Miami would love to earn a wire-to-wire win at Louisville in Wednesday night’s Atlantic Coast Conference clash.
But if a rally is required, the Hurricanes (18-7, 10-4) can take out the Cardinals (11-13, 5-9) that way, too.
Miami already has won four games this season by rallying from at least 13 points. It happened again Saturday in a 76-72 victory at Wake Forest.
“As a team, we stick together through it all,” Miami guard Charlie Moore said. “Especially in tough environments like Wake Forest.”
Louisville is another tough environment, at least for the Hurricanes, who are 0-6 when visiting the Cardinals.
This is not a typical Louisville team, however. The Cardinals enter Wednesday’s game on a six-game losing streak. They have lost nine of their past 10, and head coach Chris Mack was fired last month, replaced on an interim basis by his former assistant, Mike Pegues.
In last week’s 63-57 loss at Notre Dame, Pegues said he shortened his rotation in the second half.
“I’m only going to play guys who are getting after it,” he said.
Without any scorers averaging in double figures, Pegues made it clear that effort and defense are going to be the keys to playing-time decisions.
In the loss to the Fighting Irish, four Cardinals players played at least 30 minutes: Jae’Lyn Withers, who scored 20 points; El Ellis (13 points); Dre Davis (10 points) and Jarrod West (team-high three assists and zero turnovers).
Of those four, Davis is known as a defensive stopper, and West is the all-time steals leader at Marshall. Ellis came to Louisville as a two-time junior-college All-American, and Withers is making 55.4 percent of his two-point shots.
Look for Noah Locke, the Cards’ most prolific 3-point shooter, to get starter minutes. But it remains to be seen what happens with Matt Cross, a Miami transfer who has not had a great season, or Malik Williams, who was benched for the entire second half against Notre Dame.
The Canes are 6-2 in road games this season, which is better than Louisville’s 7-6 home record.
Miami’s key to victory is its defense, which has produced double-digit steals in eight of its past 11 games. In the win at Wake, the Hurricanes had a decisive 19-0 edge in points off turnovers.
–Field Level Media