Matthew Cleveland update: Jim Larrañaga explains limited usage of Miami guard

After he didn’t play much in the second half of their conference opener, Jim Larrañaga addressed the status of Matthew Cleveland.

Larrañaga was asked if Cleveland suffered an injury during the 65-55 loss for Miami to Clemson on Saturday, their sixth consecutive loss this season, with how few minutes he had in the second half. He didn’t comment on his health but noted that the Hurricanes wanted to see more time from AJ Staton-McCray with how he was playing against the Tigers.

“Yeah, um, we wanted to go back with AJ Staton-McCray,” Larrañaga said postgame. “We thought he was playing well and he was guarding Chase Hunter, we thought, really well.

Cleveland played just half of the game against the Tigers with 20 minutes off the bench, which tied for his third-fewest through nine appearances, four of which were starts, this season. In that time, he had nine points, while making half of his eight attempts, with three rebounds.

That lowered Cleveland’s numbers on the year with averages of 9.3 ppg., less than seven shot attempts a game, and 0.8 assists, all of which are career-lows, along with 4.9 rebounds.

As for Staton-McCray, he played well in 20 minutes of his own in the starting lineup. He too had nine points along with seven rebounds and a block. He was also, as Larrañaga noted, part of the defense effort that saw Hunter, Clemson’s leading scorer, shoot just 36.8% overall, including just one three-pointer at 14.3% from distance.

Cleveland is amidst his worst season in college and could now be dealing with an injury. That’ll be worth looking at with Miami playing next against Tennessee in NYC as part of the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday.