Fresh off their one-point victory Saturday over Wake Forest, the Hurricanes broke into the AP rankings for the first time since December 2008.
Malcolm Grant was asked Monday morning to describe how his first season at the University of Miami has gone for him thus far.
It took the Brooklyn-born guard about as long to sum up his feelings as it does for him to create space and unleash a three-pointer on the basketball court. ``Lovely,'' Grant said. ``We're 15-1.''
Thanks to their one-point win Saturday over Wake Forest, the Hurricanes finally began to feel some love from pollsters Monday.
UM broke into the Associated Press rankings at No. 23 and are the highest ranked team in the state, two spots ahead of Florida State. No state team is ranked in the USA Today/ESPN poll.
It might not mean much with 14 Atlantic Coast Conference games to go -- including two tough tests this week in the state of Virginia.
But for coach Frank Haith, whose team was picked to finish 10th in the conference in the preseason and has been razzed about its nonconference schedule (ranked 301st by RealTimeRPI.com), cracking the polls is at least a nice midseason achievement. UM hadn't been ranked in the AP poll since it began the week of Dec. 1, 2008, at No. 21.
``You're always driven by [earning national respect], '' said Haith, who now has the Canes ranked in three consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.
``We talk about it all the time. If you do something for a living, you want to be the best. But if no one is talking about you, there's nothing you can do but continue to do what you do. . . . I don't want us sitting here, worrying about not being talked about on Jam or SportsCenter or whatever. That will come if we continue to do what we're doing.''
The Hurricanes will try to keep their seven-game winning streak going Wednesday night by ending a three-game losing skid to Virginia Tech (12-2, 0-1 ACC). The Hokies ended UM's hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament last season with a crushing 65-47 defeat of the Canes at the ACC tournament.
Virginia Tech made UM forward Dwayne Collins irrelevant in the loss. Collins had four points, three rebounds and three turnovers in 19 underwhelming minutes.
Haith said the last thing his team could afford is for Collins, coming off a 23-point, 11-rebound effort against Wake Forest, to become a nonfactor against a physical team like the Hokies. Haith said Collins, who leads UM in scoring (12.9 points per game) and ranks seventh in the ACC in rebounding (8.6), has to continue to play like the team's ``go-to player.''
``Going into [last Saturday's game] one of the announcers made a comment that [Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said] he knew his team's three-point percentage defense was going to be important,'' Haith said.
``That's not the way we view our team. Our team is an inside-out team. We have to establish our post presence, and then our perimeter game opens up because of that.''
Either way, the Hokies are definitely going to try to slow the Hurricanes down from long distance. UM leads the ACC with 140 three-pointers made and is on pace to break the school's single-season record set last year (251).
Grant said the Hurricanes will have to play good team defense to slow down ACC leading scorer Malcolm Delaney, who hit a three-pointer in overtime to help beat UM 88-83 in the teams' regular-season meeting at BankUnited Center. More important, Grant says, it will require ``some toughness.''
``I did some scouting last night on my own and I realized they're a really tough team,'' Grant said. ``. . . We need to go up there with tremendous focus and try to gut it out because it's going to be a tough one.''
Malcolm Grant was asked Monday morning to describe how his first season at the University of Miami has gone for him thus far.
It took the Brooklyn-born guard about as long to sum up his feelings as it does for him to create space and unleash a three-pointer on the basketball court. ``Lovely,'' Grant said. ``We're 15-1.''
Thanks to their one-point win Saturday over Wake Forest, the Hurricanes finally began to feel some love from pollsters Monday.
UM broke into the Associated Press rankings at No. 23 and are the highest ranked team in the state, two spots ahead of Florida State. No state team is ranked in the USA Today/ESPN poll.
It might not mean much with 14 Atlantic Coast Conference games to go -- including two tough tests this week in the state of Virginia.
But for coach Frank Haith, whose team was picked to finish 10th in the conference in the preseason and has been razzed about its nonconference schedule (ranked 301st by RealTimeRPI.com), cracking the polls is at least a nice midseason achievement. UM hadn't been ranked in the AP poll since it began the week of Dec. 1, 2008, at No. 21.
``You're always driven by [earning national respect], '' said Haith, who now has the Canes ranked in three consecutive seasons for the first time in school history.
``We talk about it all the time. If you do something for a living, you want to be the best. But if no one is talking about you, there's nothing you can do but continue to do what you do. . . . I don't want us sitting here, worrying about not being talked about on Jam or SportsCenter or whatever. That will come if we continue to do what we're doing.''
The Hurricanes will try to keep their seven-game winning streak going Wednesday night by ending a three-game losing skid to Virginia Tech (12-2, 0-1 ACC). The Hokies ended UM's hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament last season with a crushing 65-47 defeat of the Canes at the ACC tournament.
Virginia Tech made UM forward Dwayne Collins irrelevant in the loss. Collins had four points, three rebounds and three turnovers in 19 underwhelming minutes.
Haith said the last thing his team could afford is for Collins, coming off a 23-point, 11-rebound effort against Wake Forest, to become a nonfactor against a physical team like the Hokies. Haith said Collins, who leads UM in scoring (12.9 points per game) and ranks seventh in the ACC in rebounding (8.6), has to continue to play like the team's ``go-to player.''
``Going into [last Saturday's game] one of the announcers made a comment that [Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said] he knew his team's three-point percentage defense was going to be important,'' Haith said.
``That's not the way we view our team. Our team is an inside-out team. We have to establish our post presence, and then our perimeter game opens up because of that.''
Either way, the Hokies are definitely going to try to slow the Hurricanes down from long distance. UM leads the ACC with 140 three-pointers made and is on pace to break the school's single-season record set last year (251).
Grant said the Hurricanes will have to play good team defense to slow down ACC leading scorer Malcolm Delaney, who hit a three-pointer in overtime to help beat UM 88-83 in the teams' regular-season meeting at BankUnited Center. More important, Grant says, it will require ``some toughness.''
``I did some scouting last night on my own and I realized they're a really tough team,'' Grant said. ``. . . We need to go up there with tremendous focus and try to gut it out because it's going to be a tough one.''
