2 undefeated teams in DC in mid-December: what in the wide world of sports is going on here?! Syracuse came to town to face 8-0 Georgetown and escaped with a 86-79 OT win after the Hoyas blew a 13-PT 2nd half lead. However, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel opted to check out 8-0 Miami as they traveled to Foggy Bottom to face GW, and the Canes did not disappoint in a 59-50 road win. There are only a handful of remaining undefeated teams in the nation and the “U” is 1 of them, so please enjoy the photo essay below.
The game was advertised as a “whiteout”, but there is only so much of a home-court advantage you can enjoy in mid-December when the student body is busy with final exams and heading home for the holidays:
Despite the non-sellout there were still plenty of celebrities in attendance, including a Celtics Hall of Famer up in the rafters:
3 of the other ones who stood out were CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer (who demonstrated from his courtside seat during a TV timeout that he is much better at conducting interviews than giving them), former Hurricane Sheldon McClellan (who now plays for the Wizards under his legally-changed name of “Sheldon Mac”), and veteran referee Ted Valentine (aka “TV Teddy”):
My favorite fan in the stands was this guy. I usually hate people who go to games while wearing the hat/shirt of a team who is not playing in the featured event, but if you are a Hurricane-hater then a Seminoles jacket makes a strong statement:
I was expecting pizza in the media room but instead we got doughnuts: since I am starting a new low-carb diet I restricted myself to 4 of them (not pictured because I ate them all). The 1st half was all Miami: they did it outside with DJ Vasiljevic (who made a pair of threes) and inside with Dewan Huell (who seemed to grab every available rebound and converted a variety of shots from inside the paint). Their freshman backcourt diversity was also intriguing: Lonnie Walker IV is a 6’5’ McDonald’s All-American from Pennsylvania with fantastic hair, while Chris Lykes is a 5’7” kid with goggles who went to high school a few miles away at Gonzaga (hence all the purple-clad people in the stands), and both of them made a 1st half 3 to help the Canes build a 32-15 halftime lead.
GW changed its entire defense in the 2nd half by putting on a full court press and employing a 2-3 zone, which completely disrupted Miami’s 3-PT shooting: they came into the game shooting 40.3 3P% but went 0-8 from behind the arc in the 2nd stanza. The Colonials’ shooting was not much better: 30.2 FG% for the entire game, which included an airball 3 from Arnaldo Toro (who set a career-high with 13 REB) and an airball FT from Jair Bolden (which seems impossible as he is shooting 78.6 FT% this year). Toro did not do much after that but Bolden got his head straight and proceeded to make a pair of jumpers and a pair of threes to keep his team in it. Yuta Watanabe only had 9 PTS on 3-12 FG but apparently Shohei Otani is not the only 23-year old Japanese-born athlete of note in the US because there were 2 separate Asian camera crews who wanted to speak with the SR SG after the game:
There was terrible 3-PT shooting on both ends as the 2 teams combined to make only 9-39 3PM, with the worst offender being Walker (1-7). However, when he stopped putting up bricks he looked like the best athlete on the court: he had a huge follow dunk (http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2017/12/16/video-miamis-lonnie-walker-skies-for-ridiculous-putback-dunk), a drive/nifty scoop, an alleyoop layup off a pass from Anthony Lawrence, a REB/putback, and a breakaway dunk in the final minutes to seal the 59-50 win. GW came up big on the boards with 17 offensive REB but simply could not stop Huell when they were on defense: he camped out in the paint all afternoon and finished with a double-double of 15 PTS and a career-high 12 REB:
In the postgame press conference I asked Miami coach Jim Larranaga if he embraced being 1 of the only undefeated teams in the country or if he just took it 1 game at a time:
He said that he does not care about being perfect and that from day 1 their main concerns have been rebounding/defense because young guys tend to spectate rather than go after every loose ball. He also stated that he was surprised that Bruce Brown Jr. played because the initial diagnosis in early-December was that he would be out for 3 weeks with a left hand injury.
I asked GW coach Maurice Joseph if he thought that the Canes were 1 of the best teams in the nation since he has already faced a slew of top-50 teams during the past 30 days (Florida State/Xavier/Kansas State/Penn State):
He responded that they are a very good young team who will continue to get better and he was proud that his team was able to hold Miami to 20 PTS under their 79.2 PPG average.