Interim coaches guide win-starved Miami, Virginia into battle

Miami faces perhaps its best shot at its first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season Wednesday night in Coral Gables, Fla., against a visiting Virginia squad that has lost six of its last seven games.

The Hurricanes (4-16, 0-9 ACC) have dropped nine straight games and have only one victory since Thanksgiving. The Cavaliers (9-11, 2-7) have fared a little better but are 0-5 this season in road games.

Both struggling schools have interim head coaches. Ron Sanchez took over at Virginia when Tony Bennett abruptly retired three weeks before the season opener. Bill Courtney is still searching for his first win with Miami since head coach Jim Larranaga stepped down on Dec. 26.

The once-mighty programs have fallen far and fast. In 2022-23, the Cavaliers and Hurricanes finished in a tie for first place in the ACC with 15-5 league records. Miami made the Final Four that season, and Virginia captured a national championship in 2018-19.

The Cavaliers are coming off a 74-59 home loss to Notre Dame on Saturday in which they never held the lead. It was their ninth loss this season by double figures.

Sanchez shouldered the blame after Virginia allowed the Fighting Irish to shoot 52.2 percent (12 of 23) from behind the arc.

"There's not a single fan out there that wants to win more than I do," he said. "I'm extremely disappointed in the way that the team came out, and that is on me as their head coach, that I did not get them rallied up and ready to compete with their hair on fire like we needed to. So, I've got to do a much better job of that."

Jacob Cofie supplied 17 points and Isaac McKneely had 14 for Virginia. McKneely paces the team with 12.4 points per game and Elijah Saunders adds 11.8 ppg.

After getting blown out in its three previous games by a combined 115 points, Miami came tantalizingly close to its breakthrough win Saturday before falling 98-94 in overtime at Cal.

"I was certain that our kids were going to show fight," Courtney said. "We didn't come away with the victory and there's no moral victories in this, but I did appreciate the kids' effort and fight. ... And I thought hopefully we can use that as a building block as we move forward."

Matthew Cleveland (15.1 ppg) leads the Hurricanes in scoring.

Virginia leads the all-time series 16-13. Last season, the Cavaliers cruised to a 60-38 victory over the Hurricanes on Feb. 5, 2024, in Charlottesville, Va.

--Field Level Media