Canes Continue To Tear Through ACC
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – When the Miami Hurricanes lost to Florida Gulf Coast University early in the season, no one could have expected what was to come. The Hurricanes have not lost in this calendar year, posting an undefeated record in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Miami continued that streak Wednesday night with a 78-64 win at Florida State. The Canes have played the Noles twice this year and beaten them by an average of 24 points, which has been the norm for many of the Canes' ACC games.
Miami established itself as a top team with a 37 point throttling of Duke at the Bank United Center on January 23 and followed that up with a 34 point shellacking of FSU on January 27. With the exception of one nail-biter against NC State, Miami hasn't been challenged in the month of February.
The Canes sit all alone at the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the upcoming schedule doesn't look like it has much to offer in the form of challenges to the Canes.
Looking ahead at the schedule, Miami plays Clemson, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Virginia Tech to close out the month of February. Clemson, Wake Forest, and Virginia Tech are all in the bottom half of the ACC.
Virginia is 18-6 on the season and 8-3 in conference and will be the toughest opponent Miami faces ahead of a March 2 rematch with the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Arena at Duke.
However, Miami is two games ahead of the Blue Devils in the ACC and with the Canes improving each week, it's not looking like that margin may close. Miami is undefeated this season when at full-strength, i.e. no players missing to injury.
Interestingly enough, even though Miami owns a head-to-head victory over the Blue Devils and are undefeated in ACC play, it's still not enough to elevate them above Duke in the human polls.
The one poll that matters, RPI, also has Miami slightly behind Duke at 1-2 in the rankings. The current RPI numbers separate the two schools by roughly 0.0114, but also has Miami with the toughest schedule in the country this year.
If Miami does have one weakness on the schedule this season, it's been games on a neutral site. The Canes are 0-2 on the season at a neutral site. However, UM hasn't been at full strength in a neutral site game this year.
Overall, Miami is averaging 70.6 points per game and allowing opponents to score just 59.4 points per game.
