Jim Larranaga 'happy we got the win' vs. La Salle, shouts out Wooga Poplar

After stewing in a brutal 27-point neutral site loss against Colorado for the last week, Miami desperately needed to get back in the win column and did just that on Saturday, defeating La Salle in a hard-fought matchup.

Hurricane head coach Jim Larranaga has a lot of respect for La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy and was complimentary of the performance the Explorers put on vs. his club.

“Well, here’s the game: they’re a very good team, 8-2, played very well,” said Larranaga to The CW afterwards. In regards to his own team, Larranaga believed turnovers dictated the ups and downs.

“We played very well for parts of the game. But when we started in the second half, we had only turnovers in the first half, we had in the first five minutes! And then in the last 15 minutes, we only had one. So the turnovers were a huge factor and enabled them to get back in the game.”

After the beating Miami took against Colorado, Larranaga was happy to have the win, no matter how it played out.

“So I’m just happy we got the win because coming off of the debacle in the Barclays Center against Colorado, I’m just happy the guys are able to pull this out today.”

Even with the win that he’s happy to have, Coach Larranaga has his complaints. To start, he harped on the team’s need to gang rebound given their lineup limitations.

“It’s up on the game plan every time. We’re a small team, we need guys to rebound, not just Norchad (Omier),” said the Miami coach, calling out players by name.

“Matt Cleveland needs to rebound, our guards need to rebound, Wooga (Poplar), you know, Bensley (Joseph). Those guys are athletes, they can go up above the rim easily so they should be chasing down rebounds, getting stops for us. Our defense sometimes is pretty good, and then the offense gets the rebound and scores off the second time.”

Speaking of Poplar, Larranaga’s final topic of discussion was his star player’s terrific game. The bouncy veteran wing is growing more and more consistent in his first season as the No. 1 option for the ‘Canes.

“Some of the times when he goes to the basket and thinks he’s gonna dunk, I mean, he elevates at the highest level and can throw it down or can finger roll it.

“He’s a tremendous athlete, he’s a great three-point shooter, he had 25 today. All we want him to do is be consistent and he’s starting to do that. Because we’ve played 10 games now, and for the most part, seven of those 10 games, he’s been very good.”