A profile of the New Look Miami Basketball Squad

The ’14-15 team finished the year with 25 wins and were a controversial call away from possibly winning the NIT championship. This year Miami will lean heavily on Lykes. The diminutive but explosive Lykes was recently voted by the media to the pre-season second-team All-ACC.

A case can be made that Lykes should have been the first team. Of players returning this year, Lykes brings the second-highest scoring average with 16.2ppg last year. He is behind only the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, Louisville’s Jordan Nwora in scoring.

Lykes started in all 32 games last year and was by far the leader of the depleted Miami Hurricanes. Compared to a very good freshman year, Lykes improved in field goal and free throw percentages, points, assists, steals and rebounds per game. Lykes should continue to improve,  bolstering his case for first-team consideration.

Miami was picked to finish ninth by the media in the ACC pre-season poll. Last season was the first losing year of Jim Larrañaga’s tenure as head coach of the Hurricanes. Prior to last year, the Miami men’s basketball squad has finished higher than projected in the ACC every season since 2011, Larrañaga’s first year with the Canes.

Time will tell how this year’s Miami basketball team will compare. If the new look Canes do nearly as well as the 2014-15 team, they should give Hurricanes fans much to cheer about.