The Miami Hurricanes are headed to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row after overwhelming Indiana with their speed and athleticism. They played with no fear and unbridled joy and came away with an 85-69 victory.
They are headed to Kansas City to play top seed Houston on Friday. It is the first time in school history Miami made the Sweet 16 and the fourth time in the 12 years since Jim Larranaga took over as coach.
Guard Isaiah Wong, the ACC Player of the Year, made up for a subpar game in the first round with a spectacular performance against the Hoosiers. He led the Hurricanes with a game-high 27 points, and he scored every imaginable way. He drove. He hit jumpers and floaters. And he dunked.
“Great players don’t always have great games, I’m very confident Isaiah will have a great game (Sunday),” Larranaga said before the game, when asked how he thought Wong would respond.
“It’s an honor to be in this program,” Wong said. “I’m appreciative and I just love this team. I feel like I didn’t play to my full potential the last game, my team gave me another chance to perform and I appreciate them for that.”
When it was all over, Larranaga and his players ran across the court to celebrate with their small, but spirited fan contingent.
The Hurricanes, who sputtered early in the first round against Drake, came out flying against the Hoosiers, hitting nine of their first 12 shots. Miami led by 13 early in the half, and quieted the majority of the MVP Arena fans, who were decked out in red and white candy stripes.
“I had a feeling we would play very well because of the way we played against Drake,” Larranaga said. “Our guys were not happy with the way we played against Drake.”
Wooga Poplar got the UM scoring surge started with a second-chance jumper on the opening possession, then grabbed a defensive rebound off an IU miss and got the ball to Nijel Pack, who knocked in a jumper to make it 4-0 in the first minute. Another Poplar basket and a dunk by Norchad Omier put the Hurricanes up 8-0 while the Hoosiers missed their first four shots.
Pack is an Indianapolis native and played high school and AAC ball with several IU players, so he was especially motivated to show what he could do against a school that passed him over.
By halftime, Pack had 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Pack finished the night game with 12 points.
“It was a childhood dream to play in this tournament, and to play against my hometown team,” Pack said. “It was our first stop, but we have more stops to go. I have having so much fun so far.”
Jordan Miller had 19 points and Omier had seven points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Indiana All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis, a projected NBA lottery pick, led the Hoosiers with 23 points and eight rebounds. He said before the game that the key to beating Miami was slowing the Hurricanes down.
Miami’s high-octane offense led the ACC with 80.1 points per game and the Hoosiers tended to struggle against quick guards in transition.
“They’re probably one of the best, if not the best, offenses in the ACC, averaging over 80 points a game, they get out in transition, shoot a lot of threes in transition,” Jackson-Davis said of Miami. “We need to limit transition runs and not let them speed us up. That’s the biggest thing. Games in the 60s for us is a lot better than games in the 70s and 80s.”
The Canes scored 85 points against Indiana, its highest output in an NCAA Tournament game.
The Hurricanes were coming off their weakest offensive output of the year in the first-round win over Drake. They set season lows in points (63), field-goal percentage (30.4), made field goals (18) and points in a half (25).
It was a different story on Sunday night.
Miami outscored IU 46-28 in the paint, 29-11 in second chance points and 15-6 on fast breaks.
Asked if he felt Miami was still underrated, Miller said: “Winning is a way to get recognition. We don’t care what the media says.”
“You’ve gotta give Miami a lot of credit. They played their butts off,” said Indiana coach Mike Woodson. “They were the better team, they showed it.”
