Aloha Canes
By Tom Symonds
HurricaneSports.com
There’s a lot to smile about with the University of Miami men’s basketball team these days.
The Hurricanes are one of four undefeated teams in Division I (Arizona State, TCU and Villanova) through nine games, they have defeated their opponents by 20.7 points per game (fourth-best nationally), they are ranked sixth in the country and to top it all off they will spend the Christmas season in Hawai’i to take part in the annual Diamond Head Classic.
Could things get any better?
The Hurricanes certainly believe they can and they will look to prove it this week.
“This is really a business trip,” junior Anthony Lawrence II said. “We’re really just trying to win a tournament.”
Going to Hawai’i is nothing new to Lawrence. After all, he did take a trip out West to visit the Aloha state with his family when he was a kid.
What is new to the St. Petersburg, Fla., native is being 9-0 as a Miami Hurricane. Miami currently owns its best start to a season since the 2007-08 team opened the year 12 straight wins.
Although Lawrence is still plenty excited to go to Hawai’i – and who wouldn’t be – his true excitement lies with this year’s team.
“I feel like we are at a good spot right now,” Lawrence said. “It’s really up to us, but I really think that we can be a really good team. We’re great on defense and we have a lot of scorers, so with that, I think we can be really really good.”
Miami enters its matchup with Hawai’i after holding George Washington to just 15 first half points this past Saturday. The Hurricanes would go on to defeat the Colonials by nine (59-50) and in the process held their seventh opponent to fewer than 60 points.
As for those scorers Lawrence mentioned, Miami has them in bunches, as five Hurricanes average 10-or-more points per game. What’s even more impressive is four of those five individuals are underclassmen.
“We’ve been playing well,” Miami guard Bruce Brown said. “We’ve been playing together, everybody is chipping in and we’re doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Brown, who enters this week’s Diamond Head Classic averaging 10.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game this year, shares in Lawrence’s excitement about the prospects of this year’s team and knows that Miami has the talent to be an elite-level team.
“We’re a really good team, but we haven’t really been tested yet,” Brown said. “We haven’t been behind at all really this year. Hopefully that continues, we’ll see if we are behind in the future and how we react to that.”
If Miami does trail at any point this week in the Diamond Head Classic, it would be a rarity. Through the Canes’ first nine games, Miami has led for 310 minutes, 54 seconds of the 360 minutes it has played this season (86 percent of the time).
One of the main reasons for the Hurricanes’ early season success has been the addition of freshmen Lonnie Walker IV and Chris Lykes.
“They’re exciting,” Brown said. “Lonnie can really jump and Chris just ignites the crowd – he’s a real crowd pleaser.”
Walker and Lykes have combined to average 16.9 points per game off the bench and have both played significant roles in the Hurricanes fast start to the 2017-18 season, further continuing Miami’s most recent youth movement, as seven of Miami’s 10 active scholarship players are underclassmen.
“We’re a very young team, but we play hard, we play defense, we have a lot of weapons on the offense end and we’re just a very good team,” Lawrence said.
Although Miami has had a lot to smile about, even they know that things can change quickly – a fact that has not been lost on anyone’s mind as they head into play this week.
“I feel like we have a target on our back,” Lawrence said. “We’re a top 10 team and everybody wants to bring their best when they are playing against a highly ranked team. I feel like we have to bring it for every game because we know that every other team is going to bring their ‘A’ game.”
Although the Canes will be playing in paradise this week, they know that in order to keep the good times rolling they will need to continue their hard work even while playing on the sunny shores of Hawai’i.
“I don’t feel like we are at our peak right now,” Lawrence said. “I still think we have a lot of things to work on like getting more into the offense, being more aggressive in the first half and keeping that aggression up in the second half.”
Following Miami’s matchup with Hawai’i on Friday, the Hurricanes will face either Davidson (4-4) or New Mexico State (9-2) on Saturday.
ESPNU will televise the Canes’ opening game against Hawai’i, while every UM game in the tournament airs on either ESPN2 or ESPNU. WQAM 560-AM has the local radio broadcasts for all three Miami games.
To keep up with the University of Miami men’s basketball team on social media, follow @CanesHoops on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
