Miami Hurricanes headed to Sweet 16 for second year in row after 85-69 win over Indiana
The Miami Hurricanes are headed to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row after overwhelming Indiana with their speed, athleticism, and spirit. They played with no fear and unbridled joy and came away with an 85-69 victory.
They are headed to Kansas City to play top seed Houston on Friday at 7:15 p.m.. It is the first time in school history Miami made back to back Sweet 16s and the fourth time in the 12 years since Jim Larranaga took over as coach.
Guard Isaiah Wong, the ACC Player of the Year, made up for a subpar game in the first round with a spectacular performance against the Hoosiers. He led the Hurricanes with a game-high 27 points, and he scored every imaginable way. He drove. He hit jumpers and floaters. And he dunked.
“Great players don’t always have great games, I’m very confident Isaiah will have a great game (Sunday),” Larranaga said before the game, when asked how he thought Wong would respond. Wong was limited to five points on 1-of-10 shooting against Drake.
“It’s an honor to be in this program, with the history we have,” Wong said. “I’m appreciative and I just love this team. I feel like I didn’t play to my full potential the last game, my team gave me another chance to perform and I appreciate them for that.”
When it was all over, Larranaga and his players ran across the court to celebrate with their small, but spirited fan contingent.
“You’ve gotta give Miami a lot of credit. They played their butts off,” said Indiana coach Mike Woodson. “It was a well-coached game and I thought they were the better team, they showed it first half and second half. That coach has done a hell of a job with that team for many years, and that team tonight competed and played their asses off, and that’s why I’m sitting here going home and they’re moving forward. That team was pretty damn good.”
The Hurricanes, who sputtered early in the first round against Drake, came out flying against the Hoosiers, hitting nine of their first 12 shots. Miami led by 13 early in the half, and quieted the majority of the MVP Arena fans, who were decked out in red and white candy stripes.
“I had a feeling we would play very well because of the way we played against Drake,” Larranaga said. “Our guys were not happy with the way we played against Drake.”
Wooga Poplar got the UM scoring surge started with a second-chance jumper on the opening possession, then grabbed a defensive rebound off an IU miss and got the ball to Nijel Pack, who knocked in a jumper to make it 4-0 in the first minute. Another Poplar basket and a dunk by Norchad Omier put the Hurricanes up 8-0 while the Hoosiers missed their first four shots.
Pack is an Indianapolis native and played high school and AAU ball with several IU players, so he was especially motivated to show what he could do against a school that passed him over.
By halftime, Pack had 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Pack finished the night game with 12 points.
“It was a childhood dream to be in this tournament, and getting to play your home school is obviously an amazing experience,” Pack said. “It was our first stop, but we have plenty more stops to go. It’s been a lot of fun playing with my guys and winning is the most fun.”
Jordan Miller had 19 points and Omier had seven points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Indiana All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis, a projected NBA lottery pick, led the Hoosiers with 23 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino added 19.
“Jackson-Davis is unguardable one on one, so we basically put our whole team on him,” Larranaga said. “I thought we did a terrific job of that.”
The Indiana star said before the game that the key to beating Miami was slowing the Hurricanes down.
Miami’s high-octane offense led the ACC with 80.1 points per game and the Hoosiers tended to struggle against quick guards in transition.
“They’re probably one of the best, if not the best, offenses in the ACC, averaging over 80 points a game, they get out in transition, shoot a lot of threes in transition,” Jackson-Davis said of Miami. “We need to limit transition runs and not let them speed us up. That’s the biggest thing. Games in the 60s for us is a lot better than games in the 70s and 80s.”
The Canes scored 85 points against Indiana, their highest output in an NCAA Tournament game, and IU paid the price.
The Hurricanes were coming off their weakest offensive output of the year in the first-round win over Drake. They set season lows in points (63), field-goal percentage (30.4), made field goals (18) and points in a half (25).
It was a different story on Sunday night.
Miami outscored IU 46-28 in the paint, 29-11 in second chance points and 15-6 on fast breaks. The Hurricanes outrebounded the Hoosiers 42-26. Miami led the whole first half until a 13-0 Indiana run gave the Hoosiers a brief lead. Miller then made a few acrobatic layups to spark Miami’s final run.
Asked if he felt Miami was still underrated, Miller said: “Winning is a way to get recognition. We don’t care what the media says. Going to the Sweet 16, that’s a lot of recognition.”
The only negative news from the Miami locker room was that Poplar landed on his tailbone while chasing a rebound. “I told him he has to spend the next week nursing that,” Larranaga said. “We’re going to give him some tender loving care and hopefully he’ll be back before too long.”
The team was scheduled to fly back to Miami Monday morning.
This story was originally published March 19, 2023 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Miami Hurricanes headed to Sweet 16 for second year in row after 85-69 win over Indiana."