Next Up – Miami’s first trip to Duke in the post-Larranaga era

Miami has had a bizarre season so far.

The ‘Canes got off to a 3-0 start, but soon enough problems began to appear. Miami lost game #4 to Drake on November 21st and since then the only win has been over Presbyterian.

It was bad enough, but in October, after apparently leading for a long time, the Boozer twins Cameron and Cayden decided to turn down ‘Canes for Duke’, in which their father Carlos starred in the early 2000s.

And before Christmas, Jim Larranaga decided he’d had enough and announced his retirement on December 26th. Assistant Bill Courtney took over and his career record so far is 0-5. Miami’s record to date is 3-12.

Still, this is not a team lacking in talent.

Nijel Pack and Matthew Cleveland are a potent full-back. You’ll remember that Pack left Kansas State and ended up in Miami as one of the first big NIL signings. Cleveland came over from Florida State, where he had excelled. Lynne Kidd was a solid center at Virginia Tech, and freshman Jalil Bethea was a 5-star prospect, though he has developed more slowly than expected.

Brandon Johnson and Jalen Blackmon are good, if not necessarily great portal pickups. So is AJ Staton-McCray.

So why is this team struggling?

Well, losing Norchad Omier, Wooga Poplar, Bensley Joseph and Kyshawn George to transfer was a blow, and that level of movement is a big part of why Larranaga, who is 75, blew the whistle.

He also said his team struggled with defense and rebounding and that his players weren’t very good individual defenders. As a team, Miami ranks 16th in the ACC defensively.

Losing consistently can be really numbing, and Duke right now is particularly impressive. So what chance does Miami have?

The best chance they have is simply to outscore Duke.

It’s true that Miami’s defense hasn’t been very good, but the offense isn’t bad. It’s possible — not necessarily likely, but possible — that someone could really get heated and start raining threes and that could open up driving lanes.

And Duke has to be prepared for someone to do that.

But the reality is that these teams are headed in very different directions. Duke has an apparent superstar on the way in Cooper Flagg and another very promising young star in Khaman Maluach. Kon Knueppel is not far behind either.

As everyone has noticed, Duke is the biggest team in the country and the defense has become elite.

Unfortunately, the Blue Devils will be missing Maliq Brown. The standout defender who often fills in for Maluach injured his knee against Notre Dame and will be out for some time. That’s going to hurt Duke, but it gives freshman Patrick Ngongba a chance to shine.

As we’ve seen in the last few games, Flagg and Maluach are coming into their own. Knueppel is not far behind.

But as we also saw against Notre Dame, young people are vulnerable. Duke made several mistakes down the stretch Saturday that could have been pretty serious.

And there’s another thing the Blue Devils need to guard against on Tuesday night, and that’s complacency.

Everyone expects 14-2 Duke to roll over 4-12 Miami. It’s just so obvious, right?

It is, until it isn’t. As mentioned above, it’s not like Miami lacks talent. They have some. And what do they have to lose? Their coach is gone, their season is a train wreck and they play in Cameron.

Given all that has gone wrong, why wouldn’t they come loose and, well, a little bit wild?

The last thing we expect this team to do is just give up. Miami comes to play. You can count on that.

Duke better be ready and they need to put the ‘Canes on notice early – that’s not going to happen tonight.