The Miami Hurricanes were embarrassed on national TV Monday night, failing to score 40 points against Virginia. Both teams were battling to get their season back on track. The Hurricanes, a team built around NIL and transfers, and another team, the Cavaliers, built the traditional way through player development.
The Hurricanes spent a lot of money on their roster and if they miss the tournament it’s frankly unacceptable. This further proves the point college basketball free agency isn’t a reliable option and paying to rebuild your roster isn’t always the best option.
The Hurricanes paid a hefty price for this roster. Nijel Pack had the NIL deal that broke the internet; he is making 800k for two years at Miami. Not only that, star center Norchad Omier is making around 325k this season. If you have two players making that much money, you better be winning some ball games.
I think people are starting to realize you can’t build your entire roster off the transfer portal. There still has to be some young talent coming in through high school to develop and establish the culture. Losing Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong to the NBA was going to hurt, but the Hurricanes thought of replacing them with Matthew Cleveland and Pack. This hasn’t worked out, though. Both of them don’t translate to winning basketball. Pack legitimately just chucks up threes. Cleveland is a turnover machine and was completely useless against UVA. Cleveland is having the best season of his career but he’s still not remotely consistent. There is hope but it rests on the shoulders of Wooga Poplar.
Poplar, a junior who’s developed through the program, seemed like he was the perfect replacement for Wong. He was lighting everyone up once the season began and shooting up draft boards. The Hurricanes then shot up to the 8th-ranked team in the country. Poplar’s injury derailed everything and they haven’t been able to get going. The emergence of freshman Kyshawn George was able to lift the Hurricanes; he was averaging over 10 PPG before he got hurt in the first minute of the Virginia game. This leads us to another massive issue: the injury plagues that stormed over Miami.
Poplar has missed time, Omier has missed time, and now it seems like George will miss some time, too. Leaving two guys to shoulder the load while these guys try to get fully healthy will be hard. The Canes are in trouble. If Cleveland can’t step up on defense and be more consistent with the ball, this season officially is a wash. So let’s look at the horizon.
Next year’s Miami squad might be way better than this team. You’ll be able to return George, Poplar (as long as he doesn’t declare for the draft), and Omier. But thinking about next season this early on may be a little premature but this Canes team is spiraling with no end in sight.
Spiraling just like a hurricane… no pun intended.