What a win, what a moment for Miami Hurricanes basketball! With the ACC Tournament rapidly approaching, Miami may have done enough to punch its ticket into the NCAA Tournament. They just beat the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels on their home floor, 75-66. This came a few days after UNC took down arch rival Duke in Chapel Hill. Miami improved to 19-5 on the second and 8-3 in ACC play.
After the game, new Miami head coach Jai Lucas tried to explain what happened in the upset victory.
"We didn't do anything special. We didn't do anything different. I mean, you look at our box score, and this is what we usually do. It's 26 points in the paint. 12 offensive rebounds. Doubled on their free throws. This is Miami basketball."
By saying that Miami did not do anything different, it just goes to show he is forging a strong identity.
Jai Lucas after the win. "We didn't do anything special. We didn't do anything different. I mean, you look at our box score, and this is what we usually do. It's 46 points in the paint. 12 offensive rebounds. Doubled on their free throws. This is Miami basketball."
— Justice Sandle (@Justice_News5) February 11, 2026
If Miami can play physical basketball in the paint, box out, and make free throws, it will be dangerous.
Miami Hurricanes have a strong team identity after UNC statement win
In Tuesday morning's Bracketology update, Miami was a No. 11 seed as one of the last four teams in. They were behind Texas, but ahead of San Diego State and New Mexico. By beating who could be the No. 4 seed in their respective NCAA Tournament region, that certainly speaks volumes. After getting what was their biggest win of the season so far, it will be interesting to see how high Miami may climb.
When looking at Miami's NET rating, the Hurricanes are No. 37 in the country in that department. They just got their third Quad 1 win of the season by beating North Carolina at home. With only seven ACC games left, Miami needs to hold steady by winning their three non-Quad 1 games left and hoping that they will not need to pick up a fourth Quad 1 win between now and the start of the ACC Tournament.
Overall, Miami has quickly returned to being an ACC program with such tremendous bite under Lucas. While he still has a ways to go before he is the next Jim Larrañaga in Coral Gables, making the NCAA Tournament in year one would be quite the accomplishment for him. From there, everything else after that would be gravy. For now, Miami feels like a team no one in the ACC wants to play moving forward.
Win or lose, Miami is going to make its opponent work on every offensive possession that they have.