Texas Longhorns guard Sir'Jabari Rice (10), center, celebrates a made basket with Texas Longhorns guard Marcus Carr (5) and the team during the first half of a Sweet 16 college basketball game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Texas Longhorns in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament, Friday, March 24, 2023, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. Ncaa Xavier Texas Ncaa Sweet 16 March 24 0358
Friday was the greatest day in Hurricane hoops history.
Sunday could be even better.
On Friday night, Miami’s men’s basketball team made it to the Elite 8 for the second straight year, knocking off the top-ranked team in the nation, Houston, by 14 points in a thorough whipping.
Earlier Friday, Miami’s women’s basketball team made the Elite 8 for the first time, blowing a 21-point lead before rallying past Villanova.
Focusing on the men’s team for the rest of this analysis, it’s a wide-open NCAA Tournament field as all 4 No. 1 seeds failed to reach the Elite 8 for the first time.
Miami (28-7) will next face the Texas Longhorns (29-8) on Sunday in Kansas City.
Texas is in the Elite 8 for the first time since losing in that round to Memphis in 2008. In the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Texas eliminated Miami, 75-72. That Hurricanes team was coached by Frank Haith and led by Jack McClinton, who became an NBA second-round pick. Future NFL star Jimmy Graham was also on that Miami team.
That was Miami’s last NCAA Tournament appearance until 2013, when current coach Jim Larranaga was already in place.
This year’s Canes are the ACC regular-season champions, but they will find a tough challenge in the Longhorns, who will enter Sunday on a 7-game winning streak. Five of those wins were by double digits.
Already this season, Texas has beaten:
Texas’ NCAA Tournament run hasn’t been overly taxing, beating Colgate in a mismatch and defeating Penn State by 5 points before hammering Xavier by 22 in the Sweet 16.
This is the 3rd-most wins the Longhorns have ever produced in a season, trailing a 30-7 record in 2005-06 and 31-7 in 2007-2008.
The Longhorns are 22-7 under interim coach Rodney Terry. He took over in December when since-fired coach Chris Beard was arrested and charged with domestic violence following an alleged altercation with his fiancee.
Terry has previous head-coaching experience at Fresno State and Texas-El Paso.
As for Texas trends, here are a couple: The Longhorns are 8-1 on neutral courts and 22-0 when leading at halftime.
Texas is a highly experienced team — 6 of its 9 rotation players are seniors/graduate students. The other 3 are Tyrese Hunter, who was the Big 12’s Freshman of the Year last season at Iowa State, and elite freshmen Dillon Mitchell and Arterio Morris.
Mitchell, a 6-8 forward who starts for Texas, was the nation’s 4th-best recruit in the Class of 2022. Morris, a 6-3 reserve guard, was ranked No. 18 in the Class of 2022. Both players averaged less than 5.0 points.
Hunter, who is 3rd on the team in scoring (10.4), had a big game against Xavier. He played a season-high 38 minutes and scored a team-best 19 points, including 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.
For the season, Texas’ leading scorer is Marcus Carr (15.8). He’s in his 6th college season and on his 3rd school s
ince leaving Pitt and bolting Minnesota.
Sir’Jabari Rice, a 6-4 reserve guard, is Texas’ 2nd-leading scorer (12.9). Rice is a New Mexico State transfer, and he is playing in his 5th college season.
By the way, Rice was featured on CBS on Friday because of his lethal pump fakes, and it will be interesting to see how Miami defends him.
But as good as Texas is, there’s reason for Hurricanes hope.
For starters, Miami is the better 3-point shooting team (37% to 34.5). Miami is better on the foul line (77.6% to 74.9). Miami is slightly better on 2-point shots. Miami crashes the boards better (10.5 offensive rebounds per game to 9.5). Miami also has more rebounds overall, and the Canes foul less.
But the biggest plus for the height-challenged Canes is the fact that the Longhorns aren’t that big.
Texas’ top 2 forwards are 6-6, 200-pound Timmy Allen (10.3 points, team-high 5.6 rebounds) and 6-9, 220-pound Dylan Disu (8.8 points, 4.4 rebounds).
Disu scored a season-high 28 points and added 10 rebounds in Texas’ 2nd-round win over Penn State. But he played just 2 minutes against Xavier due to a foot injury.
Even if Disu plays on Sunday, Texas could struggle to keep Canes workhorse Norchad Omier off the boards. Omier is averaging 13.3 points and 10.1 rebounds this season. In the NCAA Tournament, he is averaging 10.3 points and an impressive 14.7 rebounds.
Injuries, however, represent the X-factor. In the win over Houston, Omier twisted his ankle – the same one that caused him to miss most of the ACC Tournament semifinal game against Duke, which is the last time Miami lost.
Omier returned to the game quickly against Houston, but he is the player they can least afford to lose.
Against Indiana in the second round, Miami’s Wooga Poplar left the game and did not return after taking a fall on his back. He returned for the Houston game, however.
In the Houston game, Miami 3-point shooter Nijel Pack was bloodied after taking an elbow to his nose. Like Omier, he quickly returned.
After going unselected, some of the ACC's top players in 2023 will have to try…
Even though some didn't get drafted as high as they'd have liked, these former ACC…
Jordan Travis is off the board in the 5th round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
This website uses cookies.