Miami‘s deep and somewhat unexpected run in March Madness came to an end in the Final Four at the hands of UConn by a score of 72-59. It was a great run for the Hurricanes, and just because they came up short against a dominant UConn team doesn't mean that they should be hanging their heads. That's exactly what head coach Jim Larranaga conveyed to his players after the game.
No matter what Larranaga and Miami did in this game, they couldn't find a way to crack UConn on either side of the ball. It is certainly a disappointing outcome, but it shouldn't take away from what the Hurricanes were able to accomplish in the tournament and on the season as a whole. According to Jordan Miller, Larranaga had a short and simple message for his players after suffering their tough loss.
“He told us he loved us, he was proud of us.” – Jordan Miller, South Florida Sun Sentinel
Suffering a loss like this after a deep and exciting run in March Madness is going to be tough on the players, so there's no sense in ripping into them for their inability to pick up the win. Larranaga recognized this, and delivered a message that surely resonated with his team after such a tough outing.
Miami's basketball program can certainly build off of this strong March Madness run moving forward, but they will need some time to process everything they managed to accomplish this season. Larranaga will certainly play a big role in that process, and he's gotten off to a great start by giving his players a helping hand after their season came to an end against UConn.
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