The Miami Hurricanes are in most of next season’s Top 25.

Miami loses team leaders Davon Reed and Kamari Murphy but returns everyone else for 2017-18. The leaders for 2017-18 will likely be Ja’Quan Newton and Bruce Brown. The praises have been primarily about Brown. The consensus comments seem to be that he will have a breakout season as a Sophomore.

The observations about him having a breakout season next year must have missed the 30 and 21 point performances against National Champion North Carolina and his 25 point performance against Duke.

Miami will have arguably its most talented roster in school history. The backcourt of Brown, Newton, and Five-Star Freshman Lonnie Walker could be the best in the country. The key to the team will be the development of the frontline.

Dewan Huell was a McDonald’s All-American in 2016 who announced he would consider going pro at the end of his freshman season. His year did not go anywhere near as expected. He finished 2016-17 with six games in double figures. Five of those occurred in the first seven games of the season.

Huell, Rodney Miller, and Ebuka Izundu will have step up to replace Murphy. Murphy was a force inside. He averaged 7.3 rebounds per game in ACC play. Brown leads the returnees with an average of 4.7 rebounds per game in conference play.

What’s clear about Miami’s program is that they have arrived on a national level. Sports Illustrated was the only major outlet to leave Miami out of its too early top 25 for 2017-18.