Canes Set to Tip Off New Season
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – There have been team game nights, cooking competitions, dinners out, community outreach events, and lots of time spent in the locker room and on the court.
As Miami’s basketball teams – both men’s and women’s – prepare to tip off their respective seasons, they do so with revamped rosters and new faces in lots of new places.
That’s meant building team chemistry has been as essential as learning the plays their coaches Tricia Cullop and Jai Lucas want them to execute now that games are set to begin.
“We do a lot of things outside of basketball. Us hanging out is never forced,” said graduate student center Ra Shaya Kyle, who transferred to Miami after playing at both Purdue and Florida. “We always hang out, whether we’re going to the pool or going to one of our teammates’ houses to just hang out and watch a movie. … The connection, building it off the court helps it come much easier on the court.”
Said forward Malik Reneau of the men’s team, “I think everything’s going well, chemistry-wise. Off the court, everybody loves each other. … We go out to eat. We have team events that we do. I think [building] off the court [chemistry] is going pretty well. I think on the court, we’ve got little minor things to work on. … Once we figure that out, and that happens throughout playing in the season … we’ll have a better glimpse at what’s going on.”
The Hurricanes will both have their opportunity to start getting some of those glimpses at the offseason progress they’ve made when they open the season with a Monday double-header at the Watsco Center.
First up, the Miami women, who will host Hofstra at 5 p.m., followed by the men who will host Jacksonville at 8 p.m.
The women’s team returns just two players – sophomore Ahnay Adams and redshirt freshman Simone Pelish – who were part of last season’s squad that went 14-15 during Cullop’s first year at Miami.
Since last season ended, Cullop has built a roster that includes a mix of experienced transfers and highly recruited freshmen.
Among those veteran transfers are Kyle, who posted 16 double doubles at Florida last season, and sophomore guard Gal Raviv, who last season was both the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and the MAAC Player of the Year after averaging 17.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.4 steals per game at Quinnipiac.
Also joining the Hurricanes are graduate student center Jessica Peterson, a transfer from SMU; junior guard Amarachi Kimpson, a transfer from UNLV, junior guard Vittoria Blasigh, a transfer from South Florida; junior forward Mya Kone, a transfer from FIU; and redshirt sophomore center Candace Kpetikou, a transfer from Washington State.
To that group, the Hurricanes added a recruiting class ranked No. 10 in the nation by ESPNW. Four of Miami’s five signees – guard Camille Williams, guard Danielle Osho, forward Natalie Wetzel, and guard Meredith Tippner – were all ranked among the nation’s top 100 players. Forward Soma Okolo was also part of Miami’s recruiting class and the native of Leander, Texas was rated a four-star recruit by ESPN.
“This is year two, and I’m really excited about this team. I think that we have depth, we have height, we have speed and that is a very welcome commodity,” Cullop said. “Last year, I thought our team fought really hard, but I was really, really looking forward to being able to put the pieces together this season. And from what I’ve seen so far, this team really has got the potential to do some special things. I think we can compete at a very high level as long as we stay healthy and we keep competing hard every day and get better.”
Said Raviv, “I think you’ll see a lot of energy and excitement. I think beautiful basketball. I think we’re still learning how to play with each other, but I think we’ve done a good job of getting each other involved on the court, so I think it’s going to be fun to watch this year.”
On the men’s side, Lucas and the Hurricanes will look to get Miami back to postseason form.
A former assistant coach at Duke, Kentucky, and his alma mater Texas, Lucas is taking the reins of his own program for the first time and is eager to put all the knowledge he’s gained from his own journey and his family’s basketball lineage to help Miami become a perennial contender in the ACC and beyond.
The roster he and his staff have put together also features a good mix of veteran transfers and talented freshmen.
Miami’s recruiting class ranks 16th in the 247 composite and includes the likes of four-star forward Shelton Henderson and four-star guard Dante Allen, both of whom were top 50 prospects.
Also, in the Hurricanes’ recruiting class were four-star forward Treyvon Maddox, three-star guard John Laboy II, three-star forward Timo Malovec, three-star center Salih Altuntas and three-star guard Noam Dovrat.
And the transfers who joined the roster were Reneau, redshirt freshman guard Jordyn Kee (Georgia), senior guard Tre Donaldson (Michigan), sophomore guard/forward Marcus Allen (Missouri), senior center Ernest Udeh Jr. (TCU), and junior guard Tru Washington (New Mexico).
It’s a group Lucas believes has the size to compete in the ACC, especially if it can execute on the defensive end of the floor the way he believes it can.
“Year one, I wanted to be able to be big positionally and have great positional size,” Lucas said. “I wanted to be able to really defend and really rebound. I felt like if we could cover those three things, it gives you a lot of versatility but also gives you an opportunity in every game. Most games won, in basketball, that’s what we call the trenches, the rebounding and physicality battle. I wanted to at least be competitive in every game when it came to that, and the rest of it just comes down to situations and things that go on from that nature.”
As both of Miami’s basketball teams prepare to get their new seasons started, they know there will be plenty of questions to answer and challenges ahead.
But there’s excitement, and confidence, too to see what comes next for two programs that have shown their ability to compete at a high level in recent years.
“I really don’t have another word for you except we’re excited,” Lucas said. “I think we have a chance to be pretty good if we can stay the path and continue on where we’re headed. It’s a process we’ll go through throughout the year. We’ll mold and grow as the year goes.”
Said Cullop, “I’m really pleased with where we are at the moment. But the big key is that we’re never satisfied. I don’t care if it’s next week or two months from now. We need to never be satisfied and continue to get better.”
