Miami Hurricanes basketball: A complete rebuild with new coach and players
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Miami (7-24, 3-17 ACC)
The Miami Hurricanes are starting over in just about every way.: new coach, new assistant coaches and every single player on the roster was playing somewhere else last season. Jai Lucas, hired away from Duke to take over the program, comes to the Hurricanes with a glistening reputation as a recruiter. In the league’s preseason poll, the Hurricanes were picked eighth in a loaded 18-team conference.
Players to watch
Freshman forward Shelton Henderson originally was a Duke commit and flipped to Miami; it’s reasonable to think he will be the go-to player for the Hurricanes in a lot of situations. Another freshman, guard Dante Allen, is the son of Miami Heat assistant coach Malik Allen and has impressed throughout the preseason. Guard Noam Dovrat, a 23-year-old who has been playing in Israel, brings experience, albeit not at the college level.
Departures and arrivals
The departures are easy: Everybody left after last season, one where coach Jim Larrañaga stepped down early in the year and his longtime assistant Bill Courtney led the team the rest of the way. Lucas inherited a blank sheet of paper for a roster and had to find the right mix of freshmen and transfers. Tre Donaldson comes to Miami after stints with Auburn and Michigan, Marcus Allen transferred in from Missouri, Malik Reneau comes in from Indiana, Tru Washington played at New Mexico and Ernest Udeh Jr. — the biggest guy on this Miami roster — previously was at Kansas and TCU.
Top games
Miami plays defending national champion Florida in Jacksonville on Nov. 16 and plays a serious title contender in BYU at Orlando on Nov. 27. The Hurricanes then have to go to Ole Miss for the ACC-SEC matchup on Dec. 2. In conference play, Miami doesn’t play preseason favorite Duke at all, doesn’t go to Louisville (the Cardinals visit on March 7 to close the ACC schedule), doesn’t go to North Carolina (the Tar Heels visit on Feb. 10), and sees the likes of Virginia, N.C. State, SMU and Clemson only once each.
Facts and figures
Miami went to the Final Four in 2023 and started 15-7 the following season. The Hurricanes are 7-34 since. … The Hurricanes’ roster has about 2,800 points scored at the college level, with zero of those points scored at Miami. … Miami plays 14 games this year before New Year’s Day; 13 of them are in the state of Florida and 10 of them are at home. … The only ACC game Miami will play outside of the Eastern time zone is at SMU. No cross-country trip for the Canes this season; Stanford and Cal both come to Coral Gables.
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Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball