GREENVILLE, S.C. — Of all the impressive statistics the Miami Hurricanes put up over the weekend to earn a spot in the Sweet 16, the one that stands out most is this: Seven turnovers in 80 minutes of basketball.
Read that again, slowly. Only seven turnovers over the course of two games. Three in one game, four in the other.
Meanwhile, they forced their two higher seeded opponents – No. 7 USC and No. 2 Auburn – into a combined 31 turnovers. They disrupted the Trojans’ and Tigers’ shooters, forced them out of their comfort zones, and it paid off.
UM beat Auburn by 18 points to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in coach Jim Larranaga’s 11 years at the school. The year 2020 doesn’t count because the post-season was canceled for COVID, so it is really three times in 10 years. The Hurricanes (25-10) will face No. 11 seed Iowa State (22-12) in Chicago on Friday at 9:59 p.m. (TBS).
All season long the Canes have made up for their lack of size by playing an aggressive scramble defense that relies on trapping ball screens, rotating and putting immense pressure on the guy with the ball. Their hands are constantly flying and before opponents know what happened, a UM player has stripped the ball or intercepted a pass and is racing up the court in the fast break.
The result? Miami outscored Auburn 30-1 on fast breaks and 17-2 on turnovers.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said his team “hadn’t been hit in the mouth like that all year,” and called the Hurricanes “a nightmare to guard” and “one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country”.
Miami ranks sixth nationally with a 4.5 turnover margin and led the ACC this season in fewest turnovers per game (9.3) and best turnover margin at 4.63.
Iowa State surely is dissecting the UM-Auburn game video carefully, as the Cyclones have been turnover prone in recent games. They had more turnovers (20) than field goals (15) in a 72-41 loss to Texas Tech in in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals and were outscored 23-0 on fast break points and 20-7 on points off turnovers.
They coughed the ball up 14 times in their win over Wisconsin on Sunday.
Miami limited Auburn’s 6-10 freshman Jabari Smith, a projected NBA Lottery pick, to 10 points on 3-of-16 shooting. He said of the Hurricanes after the game: “They’re just very physical in every catch. They sent somebody any time I tried to attack or make a move. They just kept bodies on me. They switched every ball screen.”
Larranaga explained UM’s tactics against Smith.
“He’s a great shooter, and shooters like space and rhythm, we needed to take that space and rhythm away,” the coach said. “Jordan Miller was on him, denying him, making him take a step further out. When he went into the post, we doubled him from behind.”
Larranaga was asked if the scramble defense was something they developed just for Auburn. He smiled.
“If you want to know about the scramble, you can order it online with championship books and video,” Larranaga said. “I did a teaching tape for high school coaches in 1990 and we’ve been implementing the scramble almost every year I’ve been a coach. The difference is I’ve had some teams that just couldn’t do it. They were too slow, too big, didn’t rotate fast enough, so we didn’t implement it.”
This team is executing it to perfection with a quick, poised guard trio of Charlie Moore, Isaiah Wong and Kam McGusty and tenacious defense by Sam Waardenburg and Jordan Miller.
Five of the players left in the Sweet 16 have more than 60 steals this season and UM has three of them. Charlie Moore has 72, Kam McGusty and Jordan Miller each have 62. Iowa State’s Tyrese Hunter is on the list with 68, as is Arkansas’ JD Notae with 77.
Pearl, asked how good this UM team can be in the remainder of the tournament, said: “They’re really quick, each one of those guards, Wong, Moore and McGusty, they’re all going to win their matchup almost every night. Then Sam just is an unusual player for what he does. Miller was really quick. I think Miller’s quickness bothered our five man a little bit. They don’t have great depth, so that could be an issue. But they’re a tough cover and they’ve got older experienced guys that have been there and done that.”
