Miami males’s basketball was dismantled on Wednesday evening by in-state rival Florida State, 80-65, to drop to 4-11 on the season. The story going into the sport was Miami’s continued funding in its youth motion. As soon as once more, the freshman duo of Jalil Bethea and Divine Ugochukwu began; alongside them, fellow freshman Austin Swartz and sophomore Paul Djobet noticed important motion.
The early returns on this recreation had been nice for Miami.
Bethea drew contact on a three-point try and cashed in all three free throws. Ugochukwu introduced the ball up nearly each possession and ran the offense confidently. Working the decide and roll with Lynn Kidd and making aggressive drives to the basket, he bought himself a few early buckets as nicely. From there, Miami and Florida State traded baskets backwards and forwards for some time, however indicators of what was to return had been evident.
As UM hung within the recreation and stored up, it was towards the percentages. The Hurricanes seemingly struggled for every basket, whereas Florida State’s offense appeared to return effortlessly.
Although each groups dedicated the same variety of turnovers, 8-7 in favor of Florida State, the Seminoles outscored the Hurricanes 9-0 within the first half off these turnovers.
Equally, Miami was unable to get any fast transition offense and was outscored 11-4 by FSU in fastbreak factors. Having to depend on what has been a lackluster half-court offense mixed with the truth that it’s led by freshman guards is a recipe for catastrophe, and it was for Miami.
These issues had been solely made worse with Miami’s main large man, Lynn Kidd, entering into foul hassle early with two fast fouls and being subbed out simply six minutes into the half and never returning till the second half.
Properly into the primary half, when Miami subbed out ahead Brandon Johnson, the Hurricanes went to an all-guard lineup the place 6-foot-7 Paul Djobet was the tallest participant Miami fielded.
This group rapidly was outmatched on the boards. On back-to-back possessions, it gave up an offensive board – as soon as to Malique Ewin and as soon as to Taylor Bol Bowen. Every of those rebounds was adopted up with simple layups on the rim. Another zero-resistance drive to the rim later, Miami referred to as a timeout and was performed with the lineup and introduced Johnson again in.
However that stretch gave Florida State the arrogance and momentum to place the strain on Miami. Bowen hit back-to-back threes to offer the Seminoles a nine-point lead. Then Miami, seemingly annoyed, began to show the ball over extra, giving the Seminoles much more momentum. Three extra turnovers for Miami all led to made baskets by Florida State, and after a 17-5 run, UM was down 14 heading into the half.
Even worse for Miami, whereas making an attempt to chase a free ball, Ugochukwu bought in a collision and suffered an damage. He got here again into the sport and tried to struggle by it, however grimacing whereas holding his aspect, it appeared an excessive amount of. With simply over a minute left within the half, he exited the sport and wouldn’t return.
Because the Hurricanes walked again into the locker room, Watsco Middle, stuffed with Florida State followers, rang out with Seminoles chants and cheers.
It didn’t appear to faze Miami, as popping out of the tunnel for the second half, the ’Canes went on a run. This was led by upperclassman and former Seminole Matthew Cleveland.
He stepped up large for Miami, scoring 10 of its first 19 factors of the half. It might have been much more, however unusually Cleveland went 1-of-6 from the free throw line throughout this stretch. Cleveland completed with 14 factors within the half after solely scoring two within the first half. This marked his fifth straight double-digit scoring outing.
Together with Cleveland, Kidd, again off the bench, grew to become the hub for Miami’s offense, and thru him it led to a number of simple baskets, together with a few and-one layups of his personal. This reinvigorated the group as Miami lower the deficit to 9 and compelled a Florida State timeout. A Swartz three out of the timeout lower the Hurricanes’ deficit to 6.
With an opportunity to chop it to 4, Djobet drove to the cup off a Cleveland steal, however Chandler Jackson got here up behind him and swatted it away. FSU bought on the break for one more simple alley-oop from Justin Thomas to Jerry Deng, and from there, the ’Canes by no means had a lot of a shot.
That dunk began an 11-0 run for the Seminoles, and in nearly three minutes, Miami went from down six to 17 immediately.
To make issues worse, Kidd picked up two extra fouls early and went again to the bench with 7:30 remaining. This allowed FSU’s Ewin to get going, and he went 6-of-6 from the sphere within the half, scoring a game-leading 20 factors. After Daquan Davis’s quick break-and-1 layup, the Seminole chants returned as they went up by as a lot as 25.
Miami shot a tough 5-of-21 from three, together with Cleveland being 1-5 from behind the arc and Jalen Blackmon going 0-4 and 0-6 from the sphere on the day. In the meantime, Florida State shot 10-of-24 for a complete of 41% from deep. Most notably, this included Bowen, who went 4-of-4 from deep.
The Hurricanes’ help whole was solely 11 in comparison with 26 for the Seminoles, who moved the ball round nicely.
Miami will subsequent be host to Wake Forest on Saturday, Jan. 11. Tip-off is 5:15 pm.