No. 22 Hurricanes drop heartbreaker vs. Louisville on senior day

What started as an experiment has ended in a unique senior day at the University of Miami.

Three seniors chose to play what may be their final year of college basketball in their home state for a first-year head coach who was taking over a legend after their worst season.

The No. 22 Hurricanes fell at home against the Louisville Cardinals 92-89 on Saturday, but it doesn’t diminish the accomplishment of the Miami seniors and their journeys to the Watsco Center.

Malik Reneau is the true star of the trio. After three seasons at Indiana, Reneau returned to his hometown and has led the Hurricanes to the country’s biggest turnaround. Averaging 19.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, Reneau has led Miami to tying a school record for the most regular-season wins in Hurricane history.

Reneau scored 18 points with five rebounds and a 14-of-16 clip from the free throw line against Louisville.

Ernest Udeh Jr., an Orlando native, came to Miami after two years as a starter at TCU and one year off the bench in Kansas. Udeh started his career with a conference championship and two straight years playing in the NCAA Tournament.

His statistics gradually improved over the years, and at Miami, he dazzled the home crowd with slam dunks and served as the focal point of the type of team defense that this Hurricane squad is known for. He is among the top 25 in the county in rebounds with 9.5 per game. He scored eight points with eight rebounds on Saturday.

Tre Donaldson, a Tallahassee native, arrived after breaking out with Michigan, scoring 11.3 points and 4.1 assists per game for a Wolverines team that won the Big Ten tournament and finished in the sweet sixteen. He spent his first two seasons as a role player with the Auburn Tigers, who won the SEC Tournament in 2024 and have been a fixture of March Madness through the final three years of Bruce Peral’s tenure as head coach.

In Miami, Donaldson took his game to the next level, averaging 16.6 points and 5.9 assists per game. He led the Hurricanes with 25 points including their final basket of the game.

The Hurricanes found themselves trailing Louisville 46-37 at halftime after a slow first half. As usual, Miami has struggled from the three-point line (4-of-11), except for freshman point guard Noam Dovrat, who shot 3-of-6 from behind the arc.

The Cardinals started the game on a 13-2 run highlighted by three-point baskets by Issac McKneely and Ryan Conwell, who scored 18 points in the first half.

The Hurricanes made it as close to a four-point game with 1:44 remaining after a three-pointer by Dovrat to cut Louisville’s lead to 39-35.

With Donaldson and Tru Washington, the Hurricanes turned their three-point shooting around and came back to tie the game 77-77 with 4:21 remaining. Miami shot 4-of-8 from three in the second half. After tying the game with a three-pointer, Donaldson gave Miami its first lead of the game with a driving layup, going up 79-78 with 3:48 remaining.

Both teams continued to trade baskets, and a three-pointer from Adrian Wooley with 18 seconds remaining sealed Miami’s fate.

Conwell led the Cardinals with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-9 from three. J’vonne Hadley scored 16 points and McKneely and Wooley each added 15 points for Louisville, who finished with a 22-9 record and sixth place in the ACC.

Miami (24-7, 13-5) remains among the top four in the conference and therefore will start the ACC Tournament in the quarterfinals as the No. 3 seed. They will play the winner of Louisville against the winner of the 11th and 14th seeds on Thursday.