Miami Hurricanes enter NCAA Tournament with chip on their shoulder

Lykes has grown a lot in his Freshman season. He has shown fearlessness and the ability to hit the big shot. The diminutive point guard sank the game-winning free throw with three seconds left to defeat Virginia Tech in the final game of the regular season. He reiterated what Huell said.

"“It’s cool [if people pick Loyola-Chicago], it just adds fuel to our fire. We’re still a little bummed out by the North Carolina loss [in the ACC quarterfinals]. We’re not going to worry about what people are saying, what expectations are. We know what we can do when we play our best basketball.”"

Miami lost to the Tar Heels in the ACC Tournament after earning the third seed. UNC was coming off a win in the Quarterfinals over Syracuse. The Hurricanes had an extra day of rest.

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Loyola will have been off for 11 days by the time tipoff commences on Thursday. Miami last played on Friday. Its the old adage of rest versus rustiness. We are less than 24 hours away from finding out which one prevails.