Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga, who turned 73 in October, is continuing to enjoy the best time of his career, including a 92-83 victory over visiting Virginia Tech on Monday night.
The Hurricanes, who were ranked 23rd at the time, were one of three ranked ACC teams, along with No. 20 Clemson and No. 6 Virginia.
Larranaga, who played at Providence, began his coaching career under Terry Holland at Davidson and later joined Holland at UVa.
After that, Larranaga accepted head-coaching positions at Bowling Green and George Mason before taking the Miami job in 2011.
He had put up a 713-480 record as a college head coach coming into this season.
Miami went 26-11 last year and is on a similar track this year at 17-5 overall and 8-4 in conference play going into the weekend.
Entering this season, Larranaga had ranked ninth among active Division I men’s coaches in victories with 708 and has been nominated for the Naismith Memorial College Basketball Hall of Fame.
“If you think we’re going to outscore them, you’re dead wrong,” Tech coach Mike Young said after Monday’s game. “That ain’t happening. This thing’s in the 90’s. We talked about it all week, in our lead-up.
“Very few teams [can outscore Miami].”
Quote un-quote
Larranaga on Tech “marksman” Hunter Cattoor: “He’s a terrific defender and a lights-out 3-point shooter. He was out for a while and, without him, they’re not the same. But, with him, they’re dynamite.”
Women’s basketball
After going 12-0 to start the season under new coach Amaka Agua-Hamilton, the Virginia women’s basketball team has lost seven of its last eight games heading into a Thursday night meeting with 11th-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Recruiting
Highly touted quarterback Arch Manning is a January enrollee at Texas. He is the nephew of former college and professional star quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning and grandson of Hall of Fame quarterback Archie Manning, who starred at Ole Miss.
ESPN ranks Alabama as the No. 1 class overall followed by Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio State. It’s the eighth top ranked class under Nick Saban. Miami, at No. 7, is the only ACC school in the top 10. Virginia Tech’s class is 35th and Virginia’s is 64th.
The Cavaliers have added a transfer, defensive back Cam’ron Kelly, also known as Cam, from North Carolina. Kelly, a graduate of Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, began his college career at Auburn, only to spend four years in Chapel Hill.
Kelly, who played quarterback in high school, originally had committed to Virginia Tech but changed his mind. He could be returning to Chapel Hill when the Cavaliers play at UNC on October 21.