****Miami vs. Syracuse GAME THRAED****

Since we were sorta being zoned into oblivion and losing steam, the consecutive 3's by 88 were critical and possibly made the difference based on when they went in. WD 88 (something not said a lot).

I was coming to post the same thing. That was a key time in the game too. If he can become more consistent and give us 2 every game and make the defense respect that danger, it'd be huge.

The efficiency numbers today were really impressive, especially because I remember a few missed layups (Tru) and alley oops (Udeh).

All road wins are valuable, as others have said. We've had a particularly weak conference schedule so far, so now it's important that we win the upcoming home games against Stanford and Cal (and hopefully another road game against BC). After that, UNC, UVA, NC State, SMU, Louisville are all toward the end of the season. Much tougher games than we've had in conference so far.
 
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Miami is back on the road looking for some ACC roadkill.

The Hurricanes head to upstate New York today to take on Syracuse, with tip-off coming in about two hours.

Both teams enter the matchup riding two-game losing streaks, making this a chance for someone to stop the slide and get right in ACC play.

CIS has everything you need to know about Miami’s matchup vs. Syracuse with to get a winning streak going for the Hurricanes cause the next couple of game aren't that hard.

How To Watch
  • Tipoff: 2:00 p.m. ET
  • TV: ACCN
  • Local Radio: UM Sports Radio (Joe Zagacki, Don Bailey Jr.)
  • AM: 650 WQAM
  • FM: 103.4 FM
  • Online: Audacy App
  • Sirius XM: 84
You can also follow along on the CIS LIVE GAME THREAD, which will start a few hours before tipoff.

Season Rewind

Miami: 15-4 (KenPom: 39)
  • 11/3: 86-69 W vs. Jacksonville
  • 11/6: 101-61 W vs. Bethune-Cookman
  • 11/10: 102-61 W vs. Stetson
  • 11/16: 82-68 L vs. Florida
  • 11/20: 99-72 W vs. Elon
  • 11/23: 97-41 W vs. Delaware State
  • 11/27: 72-62 L vs. BYU
  • 11/28: 78-65 W vs. Georgetown
  • 12/2: 75-66 W vs. Ole Miss
  • 12/6: 88-64 W vs. Southern Miss
  • 12/13: 104-79 W vs. ULM
  • 12/16: 98-81 W vs. FIU
  • 12/21: 105-67 W vs. North Florida
  • 12/30: 76-69 W vs. Pittsburgh
  • 1/6: 81-77 W vs. Wake Forest
  • 1/10: 91-81 W vs. Georgia Tech
  • 1/14: 81-69 W vs. Notre Dame
  • 1/17: 69-59 L vs. Clemson
  • 1/20: 65-63 L vs. Florida State
Syracuse Orange: 12–7 (3–3 ACC)
  • 11/3: 85–47 W vs. Binghamton
  • 11/8: 83–43 W vs. Delaware State
  • 11/15: 80–50 W vs. Drexel
  • 11/18: 78–73 W vs. Monmouth
  • 11/24: 74–78 L at Houston (OT)
  • 11/25: 60–71 L at Kansas
  • 11/26: 64–95 L at Iowa State
  • 12/2: 62–60 W vs. Tennessee
  • 12/11: 71–63 W vs. Saint Joseph’s
  • 12/13: 70-69 L vs. Hofstra
  • 12/17: 76–62 W vs. Mercyhurst
  • 12/20: 91-83 W vs. Northeastern
  • 12/22: 77-48 W vs. Stonehill
  • 12/31: 61–64 L vs. Clemson
  • 1/6: 82–72 W at Georgia Tech
  • 1/10: 83–72 W at Pittsburgh
  • 1/13: 94-86 W vs. Florida State
  • 1/17: 81-73 L vs. Boston College
  • 1/22: 74–76 L vs. Virginia Tech


Miami At Syracuse Odds

The Miami Hurricanes will head up north to face the Syracuse Orange on Saturday at noon, and despite being on the road, Miami enters as the slight favorite at tipoff.

According to our friends over at FanDuel, the Hurricanes are listed as a 1.5-point road favorite against Syracuse. The over/under is set at 150.5, while Miami checks in at -122 on the moneyline.

Miami Starting Lineup

(Starting lineup based on the last game)


1762178608967.png




#3 – Tre Donaldson
6-3 – 198 – GUARD – SENIOR
16.0 PPG, 3.3 REB, 6.4 AST*

1762178836259.png




#10 – Tru Washington
6-4 – 204 – GUARD – JUNIOR
11.7 PPG, 1.6 APG, 1.8 SPG*

1762179066314.png




#7 – Shelton Henderson
6-6 – 240 – GUARD – FRESHMAN
14.3 PPG, 4.5 REB, 2.1 AST*

1762179128592.png




#5 – Malik Reneau
6-9 – 238 – FORWARD – SENIOR
19.6 PPG, 6.3 REB, 2.1 AST*

1762179302034.png




#8 – Ernest Udeh Jr.
6-11 – 266 – FORWARD – SENIOR
6.9 PPG, 10.3 REB, 0.4 AST*

Stats Comparison
(via Miami’s game notes)

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Quick Hits
ABOUT LAST GAME...

▪ Miami dropped its second-straight game as it fell to
Florida State, 65-63, Tuesday night inside the Watsco
Center.

▪ Shelton Henderson led the way for the Hurricanes,
scoring 18 points while hauling in eight rebounds.

▪ Ernest Udeh Jr. nearly recorded a double-double as
the senior registered 10 points and nine rebounds.

▪ Malik Reneau added 16 points while Tre Donaldson,
a Tallhassee native, tallied 11 points.

OFFENSE CLICKING

▪ Miami has been efficient with their offense, leading
the league in field goal percentage (50.6) and is third
in assists per game (17.6) while ranking in the top 35
nationally in both categories.

▪ Tre Donaldson facilitates the offense with a team-high
122 assists and ranks first in the ACC and is 17th
nationally in the category.

▪ Donaldson is tied for the nation’s lead in doubles-
doubles with points and assists with five.

▪ Shelton Henderson ranks third in the conference in
field goal percentage at 62.0%, which ranks in the top
20 nationally.

▪ Among freshmen, Henderson ranks second and
is one of two freshman to shoot 60%-or-higher
(Massamba Diop, Arizona State.)

Postgame Show on YT

Did you miss the game? Don't worry! CIS has you covered with a post-game show available on the CIS YouTube Channel. You can also find post-game coverage on our website, including highlights, comments from coaches and the players, stats, and maybe some key takeaways.

Live BLOG

Want to interact with the CIS crew during today's game? Consider coming over to the conversation on the CIS Forums, where we’ll share live updates from inside at Syracuse while also answering questions.
 
This is exactly what Hurricanes fans, and honestly, I needed. It wasn’t perfect. It was a little sloppy at times. But Miami controlled almost the entire game and led wire to wire.

On Saturday afternoon inside the JMA Wireless Dome, the Hurricanes (16-4, 5-2 ACC) took care of business against Syracuse, walking away with a solid road win over the Orange (12-8, 3-4 ACC). Miami jumped out to a 9–0 start and later used a key 7–0 run in the second half to finally put Syracuse away, snapping any chance of a three-game losing streak.

Four Hurricanes finished in double figures. Malik Reneau led the way with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulled down 11 rebounds. Shelton Henderson and Tre Donaldson stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points. Tru Washington added 14 points and three rebounds. Miami shot 61.1 percent from the floor and knocked down 7-of-13 from three.

Miami came out hot with that early 9–0 run, but Syracuse didn’t go away, battling back to tie it at 27–27. The Hurricanes answered late and took a 41–36 lead into halftime. The second half went back and forth, and it was a two-point game around the 15:00 mark before Miami went on a big run to push the lead to 69–56, the largest of the night. Syracuse never really got back into it after that and Miami left the JMA Dome with a 85-76 victory.

This was a must needed road and conference win. This win keeps Miami in shape for March Madness. A loss, was putting the Hurricanes on the bubble.

Miami will now look to play the Stanford Cardinals at home on January 28th. A win’s a win, and this was needed.
 
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Another 7 wins including ACC tournament should get us a dance card..
Obviously it's still early, but there's a legitimate argument for at least 9 ACC teams to make the tourney this year.

That number will thin out as more teams play each other in February & into the ACC tournament, but we have arguably the most competitive conference in CBB, alongside the Big XII.

The B1G is top heavy, but in terms of resume & quality teams, the ACC is easily 9 teams deep.
 
Indiana transfer Malik Reneau has been one of Miami’s biggest wins in the portal, and he keeps proving it. The 6-foot-9 forward was Miami’s first transfer signee and has thrived in Jai Lucas’ system all season.

Reneau looks like a legit NBA guy and one of the ACC’s best scorers. He showed it again against Syracuse, leading Miami with another big day.

Miami (16-4, 5-2 ACC) jumped out to a 9-0 start and never trailed. After Syracuse tied it at 27, the Hurricanes closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 41-36 lead. The Orange cut it to two in the second half, but Miami answered with timely threes and free throws to push the lead back to double digits and stayed in control the rest of the way.

Reneau finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double. Shelton Henderson added 16 points, while Tre Donaldson and Tru Washington chipped in 16 and 14 as Miami rolled past Syracuse.

Box Score: Miami vs. Syracuse

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Miami never trailed in the win over the Syracuse Orange, as the Hurricanes took care of business in an 85–76 victory.

After the game, Jai Lucas met with the media for his postgame press conference. Here’s everything the Hurricanes’ head coach had to say following the win:



Opening Statements...

Winning on the road is always hard, especially in this environment, which is one of the most historic in college basketball. The one thing going into the game really worried me, and it got us, we just got lucky towards the end, was just their size and their athleticism. We had been having trouble turning the ball over, and we ended up with 16 turnovers again. That led to 17 points for them. But we were able to battle and compete throughout the game as they connected. And this was a big win for us just because we're coming off, two losses, and we needed something to get back on the right side. And then also, just playing against them, you don't realize it until you're out there and you see them, just the size and athleticism that they do have. And a big part of the game was getting them out of transition as much as we can. And you could see in the moments when they got out in transition, just how electric they are. You end up with one missed tipped ball and Betsy hits a three, or one missed loose ball and you've got Anthony at the rim or somebody at the rim. So it was important for me, especially in this game, to keep it up-tempo, but also slow it down as much as I could with what we needed to do, I felt, to execute and win. But I'm just excited we ended up being able to pull away at the end.

On playing against Syracuse zone...

We have seen a lot of zone this whole year. So we're really familiar with playing against the zone. And so it's something we're comfortable in doing. We just had to make sure when we got the ball in the middle, we were making the right reads. And I thought in the first half, Malik wasn't. And that's how he ends up with seven turnovers. But once we figured it out, relaxed, took a deep breath, we were able to do it. And then also, you know, scouting. We struggled against the zone last game against Florida State. They played it a little bit different, but the same. So we kind of expected and anticipated every game.

On stopping Betsey and Kings from the three ball...

We thought that was the biggest part of their firepower, with Kings and Betsey. You ever you have a guy almost shooting 60% from three, he's gonna be at the top of the scouting report with Betsey. And the same thing with Kings, some of the stuff that they do and some of the actions they run open them up a lot. So, for me, what we kind of do to kind of negate it was we just start switching. We just start switching to kind of take it away and make sure you couldn't get any open looks. And a big part of it was just limiting their threes to try to knock down their firepower, to be honest with you.

On offensive rebounding...

We always want to get back 40% of our misses, and we want to almost get 15 offensive rebounds per game. And we want our second-chance points to match our offensive rebounds. And so Clemson and Florida State, we end up in the 20s in our percentages. And we're not this offensive juggernaut. You know, we are in the sense of we have a formula that we got to stick to. Offensive rebound is a big part of it, getting fouled, points in the paint. And then for me and for us, I got them understanding if we hit threes, we hit threes. But we have a formula that it sticks to it. And, I tell the guys the same thing. The number one team in the country, Arizona, makes six threes a game. And no one talks about them having bad offense. So if we stick to the formula and do what we're supposed to do, we'll be fine. And until the last two games, I think we're the number one scoring team in the ACC. And we get 85 today and we hit threes. That's why we get 85. But we're not banking on, like, making 10 threes a game for us to be really good. We're banking on offensive rebounding, getting fouled, points in the paint. And that takes physicality and grit, which is hard because you're almost playing offense like defense, but that's how we're built. If we were built something else, we'll play a different way, but that's what makes us good, so we have to buy into it.

On Ernest Udeh Jr. performance against Syracuse...

He's been big for us. The one thing he didn't do today that he had been doing was getting double-figure rebounds. But Malik made up for it and getting his rebounds. But our size with him and Malik in there at the same time is what kind of offers teams situations of what they want to do. And then against the press at the end, I thought he did a good job, but we did a good job of attacking it to score instead of letting it get us on our heels.

On how the energy change after JJ’s missed dunk, and how big it was for Miami to respond by coming down and hitting a three right after...

It's a game of runs. That moment is big. I think our missed dunk was the same thing, and Ernest missed his dunk and they come down and they score. So it's just the timing that happens. But the game is right there. These this small margins in this game. It was an 9-point win. You know, if we take care of the ball, it could be a 20-point win. If we turn it over a little bit more, it's a closer game. We might be in overtime or something. So it's right there. It's right there. And they're a really good team. You hit rough spots. We were in a rough spot. You hit rough spots in the season, and you just got to kind of battle and figure it out. But I like their team. I like how they're built. I think George does a really good job of just finding and picking open people and finding the right spots. They got shot blocking rim protection. I think Greg's done a really good job with his roster composition. Looks like a throwback Big East Syracuse team. They just don't play zone the whole game. But they're long. You got White. You got Kyle. You got all these guys out there, so they do a good job.
 
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