Miami opened the 2024-25 basketball season with a convincing 113-72 win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday night the Watsco Center.
Miami (1-0) was led by transfer Lynn Kidd with 24 points and nine rebounds, while PG Nijel Pack added 21 and Jalen Blackmon and Divine Ugochukwu each had 15 points.
Miami head coach Jim Larranaga met with the press after the game and shared his thoughts on the game.
On the Canes’ strategy going in…
"So in our preparation for getting ready for this game tonight we told the team the emphasis was that they were 15th in the country last year in tempo meaning it was going to be a race and if they outran us they would win, if we outran them we'd win and fortunately for us we ran very, very well, very efficiently. We shared the ball very well and had a hard time stopping them though. They shot 50 percent in the first half and 46 percent from 3 so it wasn't like our defense was locked down, but we just kept scoring at a high rate.”
On blending ten new players into a team…
Miami had to rebuild the team this fall, with 10 newcomers arriving in Coral Gables. No small task.
"I think what helps us is the speed of the game because then I can utilize my bench and you saw the bench scored 39 points. We have never had that, but you can't do that unless guys are running fast and playing hard and need rest like Nijel bringing the ball up the whole game against pressure full-court pressure so he needs a rest so he can play at the top of his game and Divine was able to give it to him and so those three freshmen Divine, Jalil and Austin were able to give some guys some quality rest plus we had Matt Cleveland and Paul Djobet off the bench and those two guys are experienced veterans, but Matt is just coming back. He missed 17 days of practices and he's played very well. He had four dunks, that's pretty unusual when you come back."
On Lynn Kidd…
"I'm hoping he'll play like that all year long. He's not going to always get the ball that easily, the court was wide open for him, but he's very efficient inside and has been all summer and fall so we're very, very pleased with his performance. I like that he rebounded. He had nine rebounds and that's really important. He and Brandon (Johnson) really do a good job of playing well together.”
Miami (1-0, 0-0 ACC) will host Binghamton on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. ET. Coverage will be on ACCNX and WQAM-560.
GO CANES!
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