Coming close against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium is no longer good enough for the University of Miami.
When you’re ranked among the nation’s top teams, there are few moral victories. So Saturday’s 79-76 loss to the Blue Devils stuck with the Hurricanes a little longer than usual.
“The mood was a little somber after the Duke game,” coach Jim Larranaga said. “But these kids are resilient. They watch a lot of basketball, and they know we have a lot of basketball left to play.”
And, for the sixth-ranked Hurricanes (23-5, 14-2 ACC), much left to accomplish beginning with Wednesday night’s game against Georgia Tech (15-13, 5-11) at the BankUnited Center.
A victory would give UM an outright ACC regular-season championship, a scenario few thought was realistic two months ago. The Hurricanes, already guaranteed the top seed in the ACC tournament, also could tie the school record Wednesday for wins in a single season with 24 and break it Saturday afternoon against Clemson on Senior Day at the BankUnited Center.
Miami has lost two of its last three games but still is projected as a likely No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament as long as the team has no major stumbles.
Larranaga indicated this week that senior center Reggie Johnson will remain in the starting lineup. Johnson started for the first time since Dec. 18 against Duke and failed to score in 17 foul-plagued minutes.
“(Johnson) didn’t play like he knows he’s capable of playing,” Larranaga said. “Everyone has games like that.”
