{"id":35116,"date":"2025-11-06T00:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35116\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T00:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:34:07","slug":"miami-wary-of-upset-hungry-bethune-cookman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/35116\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami wary of upset-hungry Bethune-Cookman"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s unlikely the host Miami Hurricanes will look past Bethune-Cookman<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

That’s because the Wildcats (0-1) put a scare into the No. 20 Auburn Tigers on Monday night. Auburn won that game 95-90 in overtime in the season opener for both teams.<\/p>\n

“We took them all the way to the end,” said Wildcats coach Reggie Theus. “We wanted a win, but to see the guys come together and play as a team was great to watch.”<\/p>\n

Miami (1-0) won its opener on Monday with an 86-69 verdict over visiting Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Bethune-Cookman used eight players for double-figure minutes on Monday, including leading scorers Quentin Heady (21 points) and reserve Arterio Morris (20). Morris also had a team-high 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Heady was a standout last season for Central Michigan, ranking second on the team in scoring (15.0 ppg) and rebounds (6.5 rpg). Morris was a 2022 McDonald’s All-American who wore out his welcome at Texas and Kansas due to an assault case. He had not played a college game since Texas’ NCAA Tournament regional final loss against, coincidentally, Miami on March 26, 2023.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a good team,” said Wildcats starting forward Daniel Rouzan, who at 6-foot-8 shares the distinction of being the tallest player on the team.<\/p>\n

Theus, a former NBA standout who is in his fifth season as Bethune-Cookman’s coach, led the Wildcats in 2025 to their first winning record (17-16) since 2020.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes shot 55.1% from the floor on Monday and outrebounded Jacksonville by 15. However, Miami shot just 3 of 14 on 3-point attempts (21.4%) — and that lack of perimeter shooting looms as a potential weakness until proven otherwise.<\/p>\n

“I think people see that we’re built on defense,” new Miami coach Jai Lucas said.<\/p>\n

Miami also is built on size. Center Ernest Udeh Jr., who had 14 points and 14 rebounds on Monday, is 6-11 and 265 pounds.<\/p>\n

Indiana transfer Malik Reneau, who scored a game-high 20 points, is 6-9 and 240 pounds. Freshman forward Shelton Henderson, who scored 15 points, is 6-6 and 240 pounds. The starting guards, Michigan transfer Tre Donaldson and New Mexico transfer Tru Washington, also are physically imposing for their position.<\/p>\n

Miami also used three reserve players for at least 15 minutes each on Monday: Marcus Allen, Dante Allen and Timotej Malovec. The latter, a freshman from Slovakia, could surprise. On Monday, he took just three shots – yet he scored seven points in 15 minutes as he made a 3-pointer along with a strong drive to the hoop.<\/p>\n

“He played high-level ball in Europe,” Lucas said. “He’s already one of our best shooters.”<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2025 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s unlikely the host Miami Hurricanes will look past Bethune-Cookman on Thursday night. That’s because the Wildcats (0-1)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24446,8294,123,4641,125,124],"class_list":["post-35116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-bethune-cookman-wildcats","tag-college-basketball","tag-miami","tag-miami-fla-hurricanes","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35116","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=35116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}