Jim Larrañaga updates health of Wooga Poplar ahead of the season

Wooga Poplar missed some time during the preseason for No. 13 Miami due to an injury involving his lower extremities. However, Jim Larrañaga has no concern about the availability of his junior guard.

Larrañaga updated Poplar’s status within the first minute of his press conference on Thursday. He said Poplar has come along how they’d like. They know that because he has remained uber-aggressive in his attempts to score the ball in practice.

“(He’s) doing very well,” said Larrañaga. “You know that because we scrimmaged yesterday and he took 14 shots. So I think he’s doing fine.”

Poplar made a decent improvement from his freshman campaign to his sophomore one last season. In 37 games, which included 36 starts, he averaged 8.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.1 assists. He played efficiently as well in just under 24 minutes per game by shooting 47% from the field, 37.5% from three, and 86.7% from the charity stripe.

Each of Poplar’s statistics ranked highly on a team that won the ACC’s regular season, made an appearance in the Final Four, and finished with a record of 29-8.

With what all Miami lost from last year’s roster, Poplar could be an important holdover for the reigning national runner-up. That’s why Larrañaga’s update was a positive one as it appears that he’ll be in line to play for the Hurricanes come their opener against NJIT on Monday.

Dewan Hernandez joins Miami’s coaching staff

Jim Larrañaga announced a new addition to his coaching staff on Friday evening. He hired Dewan Hernandez to the Hurricanes’ ’23-’24 coaching staff, the team announced in a press release on their website.

Hernandez played for the Hurricanes from 2016-2018. Just over five years later, he will now serve as the team’s Director of Player Personnel for the upcoming season.

Hernandez was drafted in the 2019 NBA Draft in the second round by the Toronto Raptors. He was eventually sent to the G-League, the NBA’s developmental league, where he played for Raptors 905. After a brief stint in the G-League, he spent time on various teams in Europe, including Hapoel Tel Aviv and Vaqueros de Bayamon.

As a sophomore under Larrañaga, he stuffed the stat sheet with 11.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Hernandez was the only Miami player to start all 32 games. He managed to score in double figures in 20 games for the ‘Canes, including three 20-plus point outings.