Jim Larranaga explains why Miami's loss to Alabama was a pivotal moment

The Miami Hurricanes need just one more win to reach the Final Four. Miami goes up against Kansas on Sunday afternoon in the Elite Eight, and the winner will become the Midwest Region champion and face Villanova in the Final Four next weekend. The trip to this point in the season has been an up-and-down rollercoaster for Miami, and head coach Jim Larranaga believes that it all started with an early season loss against Alabama.

Miami started the year 3-2, and entered a late November matchup against Alabama in major need of a victory. Instead, the Crimson Tide dominated the game from start to finish, handing the Hurricanes a 96-64 loss. While the loss to Alabama was a tough blow at the time, Miami has been a completely different team ever since.

On Sunday morning, Larranaga joined ESPN’s College GameDay and broke down Miami’s changes this season, and pointed to the Alabama loss as a turning point during the year.

“My staff and I sat down last summer and looked at all the ACC rosters and realized how much bigger, thicker, and heavier our opponents were,” Larranaga said. “So we decided with Sam Waardenburg being our five man, a stretch five, we could stretch the floor. We’ve got really good guards in Charlie Moore, Kam McGusty, Isaiah Wong, and Jordan Miller and play a five out offense. But in order to make that work defensively, we put in the scramble defense and tried to create more turnovers. It took us a while to do it, but after that Alabama loss, the guys really came together.”

Miami went on an impressive streak following the Alabama loss

Following Miami’s loss to Alabama, the Hurricanes rebounded extremely well with a nine-game winning streak, which included impressive wins over Duke and Wake Forest, among others. The Hurricanes eventually reached 16-5 on the season and started 8-2 against ACC opponents.

Miami also lost two in a row in early February, but responded with a three-game winning streak to reach 19-7. The Hurricanes won a game in the ACC Tournament, defeated Boston College in overtime. Duke then defeated Miami in a close battle in the following round.

Ultimately, Miami entered the NCAA Tournament with a 23-10 overall record. Now, the Hurricanes are in a position to advance to the Final Four. That is something that likely wasn’t on many people’s radars once Miami lost to Alabama earlier in the season, but Larranaga has done a great job at getting his team to turn it around.

Miami and Kansas tip off at 2:20 p.m. ET on Sunday.