Miami<\/a> in the regular season finale Saturday, the Cardinals knocked down 12 threes.<\/p>\nUM head coach Jai Lucas made defensive adjustments heading into their second matchup of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first game, I thought we were too soft on the ball, and we just gave them too much space, and they were shooting almost all their shots from three,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cSo this game, a big part of our game plan was making sure we impacted the ball and really upped our pressure and our pickup point. And I felt that was the difference in some of the threes they made and were able to get in the first game and this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seniors Malik Reneau and Tre Donaldson, who was recognized on the All-ACC First Team this past week, commanded the Hurricanes\u2019 offense. Reneau led the way with 24 points (18 of which were in the second half), capitalizing on the game\u2019s physicality. Junior Tru Washington was also instrumental in the win, scoring 17 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust in myself a lot. And then also my teammates trust me to go get a basket at any moment,\u201d Reneau said. \u201cJust having that feeling that my team is behind me when we need a basket, a go-to basket, it gives me the utmost confidence to go do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington also made clutch plays on the defensive end, stealing a Louisville in-bound pass in the final minute that extended UM\u2019s lead from three to five after the Cardinals sent him to the free throw line after the steal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge steal coming down the stretch,\u201d Reneau said. \u201cIt gave us the two to go up five and then give us a little comfort lead to fall back on, and then just ultimately get a stop coming down on the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other top performers for Miami included guard Tre Donaldson, who scored 14 points, and center Ernest Udeh Jr., who grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and blocked three shots.<\/p>\n
Next up, No. 10 Virginia<\/p>\n
Miami will face No. 10 Virginia on Friday at 7 p.m. in a rematch of one of the Hurricanes\u2019 most thrilling games of the regular season.<\/p>\n
In a late-February trip to Charlottesville, the Cavaliers bested Miami 86-83 in a game that featured 14 ties and 12 lead changes. The two teams will battle it out again with a trip to the ACC tournament championship on the line, which the Hurricanes haven\u2019t made since the 2012\u201313 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a war,\u201d Reneau said about Friday\u2019s matchup between Miami and Virginia. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s gonna be a hard-nosed basketball game. We got to be ready to play all 40 minutes, relentless 40 minutes, energy throughout the whole game, and constantly keep pushing, whether we\u2019re the ones making a run or they\u2019re making a run, we got to constantly stay with it for the whole 40 minutes. It\u2019s gonna be a war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bracketology implications<\/p>\n
With its win over Louisville, Miami is now 6-5 on the season in Quadrant 1 NET games. This victory also likely prevented the Hurricanes from being given an eight or a nine seed in the NCAA tournament, regardless of the result of the Virginia game.<\/p>\n
If UM were to defeat Virginia, which would undoubtedly be its best win of the season, it will likely receive a top-six seed for The Big Dance. The Hurricanes, as well as every other team, will learn their tournament destiny this Sunday at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s fitting that the dagger in Miami\u2019s win over No. 24 Louisville on Thursday afternoon was a block.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,9276],"class_list":["post-189612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-regwall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}