The Miami Hurricanes’ Magical Misfits

Miami is not supposed to compete at basketball, certainly not in the mighty ACC. The small, private school in Coral Gables should not be rubbing shoulders with college basketball’s aristocracy.

And yet, since Jim Larrañaga’s arrival, the Canes have done just that. In Larrañaga’s 11 seasons in Miami, the Canes have made the postseason 7 times, the NCAA Tournament 5 times, the Sweet Sixteen 3 times, and even won the ACC. But after frontloaded success early in his tenure (6 postseasons in his first 7 years), Larrañaga’s tenure appeared to be coming to a close. Wrongly implicated in an FBI scandal, staggered by a buzzer beating loss to Loyola, the Canes produced 3 losing seasons in a row, culminating with last year’s 10-17 record, the worst of Larrañaga’s career since his first year at George Mason in 1997-98.

With a mass exodus from the program in the offseason, and the Canes plugging gaps with transfers, Miami was justifiably picked to finish 12th in the ACC.

And the early returns reinforced the Canes as a finished program. After 7 games, the Canes were 4-3, having just been blown out by Dayton and Alabama. They were languishing, and the program was teetering on the brink of irrelevance.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Canes’ funeral. They started winning. But how?

This is a story of Miami not just as a program, but as a mindset. This is a story about how a group of castoffs, of players who were told they would never experience success, combined to form a harmonious band of individually flawed instruments that collectively rival Mozart in their melodic crescendo.

And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

Larrañaga’s offseason might have been his toughest. Six players, including 5 on scholarship, left the program, headlined by Chris Lykes, Matt Cross, and Earl Timberlake.

He needed bodies to just field a competent team. There was help coming in, namely in the form of freshman Bensley Joseph and Wooga Poplar. But the Canes needed more experience, players ready to start immediately.

And they found them in the transfer portal with Charlie Moore and Jordan Miller added to returning stalwarts Kameron McGusty, Isaiah Wong, and Sam Waardenburg.

Make no mistake, this was a risk. Larrañaga was already going through the worst spell of his career, and bringing in 2 transfers, including one who was at his 4th school, was fraught with peril.  But where a normal person would look at this roster and see dysfunction, Larrañaga saw opportunity. He doubled down, not just on his talent evaluations, but on the fact that he could coach this team into overcoming their lack of size in a league that is predicated on size.

With the rocky start to this season, all hope was seemingly lost.

A lot has been made of the style change, and how the Canes, with the season teetering, embraced small ball and resurrected the season. Not enough, however, has been made of the character exhibited by these kids. Players that were expecting to get playing time no longer do. Jordan Miller and Sam Waardernburg have to sacrifice their bodies playing out of position. The team in its entirety has to work harder to account for the style of play. As topsy-turvy as this season has been, the one constant has been the Canes’ adaptability.

From the blowout losses to Dayton and Alabama through the late game failings at home against Virginia Tech, setbacks never defeated this team. When people refused to rank them, kept them on the bubble despite a strong resume, and tried to downplay their qualities, they just kept playing. Everyone in the ACC knew how good this team is, and now the country is finding out.

Somehow, it’s all come together. Charlie Moore running the show, Kameron McGusty and Isaiah Wong able to create any shot, Jordan Miller and Sam Waardenburg drawing big men away from the paint on offense and defending it on defense, Anthony Walker bringing high-flying athleticism off the bench, and freshmen Bensley Joseph and Wooga Poplar making huge contributions…it’s all working.

Maybe Larrañaga saw this coming. Maybe it was because he was out of any other options. But regardless of the quality of the sheet music, it takes a conductor to produce appealing music. And Larrañaga is that conductor.

This is Miami’s 3rd trip to the Sweet 16 in Larrañaga’s tenure. This is the 2nd time they’ll be the higher seed. In 2013 when they reached this round, everything went wrong. Reggie Johnson got injured, the team had a bout of food poisoning, and they entered a game with Marquette on a low. The 2021 Canes are at the opposite end of the spectrum. One of the things that jumped out last weekend is that as we saw the pressure crush so many programs, the Miami players were having fun. Smiling, just playing game. After having been roundly dismissed, jettisoned to the periphery of college basketball, they had re-entered the fray and were enjoying the moment.

La Patria

What better place for a group of castoffs to find their true home?

Miami, as a city, is a place where anyone can belong, where it doesn’t matter what region or even what country you’re from, you can find a home here.

And so it is in this city, this melting pot, that this unlikely group of heroes assembled, because this is the only place it would be logical to assemble. They’ve been embraced by the community, and made Miamians puff their chest out with pride.

Last week, as they prepared to face 2nd-seeded Auburn, the Canes were once again diminished. The players were asked about a Jabari Smith Dunk, and how they would cope with Auburn. Miller and Waardenburg, answered respectfully. But under that veneer, they knew that not only did they have a plan to deal with Auburn’s NBA talent, but that they were going to unload on the Tigers’ front court duo.

What happened from there was a swagtastic unloading of all that is good and holy about Miami on the unsuspecting Tigers.

You can see from the score that they won by 17. That doesn’t describe the full extent of the performance. They took Auburn’s 2 best players and relentlessly went at them. Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler will be 1st round picks in the NBA draft. But on Sunday, they were taught a lesson by a group of experienced players that college basketball had largely given up on.

Bruce Pearl eventually had to bench Kessler, who could not play against Miami. The Tigers tightened up, more closely resembling a deer in headlights than a ferocious feline their mascot depicts. In the end it didn’t matter. Auburn was helpless. Miami was flying all over the court, stealing passes, dunking, blocking shots, taking wild shots on offense, throwing show-off passes…they were playing Miami Basketball.

Auburn was the unfortunate victim of Miami’s Magical Misfits reaching their zenith, and unloading a category 5 whooping on them the likes of which the Tigers had never experienced. Their previous 5 losses included 2 overtime losses and 3 other losses by a combined 11 points.

They did it as Miamians. A diverse group of previously dismissed players congregating in South Florida, believing in themselves when no one else did, and outworking, outthinking, and out-swagging the opponent.

Where does this long journey end? No one knows. It has taken Canes players through multiple schools, multiple countries, injuries, false investigations, and numerous on court setbacks to build the strength to get here. They are here not in spite of their struggles, but because of them. And that belief, forged not because people they were told they were great, but through legitimate struggle, through brotherhood when all hope was abandoned, is tough to break. Regardless of how this ends, Miami’s moment in the sun was earned through tribulations that would topple lesser men.

In Miami, the Magical Misfits found a home. And in that home resides a family.

Vishnu Parasuraman is a contributor for @FiveReasonsSports and generally covers the Miami Hurricanes. You can follow him on twitter @vrp2003