The University of Miami shocked the college basketball world on Wednesday by routing No. 1 Duke 90-63, marking the program’s first victory against a top-ranked team.
Now comes the hard part.
The No. 25 Hurricanes (14-3, 5-0 ACC) were playing well, but rather anonymously before crushing the Blue Devils on national television.
UM is no longer a secret. Sneaking up on opponents is not an option. Beating Duke so decisively caught the attention of friend and foe alike, a point that coach Jim Larranaga made to his players in the locker room immediately following Wednesday’s rousing win.
“We have a target on our back now,” said senior guard Trey McKinney-Jones. “Coach L said after the game that the hardest thing going forward is that every team is going to give it their all against us because we beat the No. 1 team.”
That begins this evening when the Hurricanes return to the BankUnited Center (6 p.m., ESPNU) to face rival Florida State (11-7, 3-2) in front of UM’s second consecutive capacity crowd.
UM’s players have been riding an emotional high since the Duke win and the biggest obstacle today could be avoiding a letdown against the Seminoles, who have won 12 of their last 14 games from the Hurricanes dating back to 2006.
But the Hurricanes have proven to be a mentally steady group. They scored a significant win by upsetting North Carolina in the Dean Dome on Jan. 11 and showed no falloff, following with three more victories that have pushed the current win streak to six games.
Part of that focused approached is credited to the team’s experience. UM starts a sixth-year senior (Julian Gamble), two fifth-year seniors (Kenny Kadji and McKinney-Jones) and a four-year starter (Durand Scott) to go along with sophomore Shane Larkin.
UM also retains a healthy chip on its shoulder despite the Duke win.
“I don’t think it changed because I still don’t think that many people respect us,” said Kadji, who hit 9 0f 11 shots and finished with 22 points against Duke. “I’ve been watching the papers and everything and it’s about how bad Duke played, not much about how Miami played. We’ll alwayss have that underdog mentality.”
The Hurricanes are playing more like favorites in the ACC, where they hold a two-game lead in the conference standings. UM was picked to finish fourth in the league.
“They’re capable of it,” said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas when asked if Miami could finish first in the ACC. “They’re in the best position of anybody. But it’s a long season. Eighteen [conference] games is a long stretch. The good news is that the league is not as tough this year as it has been.”
Miami, which hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since the 2007-08 season, still has doubters that need convincing it’s for real. But the Duke win also has many former skeptics believing.
“People are now realizing we have a pretty good basketball team,” Kadji said. “The fans, everybody on campus is like, ‘Oh, good job. You played great.’ I guess everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. That’s fine with me.”
