The Miami Hurricanes new state-of-the-art basketball field house along with head coach Frank Haith’s family environment has translated into a stellar recruiting class.
Recruiting really matters when it comes to the Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball team as they are members Atlantic Coast Conference, one of the premier basketball leagues. They have to face the likes of North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest every year.
Since Haith has been at Miami, he has never had a more talented recruiting class than this past off season. The Canes brought in four high character and highly talented student athletes.
The most notable signee was Durand Scott, a player ranked fifth in the nation among shooting guards by Scout, eighth by Rivals, and 11th by ESPN.
“Durand is part of a recruiting class which I think is the best class we’ve signed since we’ve been here. He’s a five-star recruit,” Haith said. “We’re excited about his development. He wants to win and he’s just a tough competitor. He’s an impact player.”
Scott knows about playing tough opponents in high school. He played for a great New York high school program at Rice High School. In his senior year Scott won the state championship and the MVP.
Scott was snubbed from the McDonald’s All American game, something he was disappointed about.
The 6’3” smooth guard will backup point guard Malcolm Grant and see a lot of playing time according to Haith.
Scott, who was very effective on offense, looks forward to getting on the gym floor and displaying his talents.
“I’m definitely excited about the season,” Scott said. “I have a little chip on my shoulder, I got a little something to prove; I believe that I’ve been overlooked so I’ve got a lot of things to prove. I hate to lose so I’d love to win every game we game we ever play.”
Garrius Adams, a versatile scorer, averaged 21.8 per game as a senior and broke a school record in career points. Miami will need him to contribute right away on the offense end. Adams will be the biggest guard the Canes have, standing at 6’6 and will be able to score on the smaller guards. Haith said Adams is further along that expected.
Adams feels the incoming freshmen should do whatever it takes to help out the team.
“We just want to play as hard as we can because that’s all we can do to be a better team,” he said. “We just want to do whatever we can as freshman to step in and take our roles.”
Guard Antoine Allen is a strong perimeter shooter and is very aggressive. Given the opportunity, Allen could create a spark for the Canes
In the frontcourt, Donnavan Kirk will look to help out the Canes on the defensive end. He is quick off the floor and is very active. Miami will need him to pull down rebounds.
The four freshmen have already impressed the upper class players.
“They are learning the system fairly easy,” senior guard James Dews said. “Their knowledge of the game is really really good so that’s definitely helping them get along really well.”
Lelan LeDoux may be contacted at lledoux@themiamihurricane.com.