At some point, you have to believe this team has to lose, no?
On Christmas Day the Miami Hurricanes sat at 8-3, riding a two-game losing streak, including a consolation game overtime loss to Indiana State, on the heels of getting thumped by Arizona. Since then? A thirteen-game win-streak, including twelve-straight conference wins, which is no easy feat in the ACC.
There have been some signature wins since the new year. A solid road win in Chapel Hill, upending North Carolina, 68-59. Two weeks later, the thrashing that earned the attention of the college basketball world; a twenty-seven point beat-down of top-ranked Duke, 90-63.
Miami held court against rival Florida State four days later, avoiding the letdown with a convincing, 71-47 win. There was also the stellar comeback at North Carolina State early February, where the Canes survived a, 79-78 thriller and since then, wins against Boston College, Florida State and North Carolina in second meetings against all three squads.
There have been more exciting and convincing wins this season, but when it’s all said and done and this year is in the books, a grind-it-out, never-surrender take down at Clemson might rank atop the list of important wins this season.
When you look back at the schedule, even in close match ups, Miami’s offense was scoring points and making plays. 60 points in that mid-January one-point win at Boston College. 79 points in the one-point win at North Carolina State. 74 points against Florida State days back and 87 in the thumping of North Carolina days before.
Entering the contest at Clemson, UM was averaging 70 points per game. The 45 against the Tigers was 25 off the season average.
Miami had every reason to throw in the towel late at Clemson as it was obvious from the get-go that it simply wasn’t the Canes’ day.
Both squads traded a few three-point misses out the gate before the Tigers too a 2-0 lead. Kenny Kadji got a dunk and it was 2-2. From there, Kadji scored on Miami’s next offensive touche, his his free throw and the Canes too a 5-2 lead, which would remain the score for almost six minutes.
Julian Gamble. Trey McKinney Jones. Shane Larkin. Durand Scott. Reggie Johnson. Rion Brown. All had looks, all had shots -some multiple opps – but none could hit.
McKinney Jones hit a three at the 11:40 mark, and two more minutes of scoreless basketball ensued. Clemson was scoreless from the 18:58 mark until Adonis Filer made a three-pointer with 9:25 left in the half.
Nine-plus minutes of scoreless basketball from an opponent and the Miami offense could only muster up eight points.
The Tigers mustered up a dunk and jumper from Jordan Roper and a layup from Milton Jennings and inexplicable, Clemson had the 11-10 lead with just over six minutes remaining. Unfathomable.
Miami took an 18-16 lead into the locker room, but everyone in the building knew Clemson had the momentum. If an upset was in the works, this was precisely what it’d take.
Long-time, multiple-sport Canes fans could’ve dug in the archives and drummed up a similar emotion regarding a nothing-going-right road outing that took place in November 2001.
The top-ranked Hurricanes football squad rolled into Chestnut Hill believing a textbook wins was in the cards, but Boston College gave Miami a fight in a low-scoring affair.
The Canes led 9-0 at the half, but it was a game marred with mistakes and missed opportunities. Ken Dorsey threw four interceptions, while Clinton Portis left one on the ground and the five turnovers had Miami in a 12-7 ball game.
The rest is history. The Eagles moved the ball within the Canes’ nine-yard line. Brian St. Pierre dropped back to throw a quick slant, which went off the knee of safety Mike Rumph, into the hands of defensive lineman Matt Walters and was eventually stripped by teammate Ed Reed, the do-everything safety who scampered ninety-one yards to the end zone for the bizarre touchdown, securing the, 18-7 win.
There’s no shame in championship teams winning ugly as the modus operandi is simply to find a way. Until the clock hits 0:00, cliche as it sounds, you continue to play with the belief that you’re going to come out on top.
In 2001, the football Canes could’ve caved. The Eagles were moving the ball with ease and were nine yards from what would’ve been the upset of the decade, but Miami never flinched – and the same was the case at Clemson when the hardwood Canes needed a few big moments.
The majority of the second half at Littlejohn Colosseum proved to be a grind-it-out affair, with neither team leading by more than three until the 2:01 mark, when Roper’s layup put Clemson up, 42-38.
After Larkin’s missed three attempt and the Tigers moving the ball around with just over a minute to play, it gave Hurricane Nation that same feeling as St. Pierre’s twenty-one yard completion, setting Boston College up at the nine with a fresh set of downs.
Miami basketball needed its Rumph-Walters-Reed moment and the first was Brown’s running jumper, which drew contact and made for a three-point play, which is was after he hit the free throw.
42-41, Clemson with under a minute remaining.
McKinney Jones went for an aggressive steal, but was hit with foul, sending K.J. McDaniels to the line. He went one-of-two and Miami had life, down two and in need of something big.
Stats-wise the Canes were 2-of-18 for the night from behind the arc, but that didn’t stop Kadji from releasing a dagger – his Reed-like, game changing strip-and-score – putting Miami ahead, 44-43 with half a minute remaining.
Miami got a break on the next possession – one that sent commentator and Duke alum Jay Williams out of his skin – when Hall was hit with a charge on McKinney Jones, which “should’ve” been a blocking foul.
For the record, Clemson – and Hall – got their break a few possessions earlier Hall got away with a carry and Brown was subsequently hit with a foul on Roper. (Where was the outrage on that no-call, J-Dub?)
The Hall turnover wound up putting McKinney Jones on the line where he hit one-of-two and with eight-seconds remaining, Clemson drove the length of the course, Hall attempted a lay up that fell short, as did a tip-in attempt. The horn sounded, the 45-43 win was in the books and Miami earned their thirteenth straight.
We’ll never know what a loss would’ve meant to this team, but based on the piss-poor performance for the first thirty-nine minutes of the showdown, you have to believe some doubt could’ve crept in. Conversely, winning has a way of erasing doubt and instilling confidence that comes from simply finding a way.
Losing a contest where your 70-points-a-game offense scores near or above the average – that can be chalked up to a shootout where you fell a little bit short. Scoring in the low 40s and losing to a middle-of-the-road conference foe – those are the type of games that provide hangovers are are tough to bounce back from.
Instead, the find-a-way attitude carries over. When playing their best or their worst these past thirteen games, Miami is proving it has the guts, stamina and character to get the job done and a comeback like this at Clemson makes the game easier to consider an aberration, putting it in the rearview and moving forward.
It was a gusty win for the Canes and it keeps these kids on a roll with a mid-week home game on deck as Virginia visits a packed BUC at 9pm ET on Tuesday night.
From there, a Saturday game at Wake Forest, a home game against Virginia Tech next Wednesday and then arguably the college basketball of the year as Miami travels to Durham to take on a revenge-minded Duke squad on Saturday March 2nd.
The stakes are raised a little bit more ever game and with backs to the wall and shots not falling for the better part of the evening, Miami earned six crucial points when it needed them most – just like Reed’s strip-six.
This is the stuff championship teams are made of. Keep growing and grinding, Canes.
Christian Bello has been covering Miami Hurricanes athletics since the mid-1990s. After spending almost a decade as a columnist for CanesTime, he launched allCanesBlog.com. – the official blog for allCanes.com : The #1 Canes Shop Since 1959. Bello has joined up with XOFan.com and will be a guest columnist at CaneInsider.com this fall. Follow him on Twitter @ChristianRBello.