Duke has its Krzyzewskiville.
Now the University of Miami has its Larranaga Lawn, an area outside the Hurricanes’ basketball practice facility where students were preparing Tuesday to camp out overnight to assure themselves seats for Wednesday night’s game against No. 1 Duke at the BankUnited Center.
“There’s a buzz, there’s no question about it,” UM coach Jim Larranaga said. “There’s a lot of people I haven’t heard from in years call me and ask me for tickets. Although I wasn’t happy to say no to them, I’m very happy the reason I’m saying no to them is that we’ll have a sellout crowd.”
Wednesday night’s capacity audience of 7,972 will match the biggest home crowd ever to watch UM play since the BankUnited Center opened in 2003. A 2011 game against Duke also drew 7,972.
But fans aren’t turning up just to watch the top-ranked Blue Devils (16-1, 3-1 ACC). The No. 25 Hurricanes (13-3, 4-0) are in first place in the conference and earned their first ranking this week in more than three years.
It’s not an overstatement to say that Wednesday night’s game is one of the biggest in the often-tortured history of UM’s basketball program. The Hurricanes have never beaten a top-ranked team (0-5) and have started 5-0 in conference play only once, in 1997-98 as members of the Big East.
“It’s an opportunity for us to do something that’s memorable and do something that we can really make a statement,” senior center Julian Gamble said.
It’s also a chance for Miami to gain a little respect, something that has been hard to come by this season. The Hurricanes are first nationally in strength of schedule, own a top 5 RPI ranking and are the only ACC team without a conference loss.
But until this week, UM wasn’t ranked. In fact, the Hurricanes are barely ranked in the Associated Press poll, earning 93 votes, one more than Marquette, which is just outside the Top 25 with 92 votes.
That’s better than the USA Today coaches poll, in which the Hurricanes remain unranked.
“It kind of bugs you,” point guard Shane Larkin said.
UM, riding a five-game winning streak, could show the college basketball world it’s for real Wednesday night. The game is being televised nationally by ESPN and will include Dick Vitale announcing from courtside.
Beating the Blue Devils isn’t a foreign concept for UM. The Hurricanes upset Duke 78-74 last season at Cameron Indoor Stadium thanks to a 27-point, 12-rebound effort from Reggie Johnson.
Unfortunately for Miami, Johnson won’t be on the court. Wednesday night’s game will be the ninth consecutive Johnson has missed with a broken left thumb. He’s expected to be out for another 2-4 weeks.
Duke is also without one of its top players in senior forward Ryan Kelly, who is sidelined by a foot injury.
The Hurricanes are 2-11 against Duke since joining the ACC and will need all the help they can get to knock off the Blue Devils. That means getting the support from the 1,300 students expected to be in attendance, including those who spend the night on Larranaga Lawn.
“Come Wednesday night, we just hope they’re not too tired from camping out to have that energy for [the game],” Gamble said.
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