LARRANAGA’S CURE? AN UPSET AT DUKE

BY ADAM HIMMELSBACH

Miami coach Jim Larranaga spent Saturday morning in an emergency room battling the flu.

But his weekend outlook improved quickly. First, he was cleared to board a flight to North Carolina.

“I was really happy I did,” Larranaga said.

Then he coached the Hurricanes to a surprising overtime victory at Duke on Sunday.

Miami, which also took a double-overtime win against Maryland last week, has won four conference games in a row.

At 14–7 overall and 5–3 in the conference, the Hurricanes have nudged into the NCAA tournament conversation.

But Larranaga knows there is plenty of work to do.

“It’s a 30-game test,” he said. “You don’t know what your final grade is until you’ve answered all 30 questions.”

The Hurricanes play host to Virginia Tech on Thursday.

OUTLOOK FOR SENE NOT BRIGHTENING YET
Virginia center Assane Sene has been sidelined since fracturing his right ankle two weeks ago.

Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett said he recently underwent another round of X–rays, and they were not overly encouraging.

“I was hoping maybe you could see a little healing or filling in of the fracture area,” Sene said. “But that didn’t look to seem to be the case.”

CLOSE CALLS IN CAROLINA
Some rivalries sound good in advance but then become lopsided when the games are actually played.

That is not the case with North Carolina and Duke. Over the last 75 meetings between these two teams, the Blue Devils have outscored the Tar Heels, 5,858–5,857.

They will meet again in Chapel Hill on Wednesday.

“It’s the anticipation of a great event on both sides,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They’ve been great games.”

HAMILTON IMPRESSED BY ‘UNSTOPPABLE’ SCOTT
Florida State squeaked past Virginia on Saturday, 58–55, but Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton left that game even more impressed with Cavaliers forward Mike Scott than he was before.

“I think he’s a youngster that’s virtually unstoppable,” Hamilton said. “If you give him the ball in certain areas, he’s not going to miss.”

Scott finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and he was quite efficient, attempting just eight field goals.

“Most guys post up trying to make layups,” Hamilton said. “He’s posting up, knocking down 15-footers. He’s a handful. There’s no doubt about that.”

All four of Virginia’s losses this season have come by three points or less.

CHANGES AFOOT
The Atlantic Coast Conference last week announced its basketball scheduling plan for when Syracuse and Pittsburgh join the conference.

Each team will be partnered with another that it will play twice each season.

Duke’s partner, of course, will be North Carolina. But that means there is no guarantee that Duke and Maryland will play each other twice in a season.

“I know [Maryland fans] want to play Duke twice,” Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon said. “They also understood when the league changed and we added teams that things were going to change.”

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