First Scouting Report: Against Miami, UK will face huge test in ACC/SEC Challenge
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Game day: No. 16 Kentucky 118, Marshall 82
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Marshall in Rupp Arena.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 16 Kentucky (5-1) will face No. 10 Miami (5-0) on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. and be broadcast on ESPN.
Miami will enter the game off a layoff of more than a week. The Hurricanes last played on Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, when they beat Georgia 79-68 and Kansas State 91-83, respectively, to win the Baha Mar Bahamas Hoops Championship.
Series history
Kentucky’s leads the all-time series with Miami 3-1.
UK head man John Calipari has never faced Miami as Wildcats coach.
Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga is 1-0 against Kentucky as a head man. When coaching Bowling Green, Larranaga recorded a 56-54 win over Eddie Sutton’s Wildcats in the semifinals of the 1988-89 UKIT before 20,875 fans at Rupp Arena.
The following night, Larranaga’s Falcons were blasted 80-51 by Arkansas State in the UKIT championship game, while Kentucky defeated Marshall 91-78 in the consolation contest.
Most recent meeting
Jack McClinton scored 23 points and James Dews added 18 as No. 23 Miami scored a 73-67 victory over Kentucky before 24,109 fans at Rupp Arena on Dec. 6, 2008.
Sophomore forward Patrick Patterson led coach Billy Gillispie’s Wildcats with 19 points, 16 rebounds and four assists.
Know your foe
1. Without abundant fanfare, Jim Larranaga has built Miami into a high-level basketball program. The Hurricanes have advanced to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in each of the past two seasons. Miami is the only program in Division I men’s college basketball who can make that claim.
Last season, Miami reached the Final Four for the first time in school history. The Hurricanes fell 72-59 to eventual national champion Connecticut in the national semifinals.
Larranaga, of course, was also the coaching architect of George Mason’s improbable run to the 2006 Final Four as a No. 11 seed.
2. Miami returns three starters from its Final Four team. Through five games, all three are performing well this season.
Small forward Wooga Poplar is leading the Hurricanes in scoring (18.0 points) and has hit 19 of 32 3-point attempts. Point guard Nijel Pack, the Kansas State transfer, is averaging 16.0 points, 4.0 assists and is making 39.3% of his 3-point shots.
An undersized post player at (a listed) 6-foot-7, 240 pounds, Norchad Omier is averaging 15.8 points and 9.2 rebounds.
A native of Bluefields, Nicaragua, Omier has averaged a points/rebounds double-double in each of his three prior seasons of college hoops — last season at Miami and his first two years in which he played at Arkansas State.
3. Miami’s high-impact newcomer in 2023-24 is expected to be Florida State transfer Matthew Cleveland. A 6-7, 208-pound junior, Cleveland averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds last season for FSU.
Through five games with his new team, Cleveland is averaging 16.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and is shooting 62.7% (31-for-52) from the field and 50% (7-for-14) on treys.
This story was originally published November 24, 2023 at 8:58 PM.
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