With recent NBA Draft and transfer portal decisions coming down, a team who made waves with their surprising March run is gearing up to contend for an ACC title in the league’s first year post-Krzyzewski. With a mix of experience and talent, the flawed but grizzled squad is going to be a headache from day one and could ignite what some have recently called a sleeping giant in America’s southeast. Yes, Jim Larrañaga’s Miami Hurricanes are here to play ball. On and off the court.
This afternoon, Norchard Omier, a 6’7” force for Arkansas State this past year in the Sun Belt, committed to the Canes. He’s currently the fourth-ranked player in the portal, per EvanMiya, he’s got three years of eligibility remaining, and his defense-first style and rebounding might directly address the 2021-22 Hurricanes’ two biggest weaknesses, while also serving as a great compliment to Nijel Pack, the Kansas State guard who announced late last week that he’ll also be transferring to Miami (he’ll reportedly earn $800,000 in an NIL deal, in what’s been oddly widely reported but is of major interest). Pack, like Omier, is a top-ten transfer talent, better on paper than Andre Curbelo and Emoni Bates and Dawson Garcia and other bigger names. Miami got two absolute studs. And while the team’s losing three or four starters, Omier and Pack are a net improvement over the players they replace, with a strong recruiting class on its way in and the possibility remaining that Miami isn’t done yet in the portal.
It’s possible the necessary depth won’t materialize, and it’s possible the team won’t mesh, and it’s possible a number of other things will go wrong and this won’t work out. But even if it doesn’t work out this year, Miami’s now-proven ability to get guys in the portal is a significant development in the college basketball world. NIL is, in theory, tailor made for an athletic department like Miami. It’s looking that way in practice as well.
UNC: The Band Is Back Together
Caleb Love and RJ Davis are coming back to North Carolina, joining Armando Bacot Jr. and Leaky Black as the Tar Heels try to reprise their national championship game appearance. They should be good. They should be really, really good. But it’s worth remembering that UNC finished the year 16th in KenPom, and while KenPom isn’t everything, it’s also the best publicly available metric for predicting how well a team will play in its next game, which is exactly what we want to measure in this case with UNC. If Texas or Saint Mary’s were bringing back four of five starters, would there be hype? Or is this circumstantial because the team played so well down the stretch?
Portal Roundup – Non-Iowa State
Might be missing something, but as far as I can tell, this is the biggest news surrounding the portal since we last did this:
- Kendric Davis, EvanMiya’s top-ranked transfer, is going across the AAC to Memphis.
- Baylor Scheierman, one of the best scorers in the country last year out of South Dakota State, has entered the portal in case he decides to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft.
- Yuri Collins has reversed course and will stay at SLU.
- Juwan Gary, the forward from Alabama, has committed to Nebraska. Was Fred Hoiberg helped or hurt by the removal of the one year of sitting out? Worth asking sometime (possibly tomorrow—stay tuned, fellow Hoiberg fans).
- Isaac Likekele, longtime Oklahoma State guard, is entering the portal.
- Outgoing Memphis wing Landers Nolley has narrowed his list to Texas A&M, Cincinnati, and NC State.
- Mississippi State forward Andersson Garcia has entered the portal.
Portal Roundup – Iowa State
Blake Hinson (remember him?) is headed to Pitt, Tristan Enaruna is headed to Cleveland State. ISU missed out on Ben Vander Plas, who committed to Virginia. Hoping for a point guard, still. Would also like another big man. Call me greedy.
In the big ISU-adjacent news, Tyrese Hunter’s top six is Tennessee, Kansas, Louisville, Gonzaga, Texas, and Purdue, which is—aside from Purdue and Louisville if you squint—an understandable list. You don’t want ISU to lose guys to Texas or Tennessee, but those at least make sense given where each program’s presently at, and you’re likely never going to be able to stop Kansas or Gonzaga from plucking players. Honestly, you could do worse than being a Gonzaga feeder program, even as a high-major with aspirations of title contention. Gonzaga’s a whole different animal right now, and the gap between where Iowa State would like to be and where Gonzaga is looks comparable to the one between where, say, Utah is in football and where Alabama is.
If Hunter does go to Texas or Kansas, I really hope Cyclone fans treat him with the appreciation he deserves when he returns to Ames. Boos for Tyrese Hunter would break this blogger’s heart.
The Cubs Play Tonight
It’s a 6:20 PM start, Central Time, and it kicks off a three-game set in Atlanta against the struggling (for the moment) defending champions. Atlanta’s a half-game back of the Cubs in the “Wild Card race,” and trails the Cubs by roughly two runs per game in differential. (Hilariously, the Cubs are fourth in baseball in run differential after Saturday, which…I mean, the Cubs are second in wRC+, that’s kind of a big deal and Saturday still counts the same as other games, so maybe this is a good offensive team?)
In my best attempt at approximating teamwide xwOBA, Atlanta’s at .358 while the Cubs are at .331, and that .358 number is bonkers, implying Atlanta’s offense is very ok. Looking at pitching, at least Max Fried has had some bad luck so far, with a 1.51 FIP and 2.88 xERA against a 3.50 ERA over three starts, one of which went seven shutout innings against the Dodgers. So…the Cubs are very much playing the defensive champs these next three days, and none of the matchups look particularly advantageous. Hopefully they surprise us. Marcus Stroman on the hill tonight, trying to get right.
Vols Roll
College baseball results of note from last weekend:
- Tennessee is up to 37-3 overall after their road sweep of a solid Florida team.
- TCU took a series from Oklahoma State on the road, climbing into a tie with the Pokes for the Big 12 lead (the Pokes technically lead on win percentage, but TCU leads by half a game and has the head-to-head advantage, so we’ll generously call it a tie).
- Texas A&M got a big series win at home against Arkansas.
- Pitt avoided being swept on the road against Miami.
- Southern Miss kept doing its thing, sweeping Rice at home.
- Virginia Tech got a road sweep against Boston College.
- Texas Tech took two of three from West Virginia in Morgantown.
- Texas blew out Baylor in three games in a row in Austin.
- Virginia swept UNC in Charlottesville.
- Georgia grabbed two of three in Tuscaloosa.
- Louisville won a home series against NC State.
- Texas State did its thing, sweeping Arkansas-Little Rock and putting up 30 on Saturday.
- Notre Dame righted the ship with a sweep of Wake Forest, scoring 42 runs over the weekend.
- Auburn swept South Carolina.
- Washington State took a surprising two of three from Oregon in Eugene.
- LSU swept Mizzou.
- SIU took two of three in Texas from Dallas Baptist.
- Georgia Southern got a sweep over South Alabama.
As with the transfer portal, might be missing something noteworthy, but those seem to be the big notes.
***
Tonight’s viewing, second screen in italics:
- 7:20 PM EDT: Cubs @ Atlanta (Regional TV) – Stroman vs. Fried
- 7:30 PM EDT: Timberwolves @ Grizzlies, Game 5 (TNT) – Series tied 2-2
- 9:45 PM EDT: A’s @ Giants (Regional TV) – Jefferies vs. Rodón
- 10:00 PM EDT: Pelicans @ Suns, Game 5 (TNT) – Series tied 2-2
