Category: allcanes

MIAMI HURRICANES TOP BUFFALO BULLS IN OPENING ROUND OF NCAA TOURNEY

Posted on by C. Bello

miami hurricanes basketball the u buffalo bulls march madness ncaa tournament

The third-seeded Miami Hurricanes survived the opening round of the NCAA Tournament; withstanding a spirited effort from the fourteenth-ranked Buffalo Bulls, 79-72 and back in action Saturday for another step towards glory.

Had the Canes put together a regular season performance like the one they did against the Bulls; down 12-4 five minutes in, spotty defense early, missing from beyond-the-arc and turning the ball over 14 times—it’d be easy to dress this team down post-game.

When it comes to March Madness; sometimes just getting is good enough in one-and-done territory. Halfway through day two of The Big Dance, some big dogs are showing more bark than bite.

Second-seeded Michigan State never led in a loss to fifteenth-seeded Middle Tennessee State, while two five-seeds fell to twelve-seeds on day one—Baylor to Yale and Purdue to Little Rock.
Miami’s expected second-round foe also took one on the chin Thursday evening as sixth-ranked Arizona got worked over by a feisty, eleventh-seeded Wichita State—the Shockers more than primed to give the ones a run for their money if the defense doesn’t step up and turnovers slow down.

Angel Rodriguez the the Canes’ comeback and spirited second half with 24 points on 6-of-15 shooting and 3-of-7 from three-point range. Sheldon McClellan followed with a 20-point outing on 5-of-10 shooting, though 0-for-2 from beyond the arc.

Where the duo shone brightest; from the free throw line—a combined 19-of-24 and 7-of-8 in the game’s final minute. Rodriguez and McClellan—one of the best backcourts in this year’s NCAA Tournament—also brought their veteran leadership to the opening round; keeping younger teammates calm, while stepping up when everything was on the line.

“There’s always a point in the game where (Rodriguez) feels like he’s got to score more, and when he does, and he takes advantage of his opportunities, then we have another weapon out there,” Miami head coach Jim Larranaga said.

“I thought Angel and Sheldon were senior leaders today that really dominated the game.”
Ja’Quan Newton again shone in his sixth-man role; logging 26 minutes and 10 points by way of 3-of-8 shooting and 4-of-5 from the free throw line. Kamari Murphy scored 11 in 33 minutes while Davon Reed followed with 10 points over 29 minutes of action.

Despite trailing early, the Canes led by two at intermission—retaking the lead at the 4:13 mark with an alley oop from Newton-to-Reed. Prior to that, Miami had trailed since going down 3-2 early.

The Canes pushed the lead to as many as 12 in the second half, courtesy of some wide open three’s. The Bulls pulled to within four on a jumper by Lamonte Bearden with two minutes remaining, but clutch free throw shooting helped Miami keep Buffalo at bay.

With those opening-game jitters in the rear view, the Canes need to lean on leadership and experience come Saturday when the upset-minded Shockers bring their best.

Wichita State jumped on Arizona early Thursday night and completely demoralized the Wildcats. Should the Canes bring their early Bulls-type effort against the Shockers, there will be no Sweet 16 for Larranaga’s squad.

Miami’s offense will face one of its biggest defensive challenges of the season in Wichita State; who will take away open spaces all afternoon long. The offense can go cold for the Shockers, at times—with defense often carrying this spirited team; proven by holding the Wildcats to a season-low 55 points.

Regarding common opponents, Miami and Wichita State both played Utah. The Canes rolled the then-No. 16 Utes, 90-66 in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, while the Shockers dropped the then-No. 24 squad, 67-50 at home.

Come Saturday, smart, effective basketball is the answer for the Canes—as is another clutch, veteran performance from the Rodriguez/McClellan duo.

Put it all together for two halves this weekend and Miami is Louisville-bound for a Sweet 16 match up against second-seeded Villanova or seventh-seeded Iowa.

Show up limp like they did early against the Bulls and it’ll be a short post-season for the Hurricanes.

Analyzing ‘Death To The BCS’ : Chapter One

Posted on by C. Bello

With the Miami Hurricanes sitting out a bowl game in 2011, there’s definitely some downtime this post-season and with the BCS looking as messy as ever, now seemed as good a time as any to revisit “Death To The BCS”, the book touted as ‘the definitive case against the Bowl Championship Series’.

“Death To The BCS” is a an eighteen-chapter read. Earlier this week we focused on the Introduction and The Cartel. Next up; Chapter One : The Plan.

– There are three chief criteria for a playoff plan to work: (1) Profitable across the board for colleges / universities, (2) protect and increase the value of the regular season and (3) academics must be taken into consideration, if for nothing more than to allow presidents to save face regarding their long-standing hypocrisy on the issue.

– The Cartel welcomes the playoff debate because the more off-the-wall suggestions for how to fix things, the easier it is to dismiss as “confused ramblings of uninformed outsiders”. Suggestions that include dropping regular season games, eliminating conference title games or using bowl games as host sites for playoff games would never fly with the colleges / universities out there, which again is why The Cartel welcomes these types of ramblings that will never bring change.

– Former Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, a hardcore BCS backer, agrees that the blueprint offered by the D.T.T.B. authors is the only workable solution for Division I-A football: A sixteen-team playoff with automatic bids for all eleven conference champions and at-large slots for five remaining teams.

While this includes lousy teams like the winner of the Sun Belt Conference, for the sake of the integrity of the system and relevancy of the regular season, it must play out this way. (Plus, there are still fifteen other slots.)

The goal is to reward the regular season, which this model does. The best teams earn higher seeds and are rewarded with home seeds the first three rounds, with the championship held at a neutral site. The No. 1 seed doesn’t just get rewarded with an opening game against No. 16, it gets home field on lockdown.

Furthermore, there’s more separation between first and fifth as No. 5 would face a pretty good No. 12 team from a power conference, as well as a second-round game on the road.

– This model also removes the stale environments of neutral sites, making first round games against ‘lesser’ foes more enjoyable as the stakes are high for the home crowd. It also piques the interest of the casual fan the same way March Madness does, where little schools dare to dream and outsiders tune in hoping for an upset.
– A selection committee, much like the one used for the men’s basketball committee, would determine the five at-large bids. This would result in more informed decisions, eliminating confused poll voters and “mathematically dubious computer formulas”.

There would still be arguments regarding teams being left out, but you’re dealing with No. 17, not No. 3 – as well as two- or three-loss teams, as opposed to a qualified undefeated. (Undefeated Auburn 2004, SEC Champ, ring a bell?)

– There would be tremendous competition for the final five at-large spots, which would bring more excitement to the month of November and big games down the stretch. Pac-10 teams would be following the Big East, SEC fans the MWC and ACC fans the WAC. TV ratings would jump, the Internet would be abuzz and anyone would be eligible for an at-large spot, independents or affiliated.

– The entire playoff would take place over four weekends – the same time the current bowl system operates. There would be a two- to three-week window for final exams, with the games kicking off the weekend before Christmas and coming to a close the second Monday in January – the same date as the current BCS title game.

At MOST, two teams would play seventeen games, which is only one more than some high school state championships.

– The rest of the bowl system would stay in-tact, which is something The Cartel tries to fool fans into believing wouldn’t be the case. The lesser bowls would have no role in the playoff, but would continue to provide non-playoff teams a chance to enjoy the post-season.

All of this would end “the most illogical business arrangement” in all of sports; the fact that college football outsources its most-profitable product — post-season football. The bowl system, a consolidation of private businesses with no official ties to universities, sucks tens of millions of dollars in profit away from the schools. With on-campus games, the money stays in college athletics.

– With this aforementioned playoff plan, current BCS payouts would look like chump change – something The Cartel admits.

“I am absolutely sure that an NFL-style football playoff would provide maybe three or four times as many dollars … than the present system currently does.” – Big Ten commissioner and head of The Cartel, Jim Delany, when speaking before congress in 2005.

– The current bowl system pays college football about $220M in gross revenue annually. After the costs of tickets, travel, bonuses, et al, schools walk with upwards of $140M in profit.

Delany projects a potential $880M gross through a playoff system. D.T.T.B. authors peg it around $750M for the playoffs alone, with each of the fifteen games paying out upwards of $25M per team.

A first-round playoff game would next conferences 40 percent more than the current BCS Championship game. Even with TV taking a huge cut, an estimated $860M in post-season money is waiting to be tapped.

– D.T.T.B authors aren’t claiming to reinvent the wheel, instead looking towards a system that works for Division I-AA, Division II and Division III. The NCAA is far from perfect but has obviously proven its skill in running national tournaments in eighty-eight different sports.

The issue lies in the association’s central office having no power or jurisdiction over major college football’s post-season.

Delany and the other members of The Cartel participate in high-level committees that make NCAA policy on all things except the college football post-season, yet step outside those roles, put on their BCS hats and run that too.

Confusion (and getting paid) remains the goal of The Cartel. Blame the other guy, blame the wrong guy and keep people debating while the perfect plan waits to be implemented.

– Next up, Chapter Two: What Could Have Been and a focus on “exposing The Cartel to its very last fiber.”

allCanesBlog.com gets a facelift!

Posted on by C. Bello

Welcome to the newly redesigned allCanesBlog. This revamp was a long time coming but this summer seemed the right time for the complete overhaul.

2011 has been a season of change for the University of Miami. A new football coach. A new athletic director. A new men’s basketball coach. Optimism is in the air entering this fall and this was a logical time to shed some skin.

Thank you all for the last five years of readership here at allCanesBlog. This whole thing started as a whim; a one-man show covering the Canes in the mid-nineties and probation era as a way to connect with other downtrodden fans.

From there, an amazing run where a 34-game win streak, four straight BCS title games, back-to-back championship games and the program’s fifth title. Heads got a little bloated (fans and players alike) as losing became foreign, but due to the cyclical nature of the college game, Miami fans were humbled, like so many other programs have been.

It’s been just under a decade since the Canes have truly been relevant and there’s been a lot of crow-eating. Especially with rivals succeeding while ‘The U’ went back in the lab, looking for ways to re-tinker things in an effort to get it right.

The Shannon Era bottomed out last fall, but Golden Years lie ahead and optimism again surround the program as a fiery, headstrong, focused, up and coming leader is now on board, ready to lead the Canes back to prominence.

There’s a reason we torture ourselves with our love for this crazy game. As rough as the down times are, there’s no better feeling than being a top that mountain, head held high when your team has reached the pinnacle.

Miami fans have been there many times and hope that this program is back on track to getting there again. One bit of advice; enjoy the ride.

Many folks feel burned by the legacy left by the past two coaching staffs and while that’s understandable, it’s no reason to become jaded. Employing a “believe when I see it” means you’ll miss out on the process, which in turn means no true ownership in the spoils when the promised land is reached.

There will be highs and lows along the way. Two steps forward and one step back. Old ways need to be flushed out and a new attitude adapted. New faces are suiting up, replacing those who have departed, while those yet to reach their potential get another chance to get it right this season. As fans, we have to invest in the process and truly support the cause for the sake of a new staff and rejuvenated squad.

We’re getting to that point where it’s exciting to be a Cane again. You can feel winds of change finally blowing and again, with a new-look “U” it was time for a new-look blog. We hope you enjoy the changes we made and like you, look forward to another exciting season of Miami Hurricanes football.

Please pass along the redesign news and as always, Go Canes. – allCanesBlog.com


(Note: A special thanks to our friend – and UM alum – Rishi Kapoor and his team over at Virsocom, who partnered up with us and brought this redesign to life. Like many clients, we had the idea and knew what we wanted, but needed the creative, talented folks at Virsocom to bring things into focus. We couldn’t be happier with the job they did. They are UM fans, quality folk and are truly a part of the U Family. Thanks guys.)

Miami Hurricanes Facilities Get Bad Rap

Posted on by C. Bello

Miami’s facilities suck. Did you get the memo? ESPN made much ado about it during last week’s televised 17-14 win over Boston College and since then, every member of the sports media community has ranted and raved about how dilapidated and run down things are inside the walls of The U.

The photo above was taken in the supposedly “run down” Hurricane Strength and Conditioning Complex at the Hecht Athletic Center. The 11,500-square foot facility is barely five years old and is double the size of the old weight room.

It’s stocked with the latest in strength and conditioning equipment and is the focal point of Miami’s annual NFL Pro Timing Day each spring.

In the off-season, it’s a who’s who of the NFL. Former Canes show up in droves to work out here. Santana. Sinorice. Edgerrin. Reed. Vilma. Gore. McGahee. Wayne. D.J. Parrish. Kenard. Clinton. Ray-Ray. Bubba. The Playmaker. Shockey.

You name ’em, they’re here – and when they show up, they usually don’t come alone. Several former Canes have been known to recruit current NFL teammates to spend their off-season training in Miami at The U.

Call me crazy, but if things are so run down and in need of a facelift how come so many NFL superstars spend their time training here instead of at their respective franchise’s multi-million dollar facilities? I’ll tell you why. Because things aren’t as bad as the media are making them out to be and in this case, a winning tradition, attitude and mindset outweight the bells and whistles.

Can Miami compete with the likes of Oregon and their facilities? Not unless a Hurricanes alum has Nike money. Literally. Swooshes and all.

Phil Knight has donated over $50M for the Autzen Stadium renovation and the most state of the art locker rooms in the sport. We’re talking plasma screens at every locker and fingerprint biometric locks. This place is straight out of a science fiction movie.

But it’s also home to no tradition, history or success. If you want a PlayStation 3 and a once a decade Rose Bowl birth, be a Duck. If you want to earn a ring, head to The U.

“Do you want one of these?” That’s what former Miami offensive coordinator Gary Stevens would tell recruits as he extended a hand with a 1987 National Championship ring on it.

Nice locker room? Expanded stadium? Plasma TVs and high-tech fingerprint operated locks? To hell with ’em. At day’s end, recruits have to ask themselves one question.

Do they want a ring?

When world class bodybuilders train, where do they go? A candy-ass health club where they hand you a plush towel and lemon-flavored water as you walk through the electric sliding door? Hell no. They get down and dirty and go to and old school gym.

Rocky III ring a bell? Stallone’s character was fat and happy as the world champ. He living a cush lifestyle and was caught up in all the frills which come with being a pampered champion.

When Clubber Lang whooped his ass in that first fight, Rocky Balboa did some soul searching. If he was going to get back on top, he needed to get back to his roots. He and Apollo Creed left Philly for a gritty part of LA to train.

Down and dirty and old school, Balboa got knee-deep in it and found himself as there are no distractions when training hard and focusing on the task at hand. While this was simply a movie, people connected with the concept. Strip away all the “filler” and get down to business.

In this day and age, you can wow an 18-year old with a PS3 – but you can win him over with a proven track record. Miami has that edge over everyone else in the modern era.

Kirk Herbstreit mentioned that the Orange Bowl needed a new coat of paint. That and much more will be taken care of. $150M has been allotted by the City of Miami for a full on renovation which officially starts in 2007 an will be complete by the 2009 season opener.

Are the locker rooms as bad as people make them out to be? Hardly. The recent Football Locker Room Improvement dramatically upgraded the team’s Hecht Athletic Center facility.

The project includes 105 new maple players lockers, 36″ X wide X 24″ deep X 88″ high with stainless steel hardware and a clear coat finish; 19 maple coaches’ lockers; 4 double display cabinets and an expansion to the equipment room.

Will anyone start confusing Miami’s facilities with Oregon’s anytime soon? Of course not. But a prettier set up for the Ducks won’t make them Hurricane-like champs anytime soon, either.

Southern Cal is another program knocked for their facilities, yet it’s hardly a chink in the armor of the Trojans current dynasty. Facilities also didn’t stop the Canes from tallying up five titles since 1983 and a 34-game win streak between 2000-2003.

The sport’s two greatest dynasties this decade and both are supposedly in the bottom 1/3 regarding their facilities.

If that doesn’t tell you all this talk is blown out of proportion, nothing will.

.:Canes305:.