Team #125 - Miami

On Saturday January 21st, 2023, I saw my 125th Division One College Basketball teams. On this occasion, I saw the Miami Hurricanes take on the Duke Blue Devils. Miami is the 8th team that I have seen out of the ACC. Miami has a 15-3 record on the year. They most recently played Syracuse and they won 82-78. The leading scorer for Miami is Isaiah Wong and he is averaging 16.7 PPG. Duke has a 13-5 record on the year. They most recently played Clemson and they lost 72-64. The leading scorer for the Blue Devils is Kyle Filipowski and he is averaging 14.9 PPG. 

As always, Duke is a great atmosphere for a basketball game. Despite struggling much of the season, the Duke crowd is always great. I am not huge on this Duke team this year as they struggle on the road. The team is just too young and in today's college basketball you need older guards. This game started by Dickie V walking around the student section. Still at the age of 83 he is still a college basketball icon. The first half of this game was very back and forth. Duke would jump out to a five point lead and then Miami would tie and jump ahead to a five point lead. Nijel Pack was awesome in the first half for Miami. He made his first three shots from beyond the arc and finished the first half with 14 points to lead Miami. Duke used strong first halves from Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach to keep this game close. Roach coming off injury looked impressive in the first half. He was 3-3 from the field and had 8 points and 3 assists. I truly believe he was the single reason that Duke was tied at halftime. Kyle Filipowski was the leading scorer for Duke with 9 points and 6 rebounds at the half. Duke found themselves tied with Miami at 38 at the half. 

The second half was much of the same story. Neither team could separate. One of the cooler plays I have seen along my journey happened in the second half of this game. Duke Freshman, Dariq Whitehead hit a half court shot at the end of the shot clock. This was followed by a huge Dereck Lively block! The crowd went nuts. Down the stretch though, the experience of Duke guard, Jeremy Roach was too much for Miami. He had only six second half points but all six were huge. I will also say, Dereck Lively probably played his best game at Duke. He had only six points but added 10 rebounds and 5 blocks in only 18 minutes. If Lively can learn how to defend without fouling and boxout he could be a huge prospect in the future. Kyle Filipowski is still the best freshman Duke has. This come as a huge surprise after the hype around Whitehead and Lively. In this contest, Filipowski had 17 points and 14 rebounds. He was a monster and Miami had no answer for him. As for Miami, Nijel Pack was the story in the first half as previously mentioned. However, in the second half he was a non-factor. Jordan Miller was the story of the second half. After only having six points in the first half, Miller would score 13 second half points to be the leading scorer for Miami. If you asked me today, I think Miami will have the further run in the NCAA Tournament. Their guards are simply better than Duke's but did not show up on this game. This was a rough patch in the season for Miami as is. Never fun to go to NC State, then play Syracuse and then play at Duke. Even though, I do go to these Duke games to support the Blue Devils, I firmly do believe the Duke will not make the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils have one true road win this year. I think the lack of success away from Cameron will hurt the Devils in March. 

My next game is scheduled to February 23rd as Milwaukee takes on Purdue Fort Wayn.e