5 On The Court: Preparing for Blacksburg
It’s about time to pack up and head to Blacksburgh, Miami hitting the road to face Virginia Tech in the team’s second ACC game away from home in as many weekends.
And like last time around in Wake Forest, this one will be another tough test in a Quad 1 matchup.
No, it’s not time to panic, but there has to be some changes
Look, it sucked. Miami doesn’t lose to teams like Louisville and certainly not at home. You’ve just got to find ways to close out that game with a win.
So it’s a good thing it’s almost the weekend, huh?
The Miami Hurricanes have 16 regular season games to go is plenty of time to get things figured out.
Eight opportunities to get a momentum back
Something else to keep in mind before losing our collective marbles? The NET rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, while also valuing strength of opponent and location across all games played. Quad 1 victories are like gold in the Selection Committee’s eyes, and as things stand right now, the Hurricanes have eight coming up on the schedule.
Virginia Tech — Jan. 13 (away)
Syracuse — Jan. 20 (road)
Pittsburgh — Jan. 27 (home),
Virginia Tech — Feb. 03 (home)
Virginia — Feb. 05 (away)
North Carolina — Feb. 10 (home)
Clemson — Feb. 14 (road)
Duke — Feb. 21 (home)
College basketball’s national champion a year ago, UConn, had seven Quad 1 wins entering postseason play. The year before that, Kansas had 11. And then in the shortened season in ’20-21, Baylor had eight. Virginia in ’19 — the start of the NET? 12.
Miami undoubtedly dug itself an early hole with the Louisville loss, but it’s the quality wins that matter going into March. Let’s focus on that before acting like our pets’ heads are falling off.
Miami WBB loses again
The Canes were tied up in the end of the first quarter, then lost to Virginia Tech by 24
Miami, which was the last team to knock of VT just over a year ago as an unranked team, failed to take advantage of the Hokies struggles, and Virginia Tech closed the second half on a 20-4 for a 40-24 halftime lead on their way to their fourth ACC win of the season and Miami record went to 11-4
Trinton is the owner of CanesToday. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, he is a freshman in high school and wants to graduate from the University of Miami
