By Kevin Perez
On Saturday Night, the Miami Hurricanes Men’s Basketball team beat the Pittsburgh Panthers 78-76 to win the ACC regular season championship. Miami shares the title with Virginia.
This is the program’s second ACC regular-season title. With the win, they are also the number one seed in the upcoming ACC tournament.
The Hurricanes finished their season 24-6, marking one of their best records in program history. The ‘Canes only lost one game at home, finishing 16-1 at the Watsco Center, 7-4 on the road, and 15-5 in conference play.
Those numbers mark program records for the ‘Canes with most wins at home, 16, and tied records for both total regular season wins at 24 and conference wins at 15.
Miami had their fair share of notable wins this season with victories over Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Duke. The ‘Canes were almost near perfect at home, but dropped a heartbreaker to Florida State last weekend on a buzzer beater, something that surely fueled the victory over the Panthers last night.
The title win for the Canes culminates an exciting season for the basketball program following an Elite-Eight appearance in last year’s NCAA tournament.
Prior to the season, the Canes were fourth in the ACC Preseason Media Poll. Placed ahead of them were North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia, Miami finished ahead of them all in the final standings followed by Virginia.
The Canes hope to continue grinding day in and day out as they prepare for the upcoming tournaments.
“As the regular season’s a marathon, the tournaments, ACC and NCAA are sprints… Win and advance. Lose and go home. You’ve got to be ready for everyone.” said head coach Jim Larranaga in a quote obtained by the Miami Herald.
Miami’s season is set to continue on Thursday with the ACC tournament. The Canes have the first seed and play the winner of Wake Forest and Syracuse who play on Wednesday.
In terms of “March Madness”, the Canes can punch their ticket into the NCAA tournament by winning the ACC bracket or by receiving an “at large bid” from the tournament’s selection committee.
