Key Non-conference games
Nov 29 – at Minnesota (ACC-Big Ten Challenge)
Dec 2 – Princeton
Dec 22 – Hawaii Diamond Head Classic (Hawaii, New Mexico State, and USC)
The schedule isn’t very difficult in the non-conference portion of the schedule, which is a double-edged sword. While there’s plenty of quality games in the ACC, another 10-8 finish with no quality out of conference games to go with the resume and another 8-9 NCAA tournament game is likely.
The Hurricanes will have a difficult road game at Minnesota, a likely top three team in the Big Ten. Then, the next few days is a tricky trap game against Ivy contenders Princeton, who won’t be intimidated by the likes of Miami.
As far as the Diamond Head Classic, there’s only one appropriate finals matchup, Miami vs USC. The first game Miami plays is against the host Hawaii. While the Rainbow Warriors are inferior, they do play well at home against teams traveling thousands of miles to see them.
There’s only really two quality programs in this tournament, Miami and USC. With both teams on opposite sides of the brackets, a loss by either team makes this three-game tournament a non-impact event for these teams. Also, it would just be great to see threes backcourts battle each other for 40 minutes.