The Miami Hurricanes showed a lot of promise and hope during the ACC tournament last year, winning their first two games and getting out to an impressive first half start against Duke before eventually losing to the Blue Devils. Miami only lost two starters from last season, and have several incoming players that look to be strong contributors for the Hurricanes this season.

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The key for the Canes this year is to win more matchups against ACC opponents, as they finished with an ACC-worst 4-12 record in conference play last season. While the ACC is one of the toughest conferences in college basketball, the Hurricanes have the ability to finish high enough in the league to make an appearance in the NCAA tournament this season.

Miami only plays one non-conference game against a foe that is ranked in the preseason, and that game comes early on Nov. 16 at 19th-ranked Memphis. The Hurricanes could definitely use a win in this game, but the most important thing for them is to not slip up against their other non-conference opponents. The ‘Canes finished last season with a 16-1 record outside the ACC, but most of those wins came against weak teams and led to them getting beat up in ACC play.

Coach Frank Haith will look to Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant to help lead his inexperienced team in an effort to improve from last season. While they may not be competing to win the ACC this year, they should play some fairly entertaining basketball, as they have some of the best pure atheletes in the ACC.

Front Court: Julian Gamble and Reggie Johnson will be depended upon pretty heavily this year when it comes to defense and rebounding, as they look to fill the void that was left with the departure of Dewayne Collins when he went to the NBA after last season. At 6’9? and 6’10?, respectively, the duo is tall enough to match-up favorably against most of their opponents at the five. Both players need to make more of their shots this season, however, as Johnson shot 52% from the floor last year, while Gamble only shot 48% on his attempts.

DeQuan Jones is an exceedingly explosive forward with great speed and athletic ability. He is best known for his ability to finish and his dunking skills, but he will need to improve on his outside shooting this season. He shot a horrid 23% from beyond the arc last season, hitting only 6 of his 26 attempts from downtown.

Miami has Eric Swoope and Raphael Akpejiori joining their team this season. Swoope is another extremely athletic small forward that will be pushing Jones for minutes all season at the position. Akpejiori, at 6’9?, should be a sound contributor when it comes to rebounding, and at 230 lbs, should be a fairly strong player down low against smaller interior players.

Donnovan Kirk will also be returning to the ‘Canes after being receiving a medical red-shirt last season when he only played in four games. He will need to help pick up some of the slack on the boards on both sides of the floor this year.

Back Court: The Hurricanes’ success this season largely depends on their guard play, which is headlined by Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant. Both players are coming off impressive performances in the ACC tournament, and the hopes are fairly high for them this season as they will be looked upon as leaders on the floor.

Scott, a very effective guard who is extremely athletic and very good at finding open shooters, will be the floor leader for Miami. Putting up 10.3 points per night last year, and scoring in double figures in eight of their final nine contests, Scott should raise his scoring average this season. Their success will not only ride on his ability to score, but also on how well he distributes the ball and his effectiveness at getting everyone involved.

While Grant is smaller and shorter than Scott, he sees most of his time on the floor at shooting guard. Although he led the team with 3.5 assists per contest last year, he will need to focus more on scoring this season after averaging just under 10 points per game last year. If he can be a consistent point producer this year, Miami definitely could be one of the surprise teams to exceed their expectations.

Rion Brown will also play a key role in the Hurricanes back court. The freshman shooting guard from Georgia is a Top 100 prospect and should be highly productive for the Canes if he sees enough floor time this year.

Prediction-7th place in the ACC: Miami has some highly talented players on their roster, but unfortunately for them they play in a very deep conference that has last season’s national champions, the Duke Blue Devils, who they go up against twice this season.

If they can get solid contributions from all of their players, they could move up the standings a position or two. However, I can’t see Miami being able to make a jump into the top tier of the ACC and finishing ahead of any of the four teams currently ranked in the Top 25 . While Miami could potentially be a bubble team late in the year if they have an impressive run during conference play, it is unlikely they will actually land a spot in the tournament when all of the smoke clears.

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