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****Miami vs. #9 BYU GAME THREAD****

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Here's the crazy part;

AJ Dybantsa didn't even have that great of a night.

They put him on the FT line for every ticky tack call in the 2nd half, but he didn't shoot that well & was not as dominant as he was against UConn & Villanova.
 
So what it looks like so far is this... We can destroy any cupcake team on the schedule, but if the team has a pulse, we lose. We can't shoot FT. We can't shoot the 3 ball. This game was very winnable with decent shooting. What we got was a terrible shooting night. Would have been nice to put this win on the resume. The defense has been very strong, so that's basically the only plus.
 
The University of Miami men’s basketball team battled but ultimately fell to No. 9 BYU, 72-62, Thursday night in the first round of the Terry Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational.

Miami (5-2) took a four-point lead into the locker room at half, 33-29. The Hurricanes defense limited BYU (5-1) to just four points in the last 6:20 of the half. Following a Cougars basket with just over a minute remaining in the half, Miami regained the lead on a 7-0 run spurred by a Shelton Henderson and-one.

BYU came out strong to start the second half and took a 42-40 lead with 15:55 remaining and extended its lead to as high as nine while holding Miami without a field goal for six minutes. The Cougars took their highest lead of the game, 59-45, with 6:52 left but the Hurricanes continued to battle and cut the lead to seven with a minute and a half left.

Malik Reneau led Miami with 14 points and nine rebounds while Henderson added 13 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists. Tre Donaldson registered 12 points and a team-high three steals.

Miami outscored the Cougars, 34-24, in the paint but shot 37.9-percent from the floor while BYU was 45.5-percent and hit nine of its 19 3-point attempts.

The Hurricanes return to action Friday at 7 p.m. against either Dayton or Georgetown. The game will be aired on either ESPN or ESPN2.
 
So questions as to where the scoring will come from (offseason roster construction concern) + horrific FT shooting = Not ideal.
 
I'm still shocked that with the entire Portal to recruit from, Lucas could not find/recruit one true 3 point sharpshooter.

It's pretty obvious that Lucas values athleticism first and foremost. And that's fine.

As long as it's not to the exclusion of maybe adding a few non-athletic players who maybe can't run the court, jump and defend to his standard, but are deadly accurate from beyond the arc. We need that balance.
 
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We knew the roster lacked shooting but god **** this is bad. Free throws feel like threes when we step to the line shooting 1 in 1. In today’s basketball it’s pretty hard to build a roster with absolutely no shooting.
 
Well, this definitely wasn't the ideal way to wrap up Thanksgiving...

The Miami-BYU game seemed like one the Hurricanes could have won, but the Canes just didn’t execute the small things to the game. A few wounds ended up being the deciding factor. Here are three things Miami needs to improve on going forward.

FREE THROWS!!!

Miami didn’t have a terrible game against BYU, but one issue every time the Hurricanes gained some momentum or just sent at the line was the missed free throws. It felt like every time Miami had a chance to narrow the lead, they’d get to the line and struggle. Those misses piled up quickly, and by the end of the night, it was one of the biggest factors between the two teams. BYU didn't have the greatest shooting night from the line, shooting 13-20 from the free throw line, while Miami really struggled with 7-17 (41.2%) from the line.

Free points. One thing. Make them. This isn't just a one-game issue. Miami has had a tough time with free throws almost all season.

Miami’s offense just can’t create...

Miami’s offense once again had a hard time getting anything easy.

The Hurricanes couldn’t consistently find a clean shot from three-point range, and even attempts to drive to the basket didn’t do much. BYU slowed the game and forced Miami to play in the halfcourt, and the Canes never really adapted. We’ve seen this before, the same issue occurred in the loss to ranked Florida, where Miami kept settling for bad shots in the game. Until the offense figures out how to create better opportunities, games like this will continue to slip away.

Learning curve...

Miami is still in the process of figuring things out. Against BYU, you could see the team’s potential, but they also made a lot of minor errors that added up. Turnovers, missed rotations, and just not reacting quickly enough hurt them more than it should have. Games like this are tough, but they also provide a chance for the Canes to learn and improve for the next one.

This is a learning experience for Miami. They now have two losses against two top-10 teams where they both played well, but it was the simple mistakes that ultimately cost the Hurricanes.
 
LPCanes26 said:
So what it looks like so far is this... We can destroy any cupcake team on the schedule, but if the team has a pulse, we lose. We can't shoot FT. We can't shoot the 3 ball. This game was very winnable with decent shooting. What we got was a terrible shooting night. Would have been nice to put this win on the resume. The defense has been very strong, so that's basically the only plus.
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Hopefully we can beat teams with a pulse. BYU and UF are top 10 teams and we were able to hang with both (especially BYU) despite shooting like absolute dog ****.

Our next opponent (the winner of Dayton/georgetown - which is going to OT), will be a top 75 team, so that’s a winnable game. Ole Miss is a top 50 team. We need to bounce back and win these next two, which are teams with a “pulse” but not BYU/UF level good.
 
Cribby said:
We knew the roster lacked shooting but god **** this is bad. Free throws feel like threes when we step to the line shooting 1 in 1. In today’s basketball it’s pretty hard to build a roster with absolutely no shooting.
Click to expand...
When we could do little else well, we could always count on our team to make FTs. Obviously a coincidence but ... it somehow carried over from season to season. Until now.
 
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Im much more concerned with our guards’ inability to finish at the rim than with the (outside) shooting. FTs are a mess but I don’t expect that to change soon.

We just aren’t going to be a strong shooting team as constructed; it is what it is. Jordyn Kee isn’t ready yet.

Shelton has the best body control in the air & doesn’t look fazed. We really need him to shoot high %’s near the rim.

Tru has a loose handle and has to avoid taking more than two dribbles or he will keep getting turnovers. However, not overly concerned with him, Malik or EU. Shelton I’m only worried about him shooting a coin toss percentage from the FT line the whole year. If he develops properly he can be our second best player by New Year’s.

I **** near memoryholed that Dante is Malik’s son until the announcer said something. Then shortly muted that mf because I’ve never heard a broadcast not shutup about a 1&done player like that before in my life. Holy ****; we get it. Aj is awesome. Don’t need to hear it thirty times.

Tre and Dante need to hit their contested layups. If they can’t finish with rim protectors contesting then they gotta get short pull-ups. Tre had a good one in the first half.

Offensive rebounding is going to make up for the lack of shooting. But we need to dominate the paint & that includes timely contested passes when the defense doubles the ball-handler.

We’re going to need to take the ball out of Tre’s hands and feature Shelton more. I’d also like to see Noam more because he appears to be the best passer on the team.

One problem we had against BYU, especially in the 2nd half, was our fast-break offense. Completely chaotic. The middle man would pass to the wing way too early and led to awkward offense over & over again. We had numbers and didn’t exploit them properly; which just leads to us getting tired without a bucket.

There is something to be said about the pace we play at and what getting cold fifteen minutes straight does to our rhythm while the other team recuperates their energy; we come out looking a bit flat (against two two top ten teams only). Might have needed to mirror our sub patterns from the 1st half more.

I think we are in a good spot overall. A lot of how we fare in 2026 will come down to how the international 3 gets going, and how the 2 freshmen score.

Dante played very sped up today. Noam is a calming presence and isn’t going to rush. Tre was so focused on pushing the pace that it became one dimensional; team didn’t adjust to the improved transition defense either; wasn’t swinging the ball in the halfcourt; no off-ball screens. Recipe for stagnation with our shooting.

Dante wasn’t organizing the offense. Tre is the leader of the squad and appears to have limitless stamina but we can’t thrive if we’re asking him to do this much for 35+ minutes every big game. Played 74 outta 80 minutes in our two losses & was erratic at times in both games.
 
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hotshot said:
I'm still shocked that with the entire Portal to recruit from, Lucas could not find/recruit one true 3 point sharpshooter.

It's pretty obvious that Lucas values athleticism first and foremost. And that's fine.

As long as it's not to the exclusion of maybe adding a few non-athletic players who maybe can't run the court, jump and defend to his standard, but are deadly accurate from beyond the arc. We need that balance.
Click to expand...
We have two of them on the roster right now. One is ice cold & lost his confidence and the other isn’t ready to play yet. Timotej and Jordyn Kee
 
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Trinton Breeze said:
Well, this definitely wasn't the ideal way to wrap up Thanksgiving...

The Miami-BYU game seemed like one the Hurricanes could have won, but the Canes just didn’t execute the small things to the game. A few wounds ended up being the deciding factor. Here are three things Miami needs to improve on going forward.

FREE THROWS!!!

Miami didn’t have a terrible game against BYU, but one issue every time the Hurricanes gained some momentum or just sent at the line was the missed free throws. It felt like every time Miami had a chance to narrow the lead, they’d get to the line and struggle. Those misses piled up quickly, and by the end of the night, it was one of the biggest factors between the two teams. BYU didn't have the greatest shooting night from the line, shooting 13-20 from the free throw line, while Miami really struggled with 7-17 (41.2%) from the line.

Free points. One thing. Make them. This isn't just a one-game issue. Miami has had a tough time with free throws almost all season.

Miami’s offense just can’t create...

Miami’s offense once again had a hard time getting anything easy.

The Hurricanes couldn’t consistently find a clean shot from three-point range, and even attempts to drive to the basket didn’t do much. BYU slowed the game and forced Miami to play in the halfcourt, and the Canes never really adapted. We’ve seen this before, the same issue occurred in the loss to ranked Florida, where Miami kept settling for bad shots in the game. Until the offense figures out how to create better opportunities, games like this will continue to slip away.

Learning curve...

Miami is still in the process of figuring things out. Against BYU, you could see the team’s potential, but they also made a lot of minor errors that added up. Turnovers, missed rotations, and just not reacting quickly enough hurt them more than it should have. Games like this are tough, but they also provide a chance for the Canes to learn and improve for the next one.

This is a learning experience for Miami. They now have two losses against two top-10 teams where they both played well, but it was the simple mistakes that ultimately cost the Hurricanes.
Click to expand...
No score?
 
cookies said:
We have two of them on the roster right now. One is ice cold & lost his confidence and the other isn’t ready to play yet. Timotej and Jordyn Kee
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If you think Malovec and Kee will ever be what we need in terms of 3 point shooting, you might wanna think again.

Malovec does have a nice stroke but he needs space to get it off (the antithesis of a 'catch and shoot,' quick release shooter).

Maybe Kee develops but when he was signed I thought, "End of bench D1 player, at best."
 
Tre Donaldson vs BYU:
4-16 25% FG, 3-11 from 3, 1-2 from the FT line, with 5 turnovers

vs Florida:
5-17 29% FG, 1-4 from 3, 2-4 from the FT line, with 1 turnover.

That has to improve come January ACC play.

Idk how much ACC basketball you guys have watched this year so far, but Guard play in the ACC is stacked this season. If we're gonna have a chance to compete we need Tre to get his game under control & shoot a lot better.
 
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