Jim Larranaga says comeback over Drake is 'a great win' as Miami advances to Round of 32

The Miami men’s basketball team overcome quite a bit — namely their own anemic offense to start — to pull out a win over Drake in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. And with time winding down in the second half, the Hurricanes had to overcome a big deficit.

With just more than five minutes to play, Miami trailed 55-47. They ended the game on a 16-1 run, fueled largely by a switch to some full-court pressure late in the game and won, 63-56.

“We went to the full court pressure, it seemed to bother them just enough,” Larranaga said. “Got a turnover, got a steal and a 3. And these games come down to one or two possessions.”

Leading the scoring charge in the comeback for Miami were Nijel Pack (21 points) and Wooga Poplar (15). And Larranaga was thoroughly impressed with how his team overcame a stout defense.

“I really have a lot of faith in my guys, AJ,” Larranaga said to sideline reporter AJ Ross. “And we needed to figure some things out at halftime, we did. Nijel Pack, Wooga Poplar, they really stepped up. And we made some free throws down the stretch. It’s a great win. That’s the best defensive team I think we’ve faced this year.”

The late game surge was a notable departure from the offensive malaise that took over Miami during much of the game. Early on, it had the head coach frustrated.

With the Hurricanes trailing 9-8 at the under 12 media timeout, Larranga was not pleased.

The Hurricanes are normally one of the best offensive teams in the country. But on Friday they were having an easier time turning it over than making a shot early on.

“We’re doing everything we said we shouldn’t do. We’re turning the ball over. We told them one dribble, kick. They’re taking two dribbles, turning it over. We’ve got to calm down. We’re so pumped up. We want to play hard, but we want to play much smarter,” Larranaga said.

Miami also got a strong contribution from Norchad Omier, who was questionable in the week leading up to the game with an ankle injury. He ended up playing and providing a big boost defensively while scoring 12 points and hauling down 14 rebounds.

On Monday, Larranaga had been non-committal about Omier playing.

“There’s really no update at this point,” said Larranaga. “We’ve got our fingers crossed and we wish him the best but we’ve got to prepare both ways. We’ll have him or we don’t have him. Because we don’t know what his status will be for quite a while.”