Hurricanes Face Georgia Tech in Sunday's Regular-Season Finale

March 5, 2011

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ATLANTA, GA… The University of Miami men’s basketball team returns to the road for its 2010-11 regular-season finale at Georgia Tech on Sun., March 6, at 2:30 p.m. in a game that will be carried by the ACC Network. The game will be shown live in South Florida on WBFS-My 33 and will also be available online at www.theACC.com/live/.

Game 31: Miami (18-12, 6-9) vs. Georgia Tech (12-17, 4-11)Date: Sun., March 6, 2011 | Time: 2:30 p.m. | Site: Alexander Memorial ColiseumTV: ACC Network | Radio: 560 WQAM (WQAM.com |Webstream: www.theACC.com/live/Websites: Miami (www.HurricaneSports.com) | Georgia Tech (www.ramblinwreck.com)

Projected Miami StartersNo.	Name (Pos/Ht/Wt/Cl)			Pts	Reb	Ast01	Durand Scott (G, 6-3, 200, So.)		13.2	4.3	3.303	Malcolm Grant (G, 6-1, 180, Jr.)	15.1	1.8	3.225	Garrius Adams (G, 6-6, 196, So.)	7.6	3.8	2.030	Adrian Thomas (F, 6-7, 226, Gr.)	9.2	3.9	0.942	Reggie Johnson (C, 6-10, 303, So.)	12.3	9.6	1.3^

Projected Georgia Tech StartersNo. Name (Pos/Ht/Wt/Cl) Pts Reb Ast01 Iman Shumpert (G, 6-5, 212, Jr.) 17.4 6.2 3.514 Jason Morris (G, 6-5, 210, Fr.) 5.9 2.2 0.7*03 Maurice Miller (G, 6-2, 188,Sr.) 5.9 2.2 2.305 Daniel Miller (C, 6-11, 258, Fr.) 4.4 4.9 2.2^10 Lance Storrs (G, 6-5, 225, Sr.) 2.1 1.5 1.10

^ blocks per game | * steals per game

With a win at Georgia Tech on Sunday, the Hurricanes would earn their seventh league win of the season and earn the No. 7 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament. Maryland and Virginia have both finished 7-9 in conference play, however the Hurricanes have head-to-head wins over both squads.

DOWN THE STRETCH

The Hurricanes have won six of their last nine games entering Sunday’s regular-season finale. Among ACC schools, only Duke and North Carolina have won more games over this stretch with eight wins apiece. Virginia Tech has also won six times in its last nine outings.

With the ACC’s unbalanced scheduling, the Hurricanes have played the league’s top-three teams in the standings five out of a possible six times. In addition, Miami has faced the top half of the ACC’s teams 10 times — all contributing to Miami’s strength of schedule ranking of 44th in the nation, which is fourth best among conference teams. UM’s three wins versus RPI Top-50 teams is third most in the league.

Miami — who has won three of its last four road games — returns to the hardwood following Wednesday’s 80-66 home victory over Maryland, while Georgia Tech is back in action after its first road victory of the season in 11 tries — an 80-54 decision at Wake Forest on Thursday. The Yellow Jackets registered a season-high 19 steals in that contest.

FAMILY FEUD

Miami freshman Rion Brown’s dad — Tico Brown — played collegiate basketball for Georgia Tech from 1977-79, averaging 16.1 points (.478 FG%, .777 FT%) and 4.8 rebounds per game. The 6-5 guard out of Kokomo, Indiana, earned First Team All-Metro honors in 1977, second team honors in 1978 and was a second-round draft pick by the Utah Jazz in 1979. He went on to play in the CBA for 10 years, playing on two championship teams and being selected to the All-Time CBA Team. He had games of 60 points, 53 points, 52 points and 51 points and went on to retire in 1988 as the league’s all-time leading scorer with 8,538 points.

THE SERIES

The Hurricanes lead the all-time series, 7-5, over the Yellow Jackets, and have won six of the last seven meetings between the programs — including the 59-57 win in the last contest between the programs on Feb. 3 in the BankUnited Center.

In that game, Miami led by as many as 21 points with just over 13 minutes to go and then held on despite making only two baskets the rest of the way and turning the ball over a season-high 28 times. The victory snapped a four-game skid for the Hurricanes by a combined 11 points. Malcolm Grant led UM with 15 points, and Garrius Adams had 11, while Reggie Johnson grabbed 11 rebounds. Glen Rice Jr. scored a career-high 28 points for the Yellow Jackets, who shot a season-worst 27 percent. Rice shot 9 for 22, his teammates went 8 for 40 — 20 percent.

Miami has three players averaging double-figure scoring, led by the backcourt of Malcolm Grant and Durand Scott. Scoring in double figures in 21 of his last 23 games and bringing an ACC-long 17-game three-point streak into Atlanta, Grant is contributing a team-high 15.1 points (7th in ACC) and 3.2 assists per game, while converting an ACC-best 87.3 percent from the line (28th in NCAA) and an ACC-best 43.8 percent from long range (14th in nation), with a league-high 2.7 three-pointers per game. He is one of just two ACC players to lead the league in as many as three statistical categories. Scott adds 13.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game, shooting 44.3 percent from the field, 40.4 percent from downtown and 83.6 percent from the line (3rd in ACC). Big man Reggie Johnson, who posted his 12th double-double of the season (3rd in ACC, 30th in nation) — and second straight — in Wednesday’s win over Maryland, is averaging 12.3 points, 9.6 rebounds (3rd in ACC, 29th in nation) and 1.3 blocks per game — and is shooting a conference best 60.3 percent in ACC games. Over his last three outings, Big Reg is averaging 16 points and 9 boards per game, hitting 63.2 percent from the field.

Georgia Tech also has three players averaging double-figure scoring, led by Iman Shumpert with 17.4 points (4th in ACC), 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and a league-high 2.6 steals an outing. The 6-5 junior guard averages 18.8 points per game versus ACC opponents (2nd in ACC) and has back-to-back games of 20-plus points and 11 total this season. Glen Rice adds 13.2 points and 5.6 boards per game, while Brian Oliver puts up 10.9 points and 4.5 rebounds an outing.

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

The Hurricanes have a pair Georgia natives on their roster — junior DeQuan Jones hails from Stone Mountain (Wheeler HS), while freshman Rion Brown is from Hinesville (Liberty County HS). As a prep senior in 2008, Jones earned Class 5-A Player of the Year honors by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and was the Northwest Player of the Year. In 2010, Brown was selected Class 3-A South Player of the Year by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association.

HELLO, MY NAME IS RION

Freshman guard Rion Brown nailed a career- and game-high six three pointers on seven attempts to lead Miami past Maryland on Wednesday with a team-high 19 points. That marks the most three-pointers by a Hurricane freshman in over a decade — since Darius Rice knocked down seven (on 15 attempts) versus Virginia Tech on Jan. 10, 2001.

Brown is the third Hurricane to convert six threes in a single game this season, with Adrian Thomas and Malcolm Grant each doing it twice this season. As a team, the Hurricanes lead the ACC converting 38.6 percent from beyond the arc.

The freshman’s confidence continues to grow — as does his time on the court. Considered one of the team’s strongest perimeter defenders, Brown hit a deep three and sank all three free throws with just six seconds to go to send the game versus Virginia into overtime on Feb. 5. He has seen at least 15 minutes on the hardwood over the last 10 games — with 30 minutes of action versus the Terps.

Brown scored a then- career-high 17 points off the bench in the Nov. 19 win over North Carolina Central and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in the win over Georgia Tech. The true freshman was the first Hurricane to lead the team in scoring twice this season, accomplishing this twice in the first five games. Wednesday’s 19-point outing versus Maryland marked the third time he has led UM’s offensive output — tying for the eighth-most scoring leads by an ACC freshman.

DYNAMIC DUO

Averaging just over three assists apiece, Miami’s Durand Scott (99) and Malcolm Grant (96) are on track to dish out more than 100 assists each for the second-straight season. They would become the first UM teammates to accomplish this in back-to-back seasons since Thomas Hocker and Kevin Presto achieved the feat in both 1987-88 and 1988-89. In 2009, Grant and Scott became the first UM duo since 1992-93 to collect 100 assists in the same season and the fourth pair of teammates to do so in UM history.

Should Grant and Scott each record 100 assists this season, they would become the first Hurricanes — individually — to register back-to-back 100 assist seasons since John Salmons in 2001-02 (195) and 2000-01 (115).

OFFENSIVE BALANCE

Miami and Boston College are the only schools to have three players ranked among the league’s top-20 scoring leaders, as the Hurricanes have Malcolm Grant (15.1 ppg, 7th), Durand Scott (13.2 ppg, 15th) and Reggie Johnson (12.3 ppg, 19th) among the league’s best.

FREE ONLINE STREAM

The ACC Network will be streaming all of the ACC Network telecasts live and for free on theacc.com. By contract, the ACC can only make these live streams available to viewers inside of the “ACC Territory.” The ACC Network Territory includes the states of NC, SC, GA, FL, VA, MD (DC), MA, RI, ME, VT and NH.

OUT OF MARKET VIEWING

For viewers located OUTSIDE of the “ACC Territory,” you can access the ACC Network broadcasts via ESPN’s Full Court service and ESPN3.com. The ACC Network will make all of our regional broadcasts available to ESPN for national distribution on these two platforms, however, ESPN is responsible for choosing the games that are available on their Full Court or ESPN3.com service (and blackouts are in effect INSIDE of the “ACC Territory”). If you are located inside the “ACC Territory”, and a local station in your market is NOT carrying our broadcast, then you should be able to access ESPN Full Court or ESPN3.com in your area. Please click HERE for more information on ESPN Full Court.

HURRICANE GAMEDAY

Hurricane Gameday with Frank Haith airs on CSS (Comcast Sports South) on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Hosted by Joe Zagacki, the voice of the Hurricanes, and Josh Darrow, each show will break down the latest with the team and give fans insight into the players both on and off the court.

CHAT WITH FELLOW `CANES

Log onto HurricaneSports.com during Miami athletic events to chat with Miami insiders and other fans about the game and your favorite student-athletes. To join the chat, click on the Cover It Live program found online with each game’s preview, beginning 30 minutes before tip-off.