Miami head coach Jim Larranaga on trailing Duke at halftime

At the half, the Miami Hurricanes are trailing the Duke Blue Devils in their ACC semifinal matchup 41-36. The game is gone back and forth for much of the first half. However, unfortunately, due to a devastating injury to Miami big Norchad Omier, the Blue Devils own a 17-11 lead over the Hurricanes on the glass.

While heading into the half, the ESPN team caught up with Miami head coach Jim Larranaga to get his thoughts on the semifinal matchup and what his team needs to do in the second half to come out victorious.

“Well, we’re a team, and it’s gotta be a team effort. Everybody knows how good Norchad is at both ends of the court,” said Larranaga. “The real key is he’s not there to keep those offensive rebound baskets from occurring. He’s the defensive rebounder, and he is excellent at it. But we don’t have anybody like that right now.

“Well, he’s so much taller,” said Larranaga on stopping Duke’s Dereck Lively on the boards. “Our tallest guy is like 6-foot-7, so it’s very, very hard. But you gotta block him out. The only thing is, he’s standing in the arc. So, even if you block him out, the ball goes up in the air; he’s going to get to it first.

The Hurricanes have 20 minutes to erase their five-point deficit and take down the Blue Devils. If they can do that, it will put them in the ACC tournament final against the winner of Clemson and Virginia, who play later on in the evening. And a victory against Duke will put them one step away from being crowned the conference’s regular season and tournament champions.