Talk CanesToday: Miami MBB is 1-0, Miami WBB opens season, Jacksonville
Good afternoon, friends. The sun is shining, and it is a beautiful day in the Sunshine State, in part because your University of Miami Hurricanes are 1-0 to start the season (which is more than No. 4 Michigan State can say). Monday night, the Canes beat NJIT 101-60 in a feel-good romp at Watsco. Before we move on to today’s docket, let’s quickly run through the highlights from Miami’s season-opening victory.
The Canes got off to a quick start, leading by 20 at halftime, from there, the game quickly got out of hand, with Miami outscoring New Mexico State 49-28 in the second half. Three players finished in double figures. Wooga Poplar led the way with 21 points on 8-16 shooting, including a 5/9 clip from distance. He was aided by 20 points from Norchad Omier, who shot 8-11 from the floor while adding four assists and ten rebounds. Matthew Cleveland and Nijel Pack contributed 24 points apiece, with Nwoko going for three rebounds and nine points.
At the intermission, Miami was up 52-32 behind a combined 24 points from Poplar (13) and Cleveland (11). Omier also chipped in eleven points and two rebounds in the first half of action as UM shot over 50 percent from the field and over 40 percent from long range. On the other end, NJIT was held to just 33.0 percent overall shooting at the midway point.
Out of the halftime break, it was more of the same. Miami’s advantage swelled to 40-plus points before settling on the 41-point win. When it was all said and done, the ‘Canes finished with a shooting split of 54.8 percent from the field, 43 percent (12-28) from deep, and 65 percent (11-17) from the free-throw line. NJIT failed to shoot better than 35 percent from the field and 3-point range.
Need more Miami vs NJIT? Check out all of our coverage below Recap
Miami’s Women’s Basketball opens season vs. Jacksonville
Tomorrow, the ladies tip things off vs. Jacksonville at 11:00 a.m. ET at the Watsco center. A bunch of tickets remain but if you can’t make it in person, you can stream it live on ACC Network+/ESPN+.
The Miami Hurricanes women’s basketball team is coming off of an Elite 8 Appearance in the March Madness tournament. The Hurricane’s will raise the Elite 8 banner in their second game of the year at Watsco Center when they verse Fordham at 2:00 p.m.
Key thing on this week’s Mario Cristobal Show
Over at the Greentree Practice Field, preparations continue for Saturday’s big game vs. No. 4 Florida State. Mario Cristobal shared his initial thoughts on the Seminoles on Tuesday. And he also gave thoughts on the Miami vs. NC State game from last week.
“We played hard, we played tough, we played physical, the defense gave us every chance to win that football game, but we turn the ball over we fell short in the red-zone, and that is what made a difference,” said Mario.
Mario Cristobal also talked on Mark Flecther Jr.
“He’s a great reflection of this freshman class, and I’m very pleased of all of them people on the freshman class” Said Mario. Mario also said that Fletcher will be the starting running back as of right now.
Miami vs. FSU time has been announced
It’s officially Florida State vs. Miami week.
While matchups of yesteryear featured two teams with national championship aspirations, this year’s lost further luster after the Hurricanes fell to 6-3 on the season (2-3 ACC) in a 20-6 loss to the NC State Wolfpack.
Meanwhile, Florida State heads into the game 9-0 (7-0 ACC) with its spot in the ACC Championship Game officially clinched following its 24-7 road win over the Pitt Panthers.
The game, which was time-optioned ahead of this past weekend’s slate, has been announced as a 3:30 p.m. kickoff in Tallahassee set to be televised on ABC.
Miami opens as a two-score underdog vs. Florida State
According to the FanDuel Sportsbooks, Miami has opened as a 14-point underdog against the Seminoles with the over/under set at 51.5. FSU is still undefeated (9-0) with them coming off of a scary first half, but they ended up still getting the win against Pittsburgh, they ended up winning 24-7. Kickoff at Doak is scheduled for Saturday, Nov 11 at 3:30 p.m. EST on ABC.
So far this season, Miami (6-3) is 4-4-0 against the spread, failing to cover the spread in all of the most recent losses to Nc State, UNC, and Georgia Tech. UM also failed to cover the spread when they hosted Bethune Cookman in Week 3. Meanwhile, FSU is 6-2-0 against the spread this season and is undefeated at home.
Looking at ESPN’s Matchup Predictor, the analytics are giving FSU an 85.0 percent chance to beat Miami.
Five-star ’24 guard Jalil Bethea signs with Miami
Bethea averaged 23.2 points for Archbishop Wood this high school season en route to Pennsylvania Sports Writers’ All-State 6A team. On3 is higher than the industry on the four-star who is ranked No. 39 in the 2024 On3 Industry Ranking, an equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media services.
When it comes to what type of player Bethea is, he is a defense-first player who thrives when playing in transition. On the offensive side, Bethea is best off the ball, coming off of screens. coach Jim Larranaga has shown so far that athleticism is one of the things he is looking for.
“The whole recruitment process was like a dream come true for me,” Bethea told 247Sports. “As a young kid I always looked up to people in the pros that went to the schools I dreamed of going to. Now I’m basically living that life of becoming one of them.”
“Miami made me commit because of the relationship I have with Coach L (Larrañaga) and DJ (Irving). The love they’ve shown me shows they really care for me. Coach L is a really good dude. People see him on the court yelling at his players but off the court he’s a really cool dude. With DJ Irving I have a good relationship with him being from Philly and Team Final.”
Could Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson miss the Miami vs. Florida State Game coming up this Weekend?
In what could be the arguably biggest question mark headed into Saturday’s rivalry game between Miami and Florida State is the availability of the Seminoles’ top receivers Keon Colemand and Johnny Wilson. According to Seminoles head coach, Mike Norvell via his press conference the duo is questionable, but it sounds likely they will play even though Norvell is being non-committable on their status for the game this weekend. Is this gamesmanship from the coach or is he being sincere?
The Hurricanes will do so uncertain if Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson will take the field for the Seminoles. And if they don’t play that will be huge for the Hurricane’s defense, because Miami does have some struggles covering the passing game.
Johnny Wilson has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury, while Coleman was sidelined last Saturday in Florida State’s 24-7 win at Pittsburgh. With both sidelined, the win for the Noles was scary to say the least against Pittsburgh. Florida State came out of the gate sloppy going three and out multiple times. The struggles that their offense showed was a clear indication of what we already knew of how key of factors those two are in their offensive attack.
Mike Norvel stated “I do see us being in a much better spot,” Norvell said of the team’s receiver corps. “Coming out of last night’s practice, we had a lot more participation in it, guys being able to get out there and work, so we’ll see where the week goes.”
The Wooga Poplar Talk Is Real
The Watsco Center crowd is going to enjoy cheering for Wooga Poplar this season. Wooga had his highest career points on Monday against NJIT.
During Miami’s 101-60 season-opening win on Monday night over NJIT, Poplar gave the Hurricane’s Nation their first taste of what’s to come in 2023-24 whenever he hits the floor this season. He finished with an impressive stat line of 21 points (8-16 FG), three rebounds, one assists, and one block with two turnovers in just 23 minutes of action.
The Hurricane’s shot a whopping 54% from the field and 43% from behind the arc. Even Junior Norchad Omier got his share of threes. Omier was 2-2 from behind the three. Poplar had a career-high with 21 points that I just touched on; he was just part of Miami’s great night shooting the basketball. Poplar was also 5-9 from three-point range.
“He’s great. He’s him,” said Miami coach Jim Larreñaga. “The guy can shoot threes, his pull up jumper is amazing, he missed a few of them today but he’s a terrific player.”
Miami will be back in action on Friday 7:00 p.m. EST at Watsco center, and you can catch that game on ACCNX and ESPN+.
Also, if you want to see the post-game presser you can click on the video below provided by the Canes All Access YouTube channel. Wooga Poplar & Matthew Cleveland spoke to the media following the Canes win vs. NJIT. Then I also added a link below it that shows the post-game presser from Jim Larranaga.
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
