Picked for 10th Place in the ACC

[Kirijax]

Well, this doesn't do anything for my confidence. But this is espn after all...

Jim Larranaga will certainly not lack for players between 5-11 and 6-5 at Miami (FL) this season. Begin with 5-11 sophomore Manu Lecomte, who made 17 starts at point guard as a freshman. Add redshirt freshman Deandre Burnett, who's back after a wrist injury forced him to sit out 2013-14. Throw in top-60 freshman Ja'Quan Newton and two newly eligible transfers: Sheldon McClellan (Texas) and Angel Rodriguez (Kansas State). And don't forget freshman wing James Palmer.

The Hurricane's backcourt will be well-populated, to say the least, and 7-footer Tonye Jekiri returns as well. Will the guard-heavy Canes play a faster tempo? Last season this was the slowest-paced team in Division I.

Link

 

[soysoy05]

Like Jim said, we need 10-10 from Tonye this season to be a legitimate contender.

The loss of Uceda is pretty huge. He seemed to dominate the glass in Spain. Thank god it's for only the first half, which the schedule is pretty manageable outside a trip to Gainesville. He's still missing out on such valuable experience. I like Reed a lot, but him going down isn't as big of a deal because of the depth.

I'd have to take a closer look at the ACC teams but there is no way 9 teams are going to be better than us. I haven't done much research so maybe the ACC is loaded with the new teams.

Coach L gets the most out of players, probably more and we play stout defense like always. We actually have some scorers this year so no way we finish 10th.

The ACC has sent 5 and 4 teams to the tournament the past two years and I expect this team to be a soild bubble team. I'd expect that number to certainly be higher this year with the recent additions. Probably in the 7-8 range.

After writing all that, found a pretty solid preview of the ACC where a guy predicted us as 4th. There is a solid, couple paragraph preview, but here is the guy's main point. Too bad he doesn't use bold more often...

ACC Preview

Jim Larranaga suddenly has a load of talent to work with, particularly on the offensive end. While many of the players are newcomers, three of them- Rodriguez, McClellan, and Burnett- already have a year in the program.

The lack of frontcourt depth, particularly during Uceda's suspension, and the very real possibility of chronic foul problems could mean occasional four guard lineups, but that is something Larranaga has experience with; his George Mason Final Four team featured 0 players over 6-5 off the bench (although if the team is going to be at a disadvantage it will likely be rebounding and defending small forwards with size).

While they will be one of the younger teams in a loaded ACC, Miami should be a solid NCAA Tournament team that is capable of winning a game or two once there.

 

[Consigliere]

Now that scoring should improve 10+ PPG, I think our win total will greatly improve. I lost the stat but how many of our games last year did we lose by 6 or less points.

It had to be about 6-8.

 

[RickRollU]

Now that scoring should improve 10+ PPG, I think our win total will greatly improve. I lost the stat but how many of our games last year did we lose by 6 or less points.

It had to be about 6-8.

8 games by 6 pts or less and it goes up to 12 lost by 10 pts or less. That's huge!!

 

[Cribby]

We'll be an NCAA tourney team , with ease

 

[Hurricanefan13]

I think we will make the tourney but if we can get everybody to stay and reed comesback healthy next year we can be special.