ACC Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade
By Joey Loose
Miami
December 19, 2014 (Eastern Kentucky 72, at Miami 44) (GS: 2)
It’s mid-December and you’re the 18th ranked team in the nation, sitting pretty with a 9-1 record, which includes a road win at Florida. You’re two years removed from a Sweet Sixteen run and you’re expecting again to contend in the ACC. There’s just one little problem, which surfaced as the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky arrived in Coral Gables that night.
Anytime you let the opponent shoot over 50% while shooting under 30%, you’re not going to have a good day. Miami was still in this game at the half (27-25), but a 14-0 run near the beginning of the second half ended any idea that this poor shooting day for the Hurricanes was going to be avoided. Sheldon McClellan’s 14 points led Miami but it was nowhere near enough to prevent the doors from being blown off this thing. This Eastern Kentucky team was terrible at defending the 3 and combined a remarkable defensive outing with very hot shooting to win this game.
It’s easy to point to other contests as more devastating, perhaps Miami’s loss to Loyola in the first round this past season, but being destroyed by a mediocre OVC team takes it to another level. I can’t tell you that this game didn’t affect the Hurricanes’ season, because they finished 21-12 before a deep NIT run, 10 ACC wins (including at Duke) not enough to qualify them for the NCAA Tournament. Maybe 22-11 without a bad loss against EKU is enough for a bid and maybe they could make some noise as a low seed? We’ll never know, all because of one awful night in December.