No. 14 Miami walks into its home opener Friday night in Coral Gables with a fresh chance to reset after a rough start, and the Hurricanes are leaning into the size and depth that coach Jai Lucas believes can carry them.
Miami opened the season with a 77-67 loss to top-ranked Florida on Monday, but Lucas didn’t sound rattled afterward. He pointed to a roster built around length and bulk, with only 6-foot-2 point guard Acaden Lewis standing apart from a starting group that includes Somto Cyril at 6-11 and 263 pounds, Malik Reneau at 6-9 and 247, Shelton Henderson at 6-6 and 239, and Caleb Gaskins at 6-8 and 221.
“Championship teams are built like that,” Lucas said. “Florida is one of those teams, and I feel like (the Hurricanes are) one of those teams, too.”
Lewis was the bright spot against the Gators, pouring in 24 points. Miami will need more of that kind of production from a group that was quiet in the opener, especially Reneau, Henderson and Gaskins.
Reneau, last season’s leading scorer at 18.9 points per game and a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection, was limited to five points. Henderson, who averaged 13.8 points last season and had a 30-point game, finished with seven.
Gaskins, a five-star freshman who had 20 points in an exhibition win over No. 24 Vanderbilt on Oct. 23, managed four against Florida.
The Hurricanes also expect their bench to matter, with Dante Allen, Nick Dorn, Brent Bland and Robert Miller III part of a deeper rotation. Miami went 26-9 last season in Lucas’ first year as a head coach, a 19-win jump from the 2024-25 campaign, and now has 11 newcomers as it tries to get back to that level.
Wagner arrives after its own opening-night loss, a 76-50 defeat at Boston College on Tuesday. The Seahawks were within 12 points with 10 minutes left before Boston College pulled away, and three Wagner players reached double figures: Kareem Watson with 13, Taj Bryant with 10 and Cam Estevez with 10.
The numbers told the rest of the story. Wagner shot 30.4% from the field, hit just 3 of 15 from 3-point range, got beat 34-24 in the paint and lost the fast-break battle 14-5.
Dwan McMillan is in his second season leading the Seahawks, but this one is now officially his team after the interim label was removed. McMillan, 37, went 14-17 last season in his first year as a collegiate head coach, and Wagner’s roster has been overhauled with 14 newcomers, including 12 transfers.
Estevez, a Fairfield transfer, is expected to help from deep even after going 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in the opener. The Seahawks are also counting on newcomers Freddy Hassan, Tajae Jones and William Patterson Jr. to bring more to the table.
Hassan, who averaged 16.1 points and 8.4 rebounds last season at the junior-college level, scored two points and added three rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench in his Wagner debut. Jones, who spent the past two years at Siena, started and had two points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. Patterson, a 7-1, 241-pound center who is at his fourth college in four years and played last season at New Orleans, finished with two points off the bench.
Wagner also added a notable voice off the floor this year, hiring former NBA star Tracy McGrady as a strategic advisor. McGrady said, “I look forward to helping coach McMillan and his staff in any way possible.”
In Other News...
Miami Can Attack The One Notre Dame Flaw That Really Matters
Notre Dame arrives with the kind of defensive reputation that usually changes the tone of a matchup before kickoff, sitting first nationally in total defense. But the deeper numbers show a softer spot where Miami can make this game uncomfortable, because the Irish have struggled badly once opponents get inside the 20. Red-zone defense has been a problem all season, and that kind of weakness tends to matter most when the opponent has the ball-moving ability to keep drives alive.
Miami has been one of the nations most efficient offenses in that same area, turning red-zone chances into points at an elite rate. That makes the matchup inside the 20 especially important, even more so with Malachi Toney unavailable. If the Hurricanes can keep finishing drives instead of settling for empty possessions, they have a clear path to stress the one part of Notre Dames defense that has not matched its overall ranking. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Suddenly Faces A Bigger Malachi Toney Question Than Expected
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Toney also did not travel with Miami to Notre Dame after doctors advised against flying so soon after the procedure, a reminder of how delicate the recovery timeline is right now. The best-case return window points toward the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 5, but for Miami the bigger question is how much of his season remains available once he is cleared to play again. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Is Trying Everything To Rattle Miami Saturday Night
Notre Dame is pulling out a new kind of home-field wrinkle for Saturday nights matchup with Miami, turning to LED wristbands to help create a coordinated visual show inside the stadium. The technology, already familiar from big-time entertainment events, is new to college football and will let the crowds wristbands act like pixels, flashing words and images as part of the atmosphere.
Marcus Freeman has also made it clear he wants the noise level to be a factor, urging fans to make life difficult for Miamis offense. For the Hurricanes, that means walking into a setting built not just for pageantry, but for disruption, with the Irish trying every possible way to tilt the night in their favor. [Read more 🡒]