Miami Basketball hosts NC State to begin ACC Play: Game Info

The Miami Basketball team gets their place back in the spotlight after the Hurricanes football team stole the headlines over the past four days. The Hoops team opens ACC play by hosting North Carolina State.

The Miami Basketball team had an up and down non-conference season. The first 12 games to the Men’s basketball season mirrored the football team. The Hurricanes began the season 5-0, lost four straight and rebounded with wins in their last three games to enter ACC play 8-4.

It’s been a season full of adversity for the Miami basketball team through the first 12 games. It began on opening night with the news that Junior center-forward Dewan Hernandez‘s eligibility was in question. Hernandez has not played at all this season after accusations that he received money as part of the Adidas bribery scandal.

A team that already had limited depth received another blow when the Miami basketball team also lost backup center Deng Gak for the year with a knee injury after eight games. A team that headed into the season four deep at center is now down to Ebuka Izundu entering ACC Play.

Miami chose to redshirt Junior Rodney Miller because the thinking was that Miller would not get a lot of playing time behind the other three. There is no plan to bring Miller out of his redshirt. With the season 40 percent over it’s highly likely Miller will continue to sit out this season and improve.

Izundu is off to an outstanding start and having the best year of his career. He is averaging 12.2 points per game and leads the teams with 9.3 rebounds per game and 2.1 blocks.

North Carolina State comes to Coral Gables 12-1 ranked 18th in the nation. Their only loss was 79-75 at then number 22 Wisconsin in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in November. The Wolfpack owns wins over then number seven Auburn and Vanderbilt.