Miami-FL Hurricanes at No. 23 Virginia Cavaliers
Saturday, 1/7/12, 6:00 PM EST, TV: ESPNU
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Miami has won six of the last seven games in this series and tallied a pair of overtime victories against Virginia during the 2010-11 campaign. The Hurricanes have lost seven in a row to ranked teams, including a 71-54 defeat to the Memphis Tigers on Dec. 6. Offensively, the team has been shooting the ball great the past three games, but head coach Jim Larranaga wants the roster to focus on playing hard on the defensive end. “In the past, we have had one guy playing hard, maybe two games,” he stated after the team’s 99-89 win over UNC-Greensboro on Jan. 2.
The Hurricanes have shot 55.7 percent from the field the past four games, including a 48 percent mark from beyond the arc. Miami has seven players shooting better than 50 percent over that span. Malcom Grant has really been on a roll over the past 10 games, reaching double figures in points. He has become the program’s 32nd player to score 1,000 points in a career. Sammy Zeglinski is another player to watch on the perimeter, hitting 23 of 48 shots from three-point range since the beginning of December.
Virginia will look to win its ACC opener for the fourth consecutive year and enter this particular contest on an 11-game winning streak, the longest for the program since the 1992-93 season. The Cavaliers are coming off a solid 57-52 win over the LSU Tigers as 2.5-point road favorites, while the ‘under’ has cashed in the last four opportunities. Senior forward Mike Scott was happy with his teammate’s effort against a quality team. “They are similar to us,” he stated after the game. “I felt this game was like the start of ACC play.”
The Cavaliers are second nationally in allowing just 50.4 points per game and held each of their first 10 opponents to under 60 points. Virginia will certainly want to hit the 70-point mark in this contest, posting a 22-2 record when doing so under the direction of head coach Tony Bennett. All of the team’s top four scorers are shooting 80 percent or better from the free throw line. Senior forward Mike Scott is averaging 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
Bettors will likely back the Cavaliers due to the favorite covering four of the last five meetings, while the Hurricanes are 1-6-1 ATS when playing on Saturday.
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