Alright, let's just get this out of the way early.
I was brought up to root on Duke basketball.
I was born in North Carolina, my mom loved Coach K and Christian Laettner...and yeah, it happened.
To answer any questions about my allegiances: I always root for Miami when they play Duke, and I always root on Duke when they play anybody else.
(Maybe that makes me a bad fan, but I would venture I know more about either program than 98% of the people reading this blog, so anyone that wants to come at me can stick it)
I tell you that to tell you this: I have grown up watching a ton of great college basketball. I have watched Jeff Capel's epic halfcourt heave against the Stackhouse-'Sheed Tar Heels. I have watched Wojo and Elton Brand and J-Will and Battier and Reddick and Williams and Kyrie and Nolan Smith and all those other guys that wore Duke blue. I have watched the Vince Carter and Antwan Jamison and Shammond Williams and Ed Cota and Ray Felton and Sean May and Rashad McCants and Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough and Tyler Zeller lead the Tar Heels. I have watched Tim Duncan and Chris Paul and the Juan Dixon-Steve Blake-Lonnie Baxter Terps (shout out to my dad and them).
Just through watching ACC basketball, I have learned what it takes to be a great team.
Ladies and gentlemen, what you saw the other night, when Miami curb stomped the Dukies, was a great basketball team.
I have always felt weird about Miami in the ACC. The ACC is a basketball conference. It is Tobacco Road, and people along Tobacco Road do not have inter-office scuffles surrounding the ongoings at the Wake Forest - Virginia football game. They care about what happens at the Dean Dome and Cameron Indoor.
And therefore Miami has always been an outsider, in my mind; a sideshow meant to bring acclaim to the football part of a conference that doesn't care about football.
It didn't help that Miami played like an outsider. Since joining the ACC, Miami has had great players pass through its program. Guillermo Diaz and Robert Hiite and Jimmy Graham and Malcolm Grant and ESPECIALLY Jack McClinton were all memorable guys. But the best of those teams (2007, when Jack was at his zenith) was still nothing more than the 5th or 6th best team in the conference.
You see, in order to be great, you have to have a lot of different things.
You need upperclassmen to lead.
You have to have a floor general point guard.
You have to have guys who can bang down low...they don't have to be stars, but they have to be intimidating.
You have to have three point shooting.
You have to have some depth off the bench.
You need a good coach.
And you have to have one guy that, when the chips are down, wants the ball.
For years, Miami could not satisfy all of the requirements, usually falling a point guard and coach away from being a true contender.
On Wednesday night, Miami had all of those things. And the point of this post is to say that I don't think it is a fluke...this is a DANGEROUS Miami basketball squad.
It would be easy to say that this was a catharsis, a combination of events that makes a team look better than it is.
And as someone who has watched a shit load of this game in this conference, I say that is wrong.
You need a floor general? Shane Larkin put up a nice little 20-10-5.
You need size? Kenny Kadji and Julian Gamble intimidated POY candidate Mason Plumlee from the get go and never let up.
Three point shooting? The 'Canes shot 47% from beyond the arc.
Production from the bench? Reggie Johnson, Tonye Jekiri and Rion Brown gave the 'Canes HUGE minutes off the pine.
Leadership from your old guys? Johnson, Gamble, Scott, Kadji, Brown, Trey McKinney Jones...they've all been around at least three years...Gamble for 6. This is an OLD team. And that is a very good thing.
A good coach? Jim Laranagga makes Frank Haith look, comparatively, like a JV Coach. Which, in all honesty, isn't that far off.
And most importantly, a guy who plays his best with the money down? Ladies and gentlemen, Durand Scott.
Add all that together, and you get an elite basketball team.
Duke is a very good basketball team, no doubt. But the difference between a very good Duke team and a great Miami team was best exemplified in what happened when Ryan Kelly and Reggie Johnson got hurt.
When Johnson went out of the lineup for the 'Canes, they plugged in Julian Gamble and went on a winning streak.
When Kelly, Johnson's senior counterpart on Duke, went out hurt, Duke's entire gameplan fell apart. So much so that when the news of Kelly's injury came out, my initial thought was "Miami will beat them...no one else on their roster can match up with Kadji."
All teams go through adversity in a college basketball season. It is a long, grinding road. The great teams respond well, and that is what separates them from the very good. Miami highlighted that on the court on Wednesday night.
Now, with Johnson back in the lineup for the 'Canes, they become even more dangerous. Eventually Gamble, who has become Graham-like in the energy he brings to the court, will shift back to the bench, which is probably the better spot for him.
Johnson, when healthy, is a beast who can average 15 and 10 and nail his free throws. He is a weapon that breaks down offenses. If you double him, you have to deal with Kadji being loosed up to roam. If you pack the defense down to force the ball out, you have Miami's guard heavy attack, lead by Scott and Larking, to contend with.
This is a team that seems to have come together, finally. Every year you hear about how this is Miami's year to take a step forward on the court...this is the team that has actually done it.
Miami has seen flashes in the pan on the basketball court before. This is not the first time they have beat Duke or North Carolina. They have beat elite programs before in their time in the ACC. However, they would always fall back to Earth soon thereafter.
I am here to tell you that this team is better than that.
This is a Final Four contender. This team belongs on Tobacco Road, playing in the big boy hoops conference.
This season, they are the best the ACC has to offer.
And a legitimate Final Four contender. They might not beat the Reddick Blue Devils or the Dixon Terps or the Hansbrough Tar Heels...but you can bet your ass it would be a hell of a game.
For Miami basketball, that is a bigger compliment than I thought I would ever be able to give.
It is pretty cool to watch.
