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UM Opens ACC Tourney Play Friday On WBFS

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – After winning its first outright regular season Atlantic Coast Conference championship, the Miami Hurricanes men's basketball team has its sights set on the annual ACC Tournament.

The ACC Tournament will tip-off later this week and Miami will get a first-round bye thanks to being the number one seed in the tournament. UM will play the winner of the Boston College vs. Georgia Tech game on Friday at noon and the game can only be seen on WBFS MyTV 33.

Miami knocked off Clemson on Saturday 62-49 to claim the ACC regular season title. The victory pushed Miami's overall record to 24-6 and 15-3 in conference play. Miami wasn't expected to be a challenger to Duke this year, but came out of nowhere to nearly dominate conference play.

For a team that lost games to Florida Gulf Coast University, incidentally the first team to qualify for this year's NCAA Tournament, and to the Indiana State Sycamores; UM has come quite a way thanks to great senior leadership and phenomenal play from point guard Shane Larkin.

Larkin, son of former Major League Baseball star Barry Larkin, averaged 13.7 points, 4.4 assists, and 2 steals per game this season while serving as the court general for the Canes' senior laden offense. UM made a habit out of not depending on one star too much.

The Canes had three players in the top 25 in scoring in the ACC and had two players in the top 25 in rebounding in conference play.

UM's overall offense averaged 69 points per game, but defensively the team only gave up 59.9 points per game to opponents. Miami beat conference opponents by an average of 9.1 points and also held opponents to just 39 percent shooting from the field.

The Canes will face the Georgia Tech vs. Boston College winner and if they get past that, will face the winner of Virginia vs. Virginia Tech/NC State winner in the semifinals before a championship matchup against Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest Maryland, Clemson, or Florida State.

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