The stirring, historic run into the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight and Sunday’s first half against mighty Kansas showed us all how close the Miami Hurricanes are to being a basketball school, too.
The second half showed us how far away the program still is.
Kansas was heading after the final whistle to New Orleans and the exalted Final Four.
Miami was heading back to Coral Gables, encouraged by the school’s deepest run yet into March Madness, but knowing exactly now the gulf between getting-there and arrived.
The Kansas Jayhawks, the pedigreed program with three national championships, the only No. 1 seed left in the men’s NCAA Tournament, the big favorite given an 85.4 percent win-likelihood by ESPN’s computer — they had all they could handle in Sunday’s Midwest Regional final in Chicago from a Hurricanes men’s program this close to a national championship for the first time ever.
The Canes were 20 minutes away from the Final Four. Say that again. Savor it.
But those 20 minutes were an eternity.
Miami would lose, 76-50. After leading at the half by 35-29.
The math is ugly. Brutal.
The Canes were outscored, 47-15 in the second half.
UM revved as hard and high as it could in the first half.
Kansas had a second gear. Maybe a third.
Miami had little on the attack betond Kameron McGusty and Isaiah Wong. They were an older team, smallish, with little depth. It makes getting this far all the more remarkable.
“I love you guys! We’re havin’ fun, rght!?” Miami coach Jim Larranaga had told his team before the game tipped off.
By the time 2:40 remained and Jayhawks fans were partying in the arena where Michael Jordan soared, Can reserves were hugging each other courtside, not in celebration, but in consolation.
This is not about defeat, though, for Larranaga and the Canes.
It is about triumph.
After three down seasons in a row wrapped in a pandemic, including last year’s 10-17 record, this was aseason of resurgence — one that changed everything about Miami Hurricanes basketball.
The standard.
The potential.
The expectation.
The national image of a school no longer just about football glory.
Now, there is no turning back.
For Canes basketball, it is about sustaining the progress this season represented. Because the alternative is failure.
The bar is raised. Is it too high? Let’s see.
This NCAA ride Larranaga’s guys have been on — three straight Madness wins before Sunday — was an exhilarating surprise by a team forecast 12th best in the 15-team Atlantic Coast Conference before the season.
It captured the attention of South Florida sports fans for a minute, for a couple of weeks. It made UM hoops matter in a way they hadn’t. Not in the Sweet 16 runs of 2013 and ‘16. Not even when Rick Barry became the school’s best in the sport in the ancient 1960s.
This was the pinnacle.
But here’s the thing.
This is what it will take.
For Canes basketball to elbow into a brutally tough Miami sports market and matter in a big way. It will take sustained excellence, Sweet 16s being common place, the Final Four a realistic annual goal.
Being honest, this remains a football town, and now the Dolphins are retooling in a big way and the Canes have Mario Cristobal and fresh. The Big 3 made it a basketball town, too, but that’s all Heat for now. The Florida Panthers are legit Stanley Cup contenders. The Marlins and Inter Miami are left scrambling for relevance, for a footprint beyond the fringe.
UM basketball has been that niche sport on the edge, mattering greatly to diehard fans but hardly at all to the broad populace.
This run to Elite Eight, by an unranked No. 10 seed — it sure got our attention.
But for Larranaga’s program, the backslaps for what you’ve just done will fade away fast.
The questions is what do you have now? What’s next? Was this a Cinderella blip or have you turned a real corner?
UM basketball has our attention now to the degree we care about the answer. Anticipation is piqued. There is momentum.
Let’s see what they do with it.
