Miami Basketball Fighting Impact of Numerous Injuries
Head Coach Jim Larrañaga felt better about the Miami basketball team’s depth entering the 2019-20 season. The Hurricanes were coming off the 2018-19 season where injuries and Dewan Hernandez’s suspension left them shorthanded.
The Miami basketball team finished the 2018-19 season with just seven able bodies by the end of the year. The Hurricanes began the 2019-20 season with eleven scholarship players. Ten of those were active with center Nysier Brooks sitting out the season after transferring from Cincinnati per NCAA rules.
Nearly a year after a season-ending knee injury, center/forward Deng Gak tore his meniscus the first week of December. To make matters worse, grad transfer forward, Keith Stone (who was also just coming off a year-long knee rehab) injured his left knee the first week of January.
Gak is out for the season and Stone may not return until sometime in early February. This leaves Miami with only three frontcourt players available. Redshirt juniors Rodney Miller and Sam Waardenburg are getting the majority of the minutes in the paint with freshman Anthony Walker providing a few minutes of relief.
This only increases the burden on the Miami guards to step up and help out as best they can. However, with only eight able bodies, the Miami baketball team is facing a similar depth dilemma to last year. On yesterday’s ACC coaches teleconference, coach Larrañaga discussed the Miami injuries with the media.
Miami Hurricanes Basketball
"“We have so many beat-up bodies, guys are living in the training room”"
The shortage has forced the coaching staff to resort asking players like D.J. Vasilijevic to play almost a full game. In the heartbreaking overtime loss to FSU on Saturday, Waardenburg, Vasilijevic and Chris Lykes each played at least 40 minutes.
Despite its 2-5 record in the ACC, the Hurricanes, with a few wins could quickly jump from the bottom half of the standings to the middle of the pack. That task, however, doesn’t get any easier as the Hurricanes travel to Durham, NC Tuesday night to take on eighth-ranked Duke at 9 pm.
Last time Miami played Duke on January 4 in Coral Gables, the Blue Devils ran Miami out of the Watsco Center 95-62. Since then they’ve played each of their last four games much more competitively. After tonight the Canes have 12 remaining regular-season ACC games left.
Half of those dozen games are at home and half against teams in the bottom half of the standings. IF Miami can win at least half of their remaining games they likely will be in postseason conversations but to make the big dance.
Losing Keith Stone shortens Miami rotation. dark. Next
It may take winning eight to nine more games (including one or two more wins in the ACC Tournament) heading into Selection Sunday. Getting Stone back in the next few weeks maybe the difference between an NIT and a March Madness bid.