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Jim Larranaga embraces his players in closing minutes of Final Four loss to UConn

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•04/01/23
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(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Saturday night was a tough outing for the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball squad. They found out what everybody else in this year’s NCAA Tournament has found out–the UConn Huskies are ridiculously good. The Huskies dominated from start to finish, but in the closing minutes, Miami head coach Jim Larranaga took the time to embrace his players in the middle of a gut-wrenching loss.

Check out the video below as Larranaga hugged his players with 1:06 remaining in the game.

Jim Larranaga embraces his players near the end of the game

It’s a nice gesture by Larranaga and it’s a big reason why he’s one of the classiest and well-liked coaches in the game of college basketball. Miami still had an incredible season, and everybody associated with their program needs to remember they made the only Final Four appearance in school history. It’s never an easy feat to accomplish. Not only that, Larranaga became just the third head coach to take multiple programs to their First Final Four appearance. It’ll certainly be a special run that he and his players won’t forget anytime soon.

The Hurricanes had an extremely difficult road to the Final Four, knocking off two very talented teams in the Houston Cougars and the Texas Longhorns. No other team scored more than 80 points on Houston all season long, and the ‘Canes found a way to do it. Five players scored in double figures in that one. It was undoubtedly one of their most impressive games of the year. Houston came into that contest allowing just over 56 points per game, but Miami found a way to hang 89 on them.

They are plenty of positives to take from this season for the ‘Canes and Jim Larranaga, but there’s a reason the UConn Huskies are starting to look like the dominant force they looked like early on in the 2022-2023 college basketball season. They’re one of the most complete teams in college basketball on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. The Huskies got a double-double from their dominant big man, Adama Sanogo. He poured in 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the win.

The stifling UConn defense held Miami to just 32.3% shooting from the field. Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong both scored in double digits on Saturday night for the Hurricanes in the Final Four loss. Miller had a double-double, pouring in 11 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. With their double-digit win on Saturday night, UConn became just the sixth team since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, to reach the title game after winning their first five games in the tournament by double digits.