Everything Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga Said After Season Opening Win
The Miami Hurricanes Men's basketball team played like they had a point to prove in last night's historic victory against Fairleigh Dickinson. The Hurricanes scored 113 points, the most since the 1989 season, and did it inside the paint.
Head coach Jim Larranaga was happy with the performance but still believed things could be improved and cleaned up as they have high expectations for themselves this season.
Opening Statement...
"So in our preparation for getting ready for this game tonight we told the team the emphasis was that they were 15th in the country last year in tempo meaning it was going to be a race and if they outran us they would win, if we outran them we'd win and fortunately for us we ran very, very well, very efficiently. We shared the ball very well and had a hard time stopping them though. They shot 50 percent in the first half and 46 percent from 3 so it wasn't like our defense was locked down, but we just kept scoring at a high rate."
On Lynn Kidd..
"I'm hoping he'll play like that all year long. He's not going to always get the ball that easily, the court was wide open for him, but he's very efficient inside and has been all summer and fall so we're very, very pleased with his performance. I like that he rebounded. He had nine rebounds and that's really important. He and Brandon (Johnson) really do a good job of playing well together."
On Divine Ugochukwu...
"We were going to redshirt him. We thought he was a guy that would be good on the scout team, but he just has impressed us and keeps getting better and better and you saw what he did today. I think his size, speed, athletic ability and ability to get the ball to the rim is very, very good. "
On the team meshing together...
"I think what helps us is the speed of the game because then I can utilize my bench and you saw the bench scored 39 points. We have never had that, but you can't do that unless guys are running fast and playing hard and need rest like Nijel bringing the ball up the whole game against pressure full-court pressure so he needs a rest so he can play at the top of his game and Divine was able to give it to him and so those three freshmen Divine, Jalil and Austin were able to give some guys some quality rest plus we had Matt Cleveland and Paul Djobet off the bench and those two guys are experienced veterans, but Matt is just coming back. He missed 17 days of practices and he's played very well. He had four dunks, that's pretty unusual when you come back."
On the defense...
"We ended up forcing 15 turnovers, which is good, but we need to do a better job of recognizing what the opponent is trying to do and then make that job difficult. So for a couple of guys like Dylan Jones, he was 5 for 10 from 3 and we told our guys, their guys are going to shoot a lot of 3s, and he's really good if you don't get out there and make a miss, he'll make it. And he did. On the other hand, some of the other guys like Terrence Brown, he's a great driver, right-hand layups, left-hand layups, getting in the paint. And he ends up with 18 points on 14 shots, so he was very effective. We're going to have to identify the opponent's strengths and try to minimize those."
On if it was a point of emphasis to get shots in the paint..
"No, our strategy has always been the same, we want balance. We want to score inside, we want to score outside. So I think if Brandon Johnson had not got into early foul trouble, he would have scored the ball more effectively as well. He ended up with only seven points, but he had nine rebounds and played in only 20 minutes, and I think he's going to be a very big key for us."
On Lynn Kidd's ability in the paint so score with his left hand...
"I think that the thing is every opponent is different. Some people might front, some people might trap them. We have just got to see and we're preparing for all those things. But until you play against a team that does it well and they do it all the time, you just don't know how our players will respond, but hopefully good."
On Nijel Pack...
"He's our leader. At time outs, I said to him, hey, what do you want to run because he's the quarterback. He's our Tom Brady."
On Jalen Blackmon...
"I thought Jalen was very effective. I think he and Nijel played very well together. The issue for them is neither one of them is a big rebounder. You see Jalen had one rebound, Nijel had two. They have size and they're not rebounders. They don't think rebound. So as we play against bigger teams, we're going to have to make some decisions."
On Paul Djobet...
"His energy level and contribution at both ends. He had a very important job tonight. When Brandon got in foul trouble, Paul had to take his place and play at the 4."
On if Lynn Kidd is better than he thought...
"No. Again, you're only talking about one game. So we need a much larger sample size to see how teams will defend him. But in practice, I told you, he's shooting 70-something percent in practice. So what you saw tonight was he went 10 for 11. In practice, he goes like 10 for 12."
