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Miami basketball ranked No. 9 in Lindy's Preseason Top 25 – 247Sports
The Miami Hurricanes are looking for another strong season after their first Final Four appearance.
Miami is ranked No. 9 in the Lindy’s Preseason Top 25 and are projected to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year.
“People suggested (Jim) Larranaga was head to Coral Gables to retire when the took the job post-George Mason magic,” Lindy’s wrote. “That was 12 years ago and he’s now the school’s all-time winningest coach with as many NCAA Tourney berths as all others combined. His team will be ready to swing come March.”
Norchad Omier ranks No. 16 in the Lindy’s 150 ranking the best college basketball players based on how they are expected to produce this season. Omier was also an All-Conference First Team selection, joining Virginia’s Reece Beekman, North Carolina’s Armando Bacot, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski and Clemson’s PJ Hall.
Nijel Pack checked in at No. 38 and on the All-Conference Second Team as Miami and North Carolina (Armando Bacot, No. 2 and RJ Davis, No. 26) are the only two ACC teams with two top-50 players. Matthew Cleveland was No. 101 and on the All-Conference Third Team.
Duke, the preseason No. 2 team, is projected to win the ACC with Miami second followed by North Carolina, Virginia and Wake Forest, which are projected to be NCAA Tournament teams while the ACC is considered the fifth-best conference behind the Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Big East.
“Larranaga doesn’t have to sell his program all that much these days–his team’s success does it for him,” Jeff Greer wrote. “The Canes are doing one of the hardest things to do in college sports: building a sustained winner. The 2022 Elite Eight was no flash in the pan; the Final Four run a year later proved that. Now Larranaga has the tools to stay among the sport’s best and compete for back-to-back regular-season ACC titles. The key will be steps forward from (AJ) Casey, (Bensley) Joseph and (Wooga) Poplar and any contributions from the freshmen. But he has Cleveland, Omier and Pack leading the charge, so Larranaga has plenty of reasons to smile.”
Miami has games scheduled against four of the preseason Top 25 teams as they will host No. 2 Duke on Feb. 21, play at No. 18 Kentucky on Nov. 28, face No. 20 Colorado on Dec. 10 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and host No. 21 North Carolina on Feb. 10 and play again in Chapel Hill on Feb. 26.
Miami hosts TCNJ on Oct. 29 for an exhibition game before starting the regular season on Nov. 6 against NJIT.
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Christopher Stock has covered the Miami Hurricanes since 2003 and can be reached by e-mail at stock@insidetheu.com and on Twitter @InsideTheU.
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