The Hurricanes appear to be on the rise, taking down then-No. 11 North Carolina a week ago and coming back from a seven-point deficit in the game’s final minute to beat a strong N.C. State on the road on Saturday.
But Miami coach Jai Lucas said the team is making sure to keep its emotions level after those two big wins.
“They’ve done a great job,” Lucas said. “And as part of what we have to do as a staff and I have to do as a head coach is to make sure I set the environment where we’re getting on and moving on to what’s next. Whether we won or lost those games, we still have more games on the schedule.”
Lucas said Miami, which has 20 wins for the first time since the 2022-23 season (when it went to the Final Four), has been playing to its identity: wearing out opponents, getting points in the paint and securing offensive rebounds. About 61 percent of UM’s points against UNC were in the paint, and about 73 percent of the Hurricanes’ points against the Wolfpack were in the paint. Miami had 12 offensive rebounds against North Carolina and 20 against N.C. State.
“That all is based off of our fight, our competitive standard to get in the paint, play downhill, play through physicality,” Lucas said. “It’s not about making shots. It’s not about, ‘We’ve got to make 10 threes’ or anything like that. This is what we have to do to control the game.”
Miami’s last two wins have boosted its chances at an NCAA Tournament bid. The Hurricanes are currently 35th in the NCAA’s NET rankings and 37th in KenPom’s analytic rankings. On3’s latest bracket projection has the Hurricanes as a No. 9 seed, and CBS Sports’ most recent bracketology model has UM as a No. 8 seed as of Monday.
Lucas said he’s not so naive as to think the players don’t see those projections, but it is not something he brings up with them in practices or meetings.
“My job is try to just eliminate the distractions and try to get them to focus on what’s the most important thing in the moment and whatever we need to do that day to get better and just getting them to continue that,” Lucas said. “Really, we haven’t done anything yet. … It’s not like we’re at the top of the league or anything. So we have to go out and take everything that we want. We have to continue to battle.”
The Hurricanes’ ACC slate continues Tuesday, with more tough conference opponents standing between UM and a potential tournament berth. Miami faces Virginia Tech (17-9, 6-7 ACC) at home at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
“They just had some bad luck. They’re a really good team,” Lucas said. “They are an NCAA Tournament team. This is a big game for us and a big game for them. So if they’re more desperate than us, then we aren’t in the right mind frame.”
