MIAMI — There was this one burst that sealed the historic night for Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball.
Kameron McGusty muscled in a contested layup, lifting both fists to flex his biceps. Sam Waardenburg finished a steal with a slam dunk. Then suffocating defense on the other end forced an Iowa State turnover.
The Sweet 16 was conquered.
The Hurricanes were headed to the Elite Eight for the first time in the program’s 60 seasons.
“Traditionally known as a football school,” McGusty noted, rightly. “Hopefully we can start getting more recognition.”
This is the way. The only way in a saturated Miami sports market that worships winners and forgets the rest.
The Canes’ T-shirt slogan this postseason is ‘More Is Possible.’
We’ll see, fast.
There was postgame celebration well past midnight in the east Saturday morning after the 70-56 dispatch of Iowa State. It was a meteorological marvel: Hurricanes beating Cyclones, led by a player named McGusty (27 points), in the Windy City, Chicago.
“Did I dance?” said coach Jim Larranaga, 72, of the joyous bedlam. “I think I did one of my dances from the ‘60s.”
Said Larranaga on Saturday, driving to a team meeting: “There’s a reason they call it the Big Dance. Everyone in the locker room was cheering, dancing and celebrating. What a feeling!”
The spigot on the celebrating shut off fast, though.
‘More Is Possible,’ remember?
Now the Canes face Kansas — the only one No. 1 seed still standing — in the Elite 8 at 2:20 p.m. Sunday in Chicago.
UM already had blinders-on for that as the coach spoke to us early Saturday.
“Kansas plays very fast, faster than we do,” Larranaga said. “But we’re comfortable with that kind of tempo. This game could be an up-and-down affair. It would really be to our benefit if we were able to slow them down.”
UM turns the page to Sunday, but we can savor getting even this far just a bit longer.
The Canes have sent 16 players to the NBA across the years. Three are in the league right now. The greatest UM player of all, Rick Barry, was a national phenomenon in the mid-’60s, averaging 30 points a game. Larranaga had ostensibly better, higher-ranked Miami teams reach the Sweet 16 twice before, in 2013 and 16.
No previous players or teams carried the Hurricanes this far. Lifted Miami this high.
And nobody realistically could see this coming. Larranaga had toughed through three down seasons in a row, surrounded by a pandemic. His previous three teams had a 39-51 combined record. Last year’s 10-17 mark was the program’s worst since 1994.
UM was predicted to finish 12th of 15 in the Atlantic Coast Conference in a preseason poll. Larranaga entered the season feeling some heat for the first time — before this happened, with the reward of a two-year contract extension.
“If we told you at the beginning of the season we were going to the Elite Eight everybody would laugh at us," McGusty said. “Even three weeks into the season, everybody would look at us crazy. It’s amazing. It still feels unreal.”
Miami surely isn’t the national darling of this Elite Eight outside of Coral Gables and South Florida.
There is the closest you get to an actual Cinderella in the No. 15 St. Peters Peacocks, lowest seed ever to get this far.
There is mighty Kansas, representing Goliath as the last No. 1 standing.
Of course there is Duke and retiring Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the beloved Coach K, down to his last game (or two, or three).
But these Hurricanes — from 10-17 to the first Elite Eight in school history — hold their own for one of the great comeback seasons and accomplishments in Miami’s sports history.
It would be that even if it ended right here, and surely most everybody thinks it will now, with the pedigree of the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks in the way.
But isn’t this the beauty of March Madness? No pre-written scripts here. Who thought there might be Peacocks strutting into late March?
Says Larranaga: “I hope our players keep the same mindset they’ve had throughout. And that’s to really have fun playing.”
Maybe the old coach has another dance in him, let’s see.
Maybe those Miami T-shirts are on to something.
‘More Is Possible.’
