The Beast : Hoop Nightmares

Maybe the term nightmare is a bit over the top, but the adversity Miami’s men’s basketball team has faced this year has certainly made it an even tougher for head coach Jim Larranaga to get things going in the right direction.

Reggie Johnson got hurt and just now is starting to come in to his own after his December return, while Julian Gamble, Johnson’s back up is also banged up and is out for the year.

Freshman Bishop Daniels is down and is redshirting. DaQuan Jones, on the bench the first part of the season due to a question about eligibility.

Everyone else has been struck by an injury or an illness at some point. Even guard Garrius Adams will undergo knee surgery soon and there’s no word how long he’ll be out.

Durand Scott tweaked his groin and his status for Wednesday’s ACC home-opener is up in the air while freshman point guard Shane Larkin spent the last day or so dealing with an intestinal flu.

All of that is a handful and from there add to the mix Malcolm Grant still trying to make his way back physically, emotionally and mentally, from the loss of his brother, and weak-minded individuals might wave the white flag.

When I asked another prominent head coach on the UM campus about the woes of the hoops team, this coach said, “ glad they have the right coach to handle all of that.”

Thank God for Coach L.

We had a chance to talk to Coach Larranaga on Tuesday afternoon. He’s always honest and candid and the bottom line is that this team’s lack of consistency, in its line up during games, but more importantly during practices, has really made the introduction of new offensive and defensive concepts beyond a challenge.

How about this nugget; since the season began, Miami has only had a full compliment of it’s top-eight players only five times. FIVE TIMES!!!!

You can have all of the talent and weapons and coaching in the world and the inability to practice together will diminish your progress.

The inconsistency in the line up really takes it’s toll not only on the starters but also on the bench as well. If Scott is out against Clemson, Rion Brown would have to start.

If Larkin can’t go, Grant has to handle the point. That makes it really hard for the coaching staff to find roles for everyone and to stick with them.

We had a chance to talk to Grant on Tuesday, as well, and It’s clear the loss of his brother is weighing heavily.

I find it remarkable that he’s even out there trying to play, but all of us grieve in different ways and basketball may be just what Grant needs.

Coach L says he’s been talking to Malcolm a lot off of the court. He’s spent considerable amount of time with MG3 on the phone, just letting the guard know that his head coach is there for him.

The problem now is, Miami needs Malcolm to break out of his slump. He’s 8-for-29 with 21 points in his last three games. He has only reached the charity stripe three times in that trio of outings.

Coach L called Malcolm the best three-point shooter he’s ever coached. Unfortunately Grant has only three long range buckets in his last three games and went 0-5 against UNC.

The ACC is an unforgiving conference and unfortunately for Grant there’s no opportunity to catch his breath. He’ll have to grieve, and get his game back, on the fly.

Regardless of all of the setbacks this team has gone through, fans need to turn out for this game against Clemson on Wednesday night. They’re giving it their everything, despite all of it, and the fans should give them a little love back.

I did have a chance to sit down and talk one-on-one with one of the fan favorites, F/C Kenny Kadji. We spoke about Kadji’s move to the US, his transfer from Florida and talked about his versatility on the court.

It was a great, engaging conversation and you’ll hear it Thursday night on allCanes Radio.

Also on Thursday’s show we get an exclusive interview with Katie Meier, and we welcome Platon from ProCanes.com back from his honeymoon.

It’s going to be a great listen, so please tune in Thursday night at 7pm ET for some in-depth Canes talk.

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