In life one thing is for certain, storms will come.
Due to these storms in life, one can really get to measure their heart when bad events come their way. It’s during those moments when you get punched in the mouth, and you’re left scrambling to pick your teeth up when you really find out the character of yourself.
Finding character is going to become a theme for this year’s ACC regular season for the Miami Hurricanes. With two straight losses to No. 13 Virginia, and Clemson, both of which occurred on the road, it’s time to see what this team is made up.
Clemson, Miami’s Kryptonite?
Now, losing to a top 25 team on the road like Virginia isn’t a bad loss. Their head coach Tony Bennett is one of the brightest coaches in the college basketball game and he’s always got his team prepared to play. Virginia will be in the NCAA Tournament as well, so the loss was more of a measuring up instead of a bad loss.
However, it was interesting to see how Miami would respond going against Clemson. History tells us that Clemson has Miami’s number as they’ve been able to post a 7-2 all-time home record against Miami. Additionally with this win, Clemson has now won two straight games at home against Miami.
“I thought it was a terrific college basketball game for about 35 minutes and then we collapsed in the last five…We’re a very good three-point shooting team and we went 7-14 from three, but they out-executed us in the last five minutes and that was the difference in the ball game.”
– Jim Larranaga
Furthermore, Clemson was on a hot streak as they did their best Drake impression and took down two top 25 opponents back-to-back before playing against Miami when they defeated No. 9 Duke and No. 16 Louisville. This team was ready to play and they couldn’t have done more to get ready to compete against another ranked opponent. With all of the confidence they’ve gained, it wasn’t a surprise to see the loss.
“Our guys showed a lot of resiliency tonight; it didn’t come easy. Certainly there were some things in the game that could have caused us to lose confidence and think that this just might not be our night. We had a few calls go against us… and we didn’t play great defensively. We won this game because we executed offensively…for us to have guys make those types of reads and decisions and play with that kind of confidence. Certainly, I felt like they were the difference in the game.”
– Clemson head coach Brad Brownell
What was truly heartbreaking about this loss was because before this game Miami won all 11 of their games in which they were leading at halftime. Now that record is blemished.
Just A Sunshower?
The good news about the storms of life is that it’s never always raining.
It’s ironic how this Hurricanes teams really does live up to the Miami name. In Miami, we get a few days of odd weather where we’ll experience rain out of nowhere right when the sun is out and then all of a sudden the entire day will change before it ultimately gets sunny again.
"Newton over the top McCLELLAN!"
Sheldon McClellan had @CanesHoops fans on their feet after this slam! #MustSeeACChttps://t.co/TLQV1tRIKj
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) January 10, 2016
Those two straight losses are similar because it’s like the rain that appears out of nowhere. Thankfully, we’ll get to see very shortly if the storm is truly over in Miami because Miami’s schedule is very favorable this week.
The good news is both of their tough road games are over now and Miami will get to play against some of the bottom dwellers in the ACC. The next two games are against Boston College and Wake Forest with only one road game between the two. Then Miami will get even more hyped knowing that they’ll be playing against Duke after those two games are done. With a solid home win over No. 9 Duke, it’ll only continue to make the case as to why Miami should deserve a one or two-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Either way, it’s nowhere near time to panic in Miami. It’s just a sunshower, and this too shall pass.
D’Joumbarey A. Moreau covers sports in Miami-Dade & Broward County. You can follow him on Twitter @DJoumbarey.
