Happy Monday everyone. Hope your week has gotten off to a good start.
Plenty to talk about in the Canes sports world, so let’s get to it.
1) It was all right there for the Hurricanes to finish the regular season with a bang. Unfortunately, they literally fumbled it away.
Miami left their defense at home for the first 30 minutes or so of their clash on Saturday against Louisville. The Cardinals did most of what they wanted at the Watson Center even without star guard Mikel Brown, Jr. The Cards shot 61%
from the field for the game. That’s pretty extraordinary.
But the Canes rallied gradually with around 8 minutes left. They went on a furious 27-12 run and found themselves ahead at 79-78. After some seesawing back and forth, Miami took the lead back at 87-86 and needed one stop to potentially put it away.
But LVille’s Adrian Wooley pulled up for a three at the top of the key for an 89-87 lead with 16 seconds left.
After a timeout, Jai Lucas called for the ball to go into Tre Donaldson’s hands. Smart, since he had 25 points on the game. But he stumbled and fell after he drove to his right, and he threw it away out of bounds. Miami got off a half court heave for a tie at the buzzer, but it rattled around the rim and bounced out.
A tough way to end the regular season, but what a regular season, but what a great one it was. 24-7 and 13-5 in ACC play? And the 3 seed in the ACC Tourney? What a first season for Lucas. He should have ACC Coach of the Year honors on lock in a fair world.
2) You’d think that would put Miami into Locksville in ESPN’s Bubble Watch, right? Hell no, it seems.
Miami is listed as “should be in” and not yet a lock despite every outlet having Miami as either a 7 or 8 seed and firmly in the field, with the potential of just one more pre-tournament loss remaining.
I bet if there was an “NC” or a little blue devil next to that resume, they’d be a lock. #ReputationSport
In any event, dumb characterization or not, the Miami Hurricanes are a stone-cold lock to get back to the NCAA Tournament this year. There is absolutely zero chance they don’t make the field at this point.
3) I saw Boston College on the schedule, and I was like, yeah, that will be a good chance at a series bounce back after getting mini-swept by Florida. Silly me.
BC entered 7-5. They left Coral Gables 9-6. Yeah, you can do the math one that one.
And guess what happened again? Yep. The bullpen.
AJ Ciscar got Miami in position to win it with 4 ER through 8 innings, but the pen allowed two runs in the ninth. BC would go on to win 8-7 in 11 innings.
On Saturday, Rob Evans was brilliant, allowing 1 run over 7 innings as Miami led 5-1 going into the 8th. Well, it got dicey with two earn runs scoring in the eighth, but Miami held on 5-3.
And on Sunday, starter Tate DeRias held plenty of blame, allowing 5 ER in 3.1, but the Canes managed to tie it up at 5 in the fourth to get him off the hook. From there, BC scored two in the fifth, one in the seventh, and one in the ninth to take the game 9-5 and the series.
The bats aren’t exactly killing it, and DeRias’ start put Miami in a tough spot in a crucial game in the series, but the bullpen is killing this team right now. And unless it changes quickly, I don’t know how this team does anything this year.
