Hurricanes Blow Into 20 Wins

With the madness and the mayhem now only two weeks away, maybe it's time that we recognize the Miami Hurricanes as a team secure enough in its ability to accept its modest basketball past ... and good enough to change it.

Fact: Once every 34 years, the Miami Hurricanes produce a 20-win season. Their last 20-win season, before this one, came in 1964-65.

Fact: Once every lifetime, the Miami Hurricanes win a post-season game. Their only post-season victory came against St. Francis (N.Y.) in the 1963 NIT, when current 'Canes coach Leonard Hamilton was an eighth-grader.

Fact: The Miami Hurricanes have never won a NCAA tournament game. They're 0-2 lifetime, losing first-round games to Western Kentucky in 1960 and to UCLA last year.

Well, basketball history is being radically rewritten at the University of Miami this season.

The Hurricanes blew out the Pitt Panthers 85-52 on Tuesday night at Miami Arena, marking the seventh win in a row for Hamilton's Step-Canes.

Step-Canes because this team hasn't gained the proper respect from its own student body or local fan base.

Both area newspapers and local talk radio have taken turns bashing South Florida sports fans for doing what South Florida sports fans do best -- work on their tans and, with the exception of the NFL Dolphins, remain mostly apathetic until their team is playing for a championship.

Too bad because, in this case, the Hurricanes deserve better. Hamilton's style is akin to Pat Riley's style with the Miami Heat. Team defense and self-sacrifice aren't just a philosophy, but a part of the culture.

Forcing an extra pass, forcing up a hurried shot, creating a stop at one end, Hamilton has taught, will lead to an easy basket at te other end more times than not.

Hamilton has done such a bang-up job in his ninth year at UM that his name is being mentioned as a possible successor to Tom Davis at Iowa, although apparently it's a bit premature and no official contact has been made -- yet.

This comes at a particularly bad time for Hamilton, who would rather stick bamboo shoots in his eyes that perpetuate any story that could take his players' focus off the task at hand. For Hamilton, the task at hand is winning the next game.

This is a man whose bag of coach clichés include, "We're in uncharted waters ... we're taking it one game at a time ... the cake is still in the oven ... we haven't done anything yet, we're still a work in progress."

So you ask him about the Iowa job, and he replies, "I can't be any happier than I am here at the University of Miami." Next question.

His high-flying, defensive-minded, egos-checked-at-the-doors 'Canes team, depending on what it does in the Big East tournament, could get as high as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, beginning two weeks from Thursday.

With a 73-71 upset at UConn on Saturday, Hamilton's Hurricanes climbed four spots to No. 11 in this week's Associated Press poll, just ahead of Utah, Kentucky, North Carolina, and UCLA -- four traditional basketball programs with a combined 22 more NCAA titles than the Miami Hurricanes.

Playing in a vacuum all season hasn't hurt these 'Canes, and perhaps has given it resolve. Among their biggest victories of the season includes a win against Ohio State (72-64) at the Orange Bowl Classic in December, and road wins against St. John's (73-70) and Syracuse (76-63) in February, and UConn last week.

Don't look now but the Miami Hurricanes are 20-5.

They don't have a player averaging 20 points, although senior forward Tim James had 20 points against Pitt on Tuesday night.

James' uniform No. 40 will be retired before Saturday's game against Rutgers, but that's about as far as Hamilton is willing to go in supporting a star system. His top three players are James (19.1 points, 8.6 rebounds), guard Johnny Hemsley (18 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists) and center Mario Bland (11.0 points and 5.5 rebounds).

But at Miami, what gets promoted is the program, not the players.

Even Hamilton is self-effacing, and it's a good thing he is: The Iowa job is paying between $800,000 and $1 million per year.

© 1999 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved