With losses in four of their last seven games, the Miami basketball team has fallen to the projection of playing in the First Four in Dayton in the NCAA Tournament per the Bracketology from Jerry Palm of CBS Sports and Joe Lunardi of ESPN. Miami is projected to play in the South Regional by Lunardi and Palm.
Palm has the Miami basketball team as a 12 seed playing Michigan in the First Four and Lunardi projects the Hurricanes as an 11 playing Creighton in Dayton. The Miami Michigan winner would play Marquette in a pod in Pittsburgh. Palm projects Texas to play Toledo with the winner playing Marquette, Michigan, or Miami.
Lunardi projects the winner between Creighton and Miami to play Arkansas in Milwaukee. That would set up an interesting game for the Hurricanes against former Miami point guard Chris Lykes. The winner of that game would face either Illinois or Liberty. Miami defeated Illinois in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
Miami does not have a lot of opportunities to win key games the rest of the season. The Hurricanes have only one quadrant one game remaining this season. Miami plays on Saturday at Wake Forest who is 32nd in the NCAA Net Ratings. The Hurricanes defeated the Demon Deacons in Coral Gables last month.
Not only did he get his 100th ACC regular season win, but Coach L is the *first* head coach in NCAA history to win 100 conference games in three DI leagues and/or at three DI schools.
— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) February 10, 2022
That’s pretty good. 😌 pic.twitter.com/pjZjPgpudX
Wake Forest is currently 33rd in the Net Ratings. Miami is 73rd in the Net Ratings. The Hurricanes are 2-1 against quad one, 5-4 versus quad two, 6-2 in quad three and 4-0 in quad four. All of the remaining games except for at Pittsburgh on February 22 are in quad two. Saturday is a critical game for Miami’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
Miami plays five of its last seven regular-season games on the road beginning on Saturday at Wake Forest. The Hurricanes host Virginia on February 19 and Virginia Tech on February 26. Miami lost at Virginia last Saturday and defeated Virginia Tech on the memorable Charlie Moore halfcourt shot at the buzzer last month.
Finishing in the top four in the ACC would provide Miami with a double-bye in the ACC Tournament. Miami enters the game on Saturday at Wake Forest fourth in the ACC at 9-4. The Demon Deacons are third at 10-4. Duke leads the ACC at 10-3. Miami Wake Forest will have a major impact in the ACC standings.