FIU Men’s Basketball – A Game That Showed A Lot Of Improvement

CORAL GABLES, FL – The FIU Panthers, who took on the 12th-ranked Miami Hurricanes, saw themselves at one point leading by 12 points but ultimately fell short following a UM run.

“We gave ourselves a chance,” said FIU head coach Jeremy Ballard following the game. “Anyone that would watch our first two games, we just weren’t giving ourselves a chance for how much we were turning the ball over and tonight we had a plus-four turnover margin.”

After turning the ball over 24 times against the UCF Knights and 26 times against Tarleton State, the Panthers only committed 10 turnovers tonight, compared to Miami’s 14.

Defensively, the Panthers were able to shut down the Canes, allowing them to go on a run to put them down 41-39 entering the half and eventually corralling a 12-point lead.

The Hurricanes top scorer, Norchad Omier, was held scoreless through the first half and his first two points of the game came via free throws.

Although the Canes had four players end the game with double-digit points, led by Matthew Cleveland who ended the night with 23 points, FIU held Omier to just six on the night.

One of the reasons why Ballard brought in so much size through recruits and the transfer portal was due to the lack of rebounding that his team had. Both Jonathan Aybar and Seth Pinkney had six rebounds, which tied for the most on the night.

As a team, the Panthers out-rebounded the Canes 34-32. The Panthers also achieved 16 offensive rebounds which led to 24 second-chance points.

“If you were to watch our film from Thursday, it shows me that my assistant coaches did an unbelievable job of getting to our guys and our guys did an unbelievable job of responding,” said Ballard postgame. “To limit them to only two second-chance points. That’s one of the reasons that we were in this game. The possession battle was in our favor tonight, the turnover margin was in our favor, and the rebounding margin was in our favor. So it was good.”

After struggling in the first game of the season and finding a rhythm in the second game, Arutro Dean had his best game scoring 15 points, which led the team and took over towards the end of the first half, helping FIU go on the run that they did.

“He’s just scratching the surface of who he can be as a player,” said Ballard. “He cramped up there and that’s two games in a row he’s cramped up and it hurts us when he has to come out, but he’s a special young man and I’m glad he gets to play in this battle of Miami game.”

Both coaches were later asked about the possibility of continuing to face each other for years to come, as this matchup was the first since 2008.

Jeremy Ballard was extremely grateful for the opportunity to face the Hurricanes and says that he would love to continue to face them, but he does not want to put pressure on Miami to schedule them.

“This is not this is not to be a public pressure to do that. I have not,” said Ballard. “We are very, very grateful that this happened at the last second. Again, they did not have to do this. They could have gotten anybody. There are a lot of teams that would love to collect a check to play against a final-four team down here in South Florida, so I’m not trying to impress here or anything like that.

“We would love to do it. Our fans and administration would love to do it. We’re appreciative of the opportunity. I have not been able to have that conversation.”

University of Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga did mention wanting to continue the rivalry, as they have taken on the Panthers in multiple closed-door scrimmages.

“When we scrimmage them, I say that was wild,” said Larrañaga following the game. “You learn a lot about your team playing in these games…It has always been my philosophy to play in-state schools.”

When asked the magic question of wanting to continue the rivalry, Larrañaga simply replied by saying, “Sure.”