Two days after being trounced by 30 points at Duke on national television, University of Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larranaga still struggled to explain what happened.
“We were like deer in headlights,” he said Monday. “We froze. It’s the first time, really, since I’ve been at Miami. We usually enjoy those environments. I don’t know if it was because of the reputations of Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish, all projected to go so high in the NBA Draft, that kind of celebrity. It’s like we were playing in galoshes. We couldn’t move… Those three players from the same team could go 1-2-3 in the draft.