Nijel Pack believes Miami's close ACC games will have team prepared for March
Miami hoops is campaigning for an NCAA Tournament bid, eyeing another successful run in the postseason after making the Elite Eight last spring. In order to do so, they’ll need to find ways to win close games. Through eight games of ACC play, they’ve already faced their share of close contests and finally found themselves on the winning side of one after losing tight matchups to Georgia Tech and NC State recently.
Earlier in the week, the ‘Canes took down a Syracuse team that has struggled, but pushed Jim Larranaga’s squad to the brink, forcing them to find a way to win with their backs against the wall. And they did, thanks to their backcourt. Guards Nijel Pack and Harlond Beverly both poured in 15+ as Miami held on to win by four.
Afterwards, Pack admitted that these type of games are the ones they’ll face in the tournament.
“Every game in this conference is going to be really tight, and we’ve been pretty successful with close games coming down to the end,” Pack said. “We lost some, but this is preparing us for March, you know, especially when we play teams in the tournament, things like that. Games are going to be close we got to learn how to win close games.”
The Kansas State import hasn’t been to an NCAA Tournament, but wins like the one vs. Syracuse are helping prepare him for when that moment comes.
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Nijel Pack expresses excitement for Duke game
Beating Syracuse at home is a nice result, but going into Cameron Indoor and beating the Blue Devils is a whole other challenge, and Pack knows that.
“It’s gonna be my first time playing at Duke,” Pack said after the Syracuse win. “I’m really excited for it. I know my teammates are excited as well. Road games are always gonna be the toughest, but we need to pick up some road wins.”
“We’re doing really well at home,” Pack said. “We need to start doing really well on the road as well. We got three road games in a row. It’s really going to test us on to see how much toughness and how much mental we can go through and fighting through adversity.”