Jim Larranaga praises Miami for adjusting to Rutgers zone defenses

The Miami Hurricanes Men’s basketball team had their hands full in their Wednesday night matchup against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. The Hurricanes left their home court victorious by a score of 68-61. Rutgers tried to use the zone defense in the game to slow down the Hurricanes’ offense. However, Jim Larranaga’s squad was able to overcome that challenge late to put the game out of reach. After the game, Larranaga praised his Hurricanes for adjusting to Rutgers zone.

“Yeah, it was kind of interesting because at the timeout, late in the game; we call the timeout, and we said, we’re gonna run a certain play. But, if they go to the 2-3 zone, we’re running this,” said Larranaga. “So as a player, I’m telling you that’s a real challenge. You gotta remember what we’re in. And then you gotta read the defense as to what they’re in and then execute it. What ended up happening was they switched to the zone instead of the man of man; Norchad set a flare screen for Isaiah; they jumped to guard Isaiah, course everybody does that; Norchad slipped that screen, and Nijel hit him; 15-foot jumper, nothing but net. Beautiful execution after a timeout.

Up next for Larranaga and Miami is a matchup against ACC rival the Louisville Cardinals. Louisville enters his game 0-7 after being pummeled at home by Maryland. The Hurricanes should be able to take care of business on the road against the struggling Cardinals but expect this to be hard fought ACC matchup regardless of records.

Larranaga calls Miami crowd ‘fantastic’ in Rutgers win

The ACC took down the Big Ten in the annual challenge between the two conferences on the hardwood. Part of the reason why the ACC won is thanks to the Miami Hurricanes, who held up their end of the bargain by taking care of business at home against a pesky Rutgers team.

The Scarlet Knights lost a lot of the core that led them to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, but they had just gotten one of their best players back last night and have a star big man in Cliff Omoruyi, who averages 16 points and 10 rebounds and projected as a bad matchup for Miami’s smaller front line.

“The crowd was fantastic, wasn’t it?” Larranaga marveled in the postgame presser, noting that even his wife was impressed. “After after the game my wife told me that the fans stood for like the last four or five minutes of the game.”

“That was awesome,” he continued. “And honestly, it’s been building towards that. It shouldn’t be a surprise to us. Now, it should be something we greatly appreciate and are very grateful for, the support we’re getting. The band was great, the cheerleaders, the dance team. We’re really creating a home court advantage. And they really are our sixth man.”