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Jim Larranaga talks Miami Hurricanes' potential in NCAA Tournament

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•03/14/23•

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(Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

The Miami Hurricanes have quite the NCAA Tournament potential, according to head coach Jim Larranaga. Miami fell short in the ACC Tournament as the No. 1 seed to Duke in the semifinals.

But at full strength, the Hurricanes might be a tough out as a No. 5 seed. They take on No. 12 Drake in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Larranaga joined JT The Brick on Mad Dog Sports Radio and discussed how far his team could go in March Madness.

“Well, I tell our players before the season, the regular season is a marathon and the tournaments, the ACC tournament and the NCAA Tournament are sprints,” Larranaga said. “The marathon is 20 games, 10 at home ,10 on the road (in the ACC), a lot of traveling, a lot of grinding it out. And every night you’re playing against a team that has a different style than the previous team. And that’s what’s very unique about the ACC, just about every game preparation is different from the one before. 

“You can look at Syracuse’s two threes zone one night and Virginia’s man-to-man another night and NC State’s full court pressure on a third night and that’s not even mentioning Carolina and Duke. So we did a great job. Our players did a great job of sharing the ball on offense and playing defense with a great deal of effort, even though we were limited in size.” 

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Larranaga expanded on his team’s health and if everyone was good to go, Miami could go far.

“That’s how you win in the regular season,” Larranaga continued. “We grinded it out, did a great job almost each and every night. Actually two of the last games we’ve lost we didn’t have one of our starters nor Norchad Omier against Duke and Nijel Pack against Florida State. So when we’re at full strength, we’re awfully tough to beat.”

A combination of Pack and Isaiah Wong could take the Hurricanes. Larranaga had a good point about Omier as well.

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He played one minute against Duke in the ACC semifinals. With him back in the fold, it might not be a good idea to sleep on the Hurricanes this month.