No. 5 Hurricanes aim to slap down No. 3 Duke again
The University of Miami clinched the top-seed in the ACC tournament and a share of the regular season championship on Thursday night courtesy of Duke’s loss to Virginia.
But anyone thinking that makes Saturday night’s game between the No. 5 Hurricanes (23-4, 14-1 ACC) and No. 3 Blue Devils (24-4, 11-4) meaningless isn’t paying attention.
As if getting humiliated 90-63 at the BankUnited Center on Jan. 23 wasn’t enough, then-No. 1 Duke also got a little bit of its basketball history rubbed in its face. With less than seven minutes to play and the Hurricanes up by 28, the five UM players on the court slapped the floor in unison while playing defense, an apparent mocking of a Duke tradition started during the tenure of coach Mike Krzyzewski.
After the game, UM point guard Shane Larkin revealed that he and his teammates were egged on by UM football legend Warren Sapp, who was sitting near courtside. All in good fun, Larkin said, adding that no disrespect was intended.
Except that’s not the way it played out in Durham, N.C.
“That was just a slap in the face to the program,” Duke sophomore guard Quinn Cook said in January. “All the tradition that coach has built here, just for them to mock that, it was definitely disrespectful. We definitely took that to heart.”
The floor slap has been featured in ESPN promos for Saturday night’s rematch and almost certainly will be rehashed several times before the final buzzer.
But as Duke senior guard Seth Curry pointed out following the UM loss: “They embarrassed us on the court before they even did that.”
Routing Duke was something of a coming-out party for the Hurricanes, who were ranked No. 25 at the time. It was the sixth consecutive win in a run of 14 straight victories that shot UM up to No. 2 in the rankings. The 27-point margin of victory was the third-highest ever against a No. 1-ranked team and was Duke’s worst defeat since a 30-point loss to UNLV in the 1990 national championship game.
“It was just a brilliant performance,” said ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who called the first UM-Duke game and will be on Saturday night’s broadcast. “It was layup after layup after layup. I’ve been doing games now for over 34 years on ESPN and I’ve never seen that. Just amazing.”
Today’s game lost some of its luster after the Blue Devils were upset by unranked Virginia, 73-68, in Charlottesville, Va, on Thursday night. Even if UM and Duke finish tied at the end of the regular season, the Hurricanes own the tiebreaker and are guaranteed the No. 1 seed when the ACC tournament opens in Greensboro, N.C. on March 14.
But that’s unlikely to dampen the zeal of the capacity crowd expected at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where Duke is 14-0 this season.
“It’s going to be full throttle,” said former Duke great Mike Gminski, now an analyst for the ACC Network. “It may not rise to the level of Duke-North Carolina because nothing does. But I think the crowd will be ready for the game, let’s put it that way.”
UM’s players expect as much, but don’t appear particularly fazed. That might be because the Hurricanes won at Cameron, 78-74 in overtime, last season.
“I know they want revenge,” said Larkin, who had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against Duke in January. “They have videos of people with ‘Revenge’ across their chests. They’ll have a lot of hype around their school and program for that game and it will be a good battle between two good teams.”
For the Hurricanes, it’s another opportunity to prove themselves to the nation. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects Miami as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and beating Duke for a second time, especially on the road, would beef up what is already an imposing resume.
“If Miami walks out of there with a win, it would tell me beyond a doubt that Miami is a contender for a national title,” Vitale said.
