Miami was one of the approved topics at Gary Williams’ media availability this afternoon, and the beleaguered coach had a few things to say about Saturday night’s opponent.
The Hurricanes (14-6, 3-4 ACC) beat the Terps 62-60 in Coral Gables on Jan. 14.
Senior guard Jack McClinton is the ‘Canes leading scorer and one of the best players in the ACC, averaging 18.4 points per game this season.
He scored 18 in the last game against the Terps, including the game-winning three with 24 seconds left in the game, and Williams said there are a couple of things the Terps will try to do to contain him, especially in those late game situations.
“They run him off the screens so you can double team him coming off the screens,” Williams said. “There’s some things you can do. You can put more pressure on the ball so it’s not as easy a pass to get it to McClinton to start with. They’re all things we’ll look at and we’ll try some things.”
Williams also answered a question about junior forward Dwayne Collins, who is second on the Hurricanes averaging 12.6 points per game and is the team’s leading rebounder with 7.6 boards per game.
“I think Collins–he’s very confident,” Williams said. “When you’re a player if you have two or three moves that you can do really well, I think that’s all you need. Collins has really improved his two or three moves rather than added a lot to his game. He’s really effective close to the basket. He’s probably one of the best post-up players in the league.”
You wouldn’t think that would bode well for a Terp team who doesn’t defend average post players all that well, but they did hold Collins to just six points in that first meeting.
As I pointed out Thursday, this is probably one of the few remaining winnable games for the Terps this season. They really need this one to stop the bleeding this past week has caused.
Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. at Comcast.
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