Tale of the Tape: No. 22 Virginia at Miami

The Virginia men’s basketball team will be taking its talents — and its ACC-best six-game win streak — to South Beach tonight at 9 to face Miami in the final true road game of the regular season.

The Cavaliers (21-7, 13-5 ACC) are back in the top 25 of both major polls (No. 22 in both the AP and Coaches) after notching a gritty, hard-fought, two-point upset over then-No. 7 Duke over the weekend, and are now just days away from participating in the postseason after some thought their bubble had maybe already burst during the mid-season rough patch.

UVA has turned its campaign around in a major way, as the Wahoos have won nine of their last 10 games and will be a 2-point favorite in Coral Gables in this late-night ACC Network matchup against the Hurricanes (14-14, 6-12).

Virginia is now No. 45 overall according to KenPom (2nd AdjD, 222nd AdjO) and up two spots to 48th in the latest NET rankings. Miami checks in at 106th (66th AdjO, 176th AdjD) in the KenPom ratings and 108th in the NET.

“The U” won nine of its first 12 games on the season before dropping eight of its next 11. Jim Larrañaga’s team has battled through injuries, but the roster is back to full health and recently put together a three-game win streak, with lopsided home wins over Boston College (85-58) and Wake Forest (71-54), and one on the road in triple overtime in Blacksburg, 102-95, over Virginia Tech.

Miami has lost its previous two contests, both on the road, at Notre Dame (87-71) and Georgia Tech (63-57). The two biggest wins on the season for the ‘Canes were at Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and in overtime at Clemson on New Year’s Eve.

Miami went 0 for 6 against the conference’s other top teams — the Hurricanes were swept by Louisville, Florida State and Duke (UVA is 2-2 so far against those schools). The ‘Canes were also beaten twice by NC State, but beat Virginia Tech twice.

It’ll be one of those rare instances when diminutive Wahoo point guard Kihei Clark (5-foot-9) will have a height advantage over his counterpart, Miami junior Chris Lykes, who stands at 5-7.

Just like Clark, Lykes proves that you can still be a star player, even if you’re the smallest guy on the floor. Lykes — who was actually offered a scholarship by Tony Bennett and Virginia during his college recruitment — leads Miami in scoring with 15.2 points per game, while also leading the team in steals with 1.1 per game. Lykes has scored in double figures in 19 of his 24 contests this season, scoring 20 or more five times in 2019-20, and 15 times in his career.

Like Kihei, he’s not afraid to take it in the lane among the trees, and he’s effective from inside (82 for 180, 46 percent inside the arc) and outside (44 for 116, 38 percent from deep).

Lykes is the conference’s second-leading returning scorer, despite having missed four games due to injury. He is just one of several impact players on Larrañaga’s roster who have been unavailable for multiple contests this season.

Senior guard DJ Vasiljevic, an exceptional outside shooter, is one of only three Hurricanes to play in every game this season. Vasiljevic, whose long-distance shooting ranks third in both Miami’s all-time 3-pointers-made (262) and 3-pointers-attempted (714) categories, is averaging 13.2 points per contest this season, connecting on a team-high 63 triples.

After failing to reach double figures in his first 18 career games, freshman guard Isaiah Wong achieved the feat in each of his next nine contests before scoring just 6 points in his last game against Georgia Tech.

Wong averaged just 3.1 points over that 18-game stretch coming off the bench, but moved into the starting lineup and put up 16.9 a night — with three 20-point efforts, including a career-high 27 at Virginia Tech — over his nine-game hot streak.

Redshirt-junior transfer Kameron McGusty (Oklahoma) missed three games during Miami’s cold spell, but has posted 10 points or more in four of his last five games since returning.

Another Hurricane transfer, redshirt-senior forward Keith Stone (Florida), actually went up against McGusty when he was a Gator from the SEC and McGusty was a Sooner from the Big 12. They’re now teammates in the ACC, as Stone has experienced both a seven-game and a six-game absence from the lineup already this season himself.

The 6-8, 244-pounder grabbed a career-best 18 rebounds in that triple-OT thriller against the Hokies exactly two weeks ago.

In the middle is 7-foot redshirt-junior center Rodney Miller Jr. (7.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg), while 6-10 forward Sam Waardenburg (the team’s top rebounder with 5.9 a night) and 6-9 forward Anthony Walker each contribute significant minutes in the post for Larrañaga’s squad as well.

They’ll have to go up against Cavalier swat machine Jay Huff, who came one rebound shy of a triple-double in Virginia’s 52-50 upset over No. 7 Duke Saturday, finishing with a team-high 15 points (on 7-of-9 shooting), 9 rebounds and an eye-popping 10 blocks, tying Ralph Sampson for second on UVA’s single-game list.

Wahoo senior forward Mamadi Diakite sank the go-ahead basket with 39 seconds left, while Huff stuffed Vernon Carey Jr.’s would-be go-ahead shot attempt in the waning seconds to secure the big win and hand the Blue Devils their third straight ACC road loss.

Junior rifleman Tomas Woldetensae has gone just 1 for 13 from the field and 0 for 5 from 3-point land over his last two games, and if you know anything about his shooter’s mentality, he’ll be hungrier than ever to see a few deep ones fall through the nylon this evening.

The ‘Hoos have won five of their last six ACC road games (three in a row) by a combined 15 points, so Bennett’s troops have proven that they can emerge victorious in close games in hostile environments. Miami is 8-4 at the 8,000-seat Watsco Center this season.

With the rematch against No. 10 Louisville on Senior Day looming this weekend (Saturday, 4 p.m. on ESPN), the Cavaliers can’t afford to look past the Hurricanes and risk putting a dent in their impressive late-season resume. Larrañaga will have his team ready to go, no doubt about it, as the Canes are fighting to move up the standings for better seeding next week.

Player Stats

As of 3/4