The Miami basketball team heads to North Carolina with a three-game losing streak and losses in five of their last six. The Tar Heels have lost five in a row and nine of their last 11.
Without star freshman point guard Cole Anthony who is out with an injury, North Carolina has been rudderless with five straight losses, defeats in nine of their last 11 and 10 of their last 13. The Miami basketball team has a three-game losing streak and losses in five of their last six. Miami is facing their own injury problems.
Miami has been without key reserve forward Keith Stone and the star backcourt duo of Chris Lykes and Kam McGusty played hurt in the Hurricanes 89-59 loss at Duke on Tuesday night. Winning in Chapel Hill is never easy even with North Carolina facing a down season. Miami won at UNC in 2018 on a Ja’Quan Newton buzzer-beater.
The Miami basketball program has had moderate success under head coach Jim Larranaga against one of the two blue blood programs in the ACC. Miami has struggled overall against North Carolina with an 8-24 all-time record. Miami is 4-11 in Chapel Hill and 6-8 under Larranaga against UNC.
Miami and North Carolina have split their last dozen meetings. That includes the Hurricanes winning three of the last five at the Dean E. Smith Center. North Carolina is 4-5 at home this year. The Tar Heels have dropped three straight at home, all in the ACC. UNC has a 25 point home loss to Ohio State and a loss to Wofford.
Strength of schedule notes headed into Game 19 at UNC:
— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) January 23, 2020
- No. 4 SOS in the country
- Five games against teams currently ranked in top eight
- Seven games against teams currently in the KenPom top 30 pic.twitter.com/AWXRE1Wt3A
"GAME 19 | JAN. 25, 2020 • 12 P.M. ET • CHAPEL HILL, N.C.Miami Hurricanes (10-8, 2-6 ACC)Head Coach: Jim Larrañaga (Providence, 1971)Record at UM: 185-105 (ninth season), Career Record: 655-439 (36th season)North Carolina Tar Heels (8-10, 1-6 ACC)Head Coach: Roy Williams (North Carolina, 1972)Record at NC: 461-143 (17th season), Career Record: 879-244 (32nd season)Courtesy of HurricaneSports.Com"
North Carolina welcomes the Miami basketball team with wins in three straight, four of the last five and six of the last eight in the series against the Hurricanes. Miami had a four-game winning streak against North Carolina during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. Saturday’s game will match the two last-place teams in the ACC.
North Carolina is 1-6 and last in the ACC. The Tar Heels won their season opener against Notre Dame and have lost six straight conference games since then. Miami is 2-6 in the ACC and last won against Pittsburgh two weeks ago. The Hurricanes’ only conference win away from home came at Clemson on New Year’s Eve.
"SERIES HISTORYAll-Time: 8-24 (8-22 since rebirth) | Home: 3-9 | Away: 4-11 | Neutral: 1-4 | Coach L: 7-9 (6-8 at Miami)Streak: Lost 3 | Last Meeting: 88-85 road OT loss (Feb. 9, 2019) | First Meeting: 55-53 home loss (Jan. 13, 1950)BROADCAST INFORMATIONESPN2 • Play-by-Play: Doug Sherman • Color: Cory Alexander | Streaming: Watch ESPNWQAM 560 AM • Joe Zagacki | WQAM.Radio.comWVUM 90.5 FM • Brendan Reilly • Josh White | WVUM.org"
Miami needs to get Lykes and McGusty healthy. The junior tandem combined for 22 points in Durham on Tuesday night. That was nearly eight points below their combined average for the season. Lykes was clearly limited by a groin injury. Lykes and McGusty combined to shoot 6-23 from the floor.
Senior guard Dejan Vasiljevic was the only effective player on the perimeter for Miami against Duke The Aussie finished with 12 points on 5-11 from the floor. Hurricanes freshman guards Isaiah Wong and Harlond Beverly also clanked their share of shots finishing a combined 2-13 at Cameroon Indoor Stadium.