Miami was locked in a classic, back-and-forth ACC battle with Syracuse that came down to a last-second shot. Unfortunately for UM, Quadir Copeland drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer that sent the Hurricanes back to South Florida with their second straight loss.
Miami (12-6, 3-4 ACC) has lost three of its last four games and has slipped out of the AP rankings after climbing as high as eighth this year. The Hurricanes have already matched last year’s regular-season loss total, and they are just trying to get healthy so they can play in a consistent fashion.
“You can’t play as well as you’re capable of playing unless you’re at full strength,” UM coach Jim Larrañaga said. “We’re very, very capable of being every bit as good as the preseason prognosticators said we would be — if we were healthy. If you’re not healthy, if you have a sprained ankle, you can’t run as fast, you can’t move laterally as quick, you can’t jump as high. When’s the last time you saw Wooga Poplar dunk the ball?
“You’ve got to be, as a coach, patient with your players to understand what they’re going through. Our players are going through some difficult times because they want to play great and are not physically capable of doing it at this moment.”
The Hurricanes are dealing with a key injury now. Fourth-year junior forward Norchad Omier missed Miami’s loss to Syracuse due to an injured ankle. Freshman Michael Nwoko started in place of the veteran, filling in admirably with seven points and five rebounds. But the touted freshman cannot replicate Omier’s impact yet. Larrañaga said he is hoping Omier will be available for UM’s next game against Notre Dame on Wednesday night.
“I thought Michael did a great job at Syracuse,” Larrañaga said. “He defended, he rebounded pretty well. But you can’t ask a freshman with limited playing experience to replace your best player, your leading scorer, your leading rebounder, a guy who’s scored over 1,500 career points. It’s just not reasonable. So it really needs to be a team effort. We need everybody to play well.”
Omier’s injury is the latest in a string of nicks and bumps that have limited UM this season. Starting guards Nijel Pack and Poplar have also dealt with minor injuries.
“We’ve had 19 practices since mid-December, and we’ve not had a practice where we’ve had our starting five,” Larrañaga said. “That makes it really challenging to prepare. Someone’s always out. First, it was Nijel. He missed 11 days. Then it was Wooga. He missed six days. Now it’s Norchad; he missed the other day and the game, as well. It’s not just missing practices, it’s missing some games, which has really impacted our on-the-court chemistry.
“We’ve always relied heavily on being able to play well together, but when you miss practices, you’re a little bit out of sync. And in addition to that, when you miss many practices, you’re not in great shape.”
Miami also has not caught many breaks either. College basketball analytics website KenPom.com ranks each team’s “luck” based on their winning percentage vs. expected winning percentage, based on each team’s metrics.
The Hurricanes’ “luck” rating from analytics website KenPom.com is -0.003, which is currently 190th in the nation. That means Miami, while far from the unluckiest team in the nation (that honor belongs to Ohio), is playing a little below where the site’s statistics would peg their expected winning percentage. Last year, they had a positive luck rating and ranked 108th nationally.
The Hurricanes will hope for some good luck and an end to their skid when they face the Fighting Irish (7-11, 2-5 ACC) Wednesday night in South Bend, Indiana. Miami beat Notre Dame in Coral Gables on Dec. 2, and the Fighting Irish have lost four of its last five games.
“They’ve changed a good bit,” Larrañaga said. I think coach (Micah) Shrewsberry’s done a great job of adjusting to his personnel. They’re much taller and playing a very big starting lineup, and by doing that, it creates a problem for us because we’re very small. We’re going to have to make some adjustments ourselves.”
