Dave Hyde: Miami found its best against Missouri — and needs it versus Purdue
The only issue, of course, is if the Miami Hurricanes start Sunday like it ended Friday. No one knows if it will. The only thing certain about all this basketball madness in March is nothing whatsoever is certain.
The next, bigger stage for Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday is against a stronger, bigger Purdue team. The only thing Miami can count is some of the boos directed at them will go away in the manner Missouri did in the staggering final minutes Friday night.
That finish to Miami’s 80-66 win is what Miami coach Jai Lucas meant when he said last week, “We haven’t played our best yet.”
Because there was Miami’s best for everyone to see in a way that will make Missouri wonder what happened in those final moments. Miami trailed with seven minutes left. It led by five with just over three minutes left.
Then it left Missouri and its cacophonous fan base behind in a puff of dust and storm of scoring from forward Malik Reneau and guard Tre Donaldson, who had 17 of Miami’s final 23 points.
“Everybody was telling me to be patient and let the game come to you,” said Reneau, who finished with 24 points. “I think I did very well at that. Early, the shots I think I was just over hyped with my shots and pushing it too hard and falling short.”
It can come down to that this time of year, a proven player of a full team suddenly walking the tightrope between energy and nervousness, winning and shaking a lot of hands or going off to the summer. It also can come down to less controllable items like running into the wrong venue.
For a while Friday, St. Louis looked like that kind of arena. It was only two hours from Missouri, and the game sounded like the entire Columbia campus came for the night.
“We had a good idea coming into the game what we were going to see in the stands,” said Donaldson, who finished with 17 points. “Coach’s biggest thing is just treat it like a normal road game. Don’t try to overcomplicate it, do nothing different.
“We’ve won some of these and that’s what we gotta go do tonight.”
It’ll change by degrees Sunday, Purdue being geographically further but passionately louder about this season. The second seed won the Big Ten tournament before beating 15th-seed Queens on Friday, 104-71. The news there was Purdue guard Braden Smith had a team-high 26 points and became the Division I career assists leader.
So, there’s where Miami’s homework starts for this game. It handled Missouri’s 6 foot 9 guard Mark Mitchell on Friday with a little strategic shift. Lucas put 7-foot Ernest Udeh on Mitchell, who scored 19 points but was quiet as Miami took over the finish.
“It was just trying to make it as hard as possible (for Mitchell), Lucas said. “We started with size. We wanted to put somebody a little bit bigger on him. And then every time he got in the paint, we wanted him to at least see two people.”
Miami stayed true to its season by having 16 offensive rebounds to Missouri’s seven. The surprise was the ACC’s worst 3-point shooting team made 11 of 24 on Friday. It continued a rare season, this band of entirely new players and coaches tying an NCAA record with 19 more wins than the previous season.
Now comes Purdue.
“We know what we’re up against,” Lucas said.
The tournament began, as it always does, with some fun fireworks like High Point advancing by Wisconsin and even Virginia Commonwealth beating North Carolina. Miami advancing to play Purdue is what the seedings predicted. It’s not about Cinderella or glass slippers so much as big finishes and big moments now.
The question now is if Miami can step up in weight class Sunday and bring its final moments of Friday’s win with them.
