NCAA Basketball: Graduate transfer TJ Holyfield down to five schools
Miami Hurricanes
The year-long suspension of Dewan Hernandez destroyed the hopes of the Hurricanes of this past season, finishing under .500 overall. But with leading scorer Chris Lykes coming back along with a top-25 recruiting class coming in, Miami Basketball should be in a much more competitive spot in 2019-20.
But the absence of Hernandez, along with the graduations of Anthony Lawrence Jr. and Ebuka Izundu creates holes in the frontcourt that needs to be filled. They already have gone in the transfer market to grab Keith Stone, a grad transfer forward from Florida who missed the second half of this past season with a torn ACL. Like Holyfield, Stone is a great individual defender but not much of a scoring threat on a per game basis.
Even with Stone coming in (who may still miss the first part of 2019-20 while healing from the ACL tear), there’s still plenty of room and minutes for Holyfield to make a real impact on the Hurricanes. Head coach Jim Larranaga plays a similar style as Stephen F. Austin did so it would be a smooth transition for the player to make. But compared to the other options, Miami has the worst chance of making it to the Big Dance. This isn’t a bad choice for Holyfield but probably not the first one.