The Miami Hurricanes season just hit rock bottom.
The Maryland Terrapins (14-5, 4-1) embarrassed the Miami Hurricanes (15-5, 1-5) 81-59 Tuesday night at Comcast Center in College Park, Maryland. Miami trailed the entire game.
“We didn’t have a lot of fight in us tonight,” Haith said. “I thought our effort was poor. I’m just real disappointed in our effort and how we played. We’ve got some things we’ve got to fix within our team. Right now, we don’t have enough guys willing to put in the effort that we need to win basketball games in this league.”
Miami has not been able to make an impact on the road this season in the ACC.
In the game against Virginia Tech two weeks ago, the Hurricanes trailed by 17 points heading into halftime. Three days later against Virginia, Miami trailed by 12. It was the same result for the Canes as they trailed by 17 points at halftime against the Terps, 48-31.
“Right now, we’re not competitive,” Haith said. “This team is worse than it was at the beginning of the year. We’re going in the wrong direction.”
This was more than a loss for the Hurricanes and begs the question of can they keep up in the ACC without 2009 graduate and former Hurricane star Jack McClinton.
McClinton averaged 15.4 points per game and more importantly had four wins against his hometown Terrapins. McClinton was the unquestioned leader and was able to score whenever he touched the ball. He had some of his best performances ever against ACC opponents. The Hurricanes simply have been missing a leader like McClinton, who graduated in 2009.
Freshman guard Durand Scott lead the Hurricanes with 13 points in the contest but it’s the seniors that need to rise to the occasion.
“It’s on our leadership,” senior guard James Dews said. “We got to find enough of a way as a team to come together and learn from our mistakes and pick it up.”
Haith has been seeing results in practice from the Canes, but he has yet to see it translate in conference play. The Hurricanes shot just 38 percent and had 17 turnovers against Maryland.
“It’s amazing because this club has practiced hard. For whatever reason, we’re not doing it in the game,” Haith said. “We’re not as aggressive and we’re not playing as passionate as we need to play.”
Redshirt senior forward Cyrus McGowan had a missed dunk with two minutes left, which was just one example how the Canes have played in their first six games in the ACC.
Lelan LeDoux may be contacted at lledoux@themiamihurricane.com.