Miami basketball falls in national rankings

The Miami basketball team fell from 13th to 16th in the AP Top 25 and from 11th to 15th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Miami earned a 76-70 win at Virginia Tech on Tuesday before the epic collapse losing 85-84 to Florida State on Saturday. The only Miami game this week is on Saturday versus Pittsburgh.

Miami earned 668 points in the AP Top 25. Indiana is one spot ahead of Miami with 697 points. The Hoosiers moved up two spots from last week. St. Mary’s moved down two spots and is one behind Miami in 17th with 592 points. Miami is the second-highest-ranked ACC team behind number 13 Virginia.

Virginia fell seven spots in the polls after losing to Boston College and North Carolina last week. Virginia has 718 points. The losses by Virginia significantly help Miami in the ACC title race and number one seed in the conference tournament. Miami hosts Pittsburgh Saturday with the winner earning the ACC Tournament top seed.

Miami has 349 points in the USA Today Coaches poll. Tennessee who fell one spot after losing at Texas A&M earlier in the is 14th with 353 points. St. Mary’s who dropped two spots following their loss at Gonzaga is also one spot behind Miami in the USA Today Coaches poll with 339 points.

Virginia is also the top-ranked ACC team in the Coaches Poll at 12th with 389 points. Miami dropped from 28th to 34th in the NCAA Net Ratings after the loss to Florida State on Saturday and another spot to 35th on Monday. The loss to Florida State is a potentially devastating Quadrant one loss.

The fall by Miami in the final poll in February was the first time the Hurricanes have dropped in the polls in four weeks. Florida State snapped a seven-game Miami losing streak on Saturday. Jerry Palm of CBS Sports projects Miami as a five-seed in the NCAA Tournament West Region in Orlando versus Oral Roberts.

Palm projects the Miami Oral Roberts winner to play the victor of Xavier and Yale in the NCAA Tournament. The other most prominent bracketologist Joe Lunardi of ESPN has not released an update on his bracketology since Friday. The consensus Bracket Matrix also projects Miami as an NCAA Tournament five seed.