What a difference a couple of days can make.

After an embarassing 78-73 home loss to NC State that was far from close for most of the game, the Canes responded in a big way Tuesday night. Kenny Kadji scored a game-high 21 points with 8 rebounds, Malcolm Grant added 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc, and the Canes beat Georgia Tech in the Phillips Arena 64-49 to earn their second conference win.

Larranaga ran out a new starting lineup of Shane Larkin, Durand Scott, Grant, Kadji, and Reggie Johnson, and the results were compelling.....

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Pretty tough loss Sunday, 78-73 to the Wolfpack. Miami put themselves in a 12-point halftime hole, and never recovered. As such, sitting at 10-7 and 1-3 in the ACC, it might be time to alter expectations for this squad, if you haven't already. Jim Larranaga said as much with his frustrated post-game comments, dropping bombs like "I was anticipating what our squad would be like before my staff and I arrived and I've found that we have a lot more work to do than we originally thought" and a first half that was "really disappointing and very discouraging." Bah.

If there is any hope to salvage a respectable season, it needs to start with winning games vs fellow basement-dwelling teams, ala the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets tonight at 9 pm ET. Tech sits at 8-11 (1-4 ACC).

Go Canes.....

With 9 days left until signing day, things on the recruiting front are crawling along while we all wait patiently for the over-the-top ESPN recruiting special. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything to report, of course. Miami is still generating quite a bit of recruiting news, which is always a good thing. Here's a quick rundown of the goings on from the past week or so.

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If the Canes want to get where they want to go this season, ala 8-8 or 9-7 in the conference (yes, orange-and-green-hued glasses here, people), then they need to get past the NC State's, Marylands, and Virginia Techs of the basketball world. And protect home court. They have a chance to do both today in a nooner at the BUC.

Go Canes.......

As we patiently wait for National Signing Day to arrive, and for all the big names being thrown around to announce where they will go, lets take another quick look at where the Canes currently are with their class. To start off with, I want to touch base briefly about the status of the scholarship situation in regards to over signing. I have gotten a few questions regarding this, and I want to try and clear up as much as I can about it. When beginning any recruiting conversation, you at least have to have a grasp of how the scholarship thing works, so here is a breakdown: Each team, by I believe June, can only have 85 football scholarship athletes on the team, period. You can sign more than 85 players, but only 85 are allowed to be awarded athletic scholarships (there are loopholes for purely academic scholly's, but we wont get into those). Each signing period, teams are restricted by NCAA rule to only 25 signees, although there are rules to allow for 3 extra, pushing it to 28. If you have signees that qualify to do so, they can enroll early in the first semester of the year, which allows them to be back counted to the previous year's 25 signee limit.

So what does this all mean for the Canes?

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If coffee is for closers, Coach Jim Larranaga needs to open up a Starbucks inside the Canes locker room in the BankUnited Center.

Miami jumped ahead 74-66 with 1:35 to go following a thunderous dunk by Rion Brown on an alley-oop pass from Durand Scott over Clemson's half-court trap. From there, Miami saw Clemson chip the lead away to a single point at 74-73 on a putback by Milton Jennings with 5 seconds to go. The comedic stretch saw a missed layup, a three point play allowed, and a turnover where Trey McKinney Jones inexplicably fell down out of bounds with the ball with :34 left while dribbling down the shot clock.

However, Shane Larkin got free against the press and did what he does best --- made a pair of free throws. Scott picked off a deep pass and dribbled out the clock.....and just like that, the Canes finally cracked the win column in the ACC with a 76-73 win.

Up 42-39 at the half, the Canes crept out to leads of 46-39, 49-42, and 54-49, before Clemson took the lead 64-60 with 7:05 left and seemed to have the momentum. Clemson's 7-footer Calatlin Baciu found room inside and guard Andre Young sliced through the Miami defense for easy layups.

Miami countered quickly, as it did most of the evening when Clemson made a run, with a three-pointer by Jones on the next possession, and took the lead for good with a pair of Kenny Kadji free throws with 5:41 left.

Scott, Jones, Kadji, DeQuan Jones and Malcolm Grant reached double digits points for the Canes, with Grant leading the way with 16 points and a couple of clutch three-pointers in the second half. It was a big bounce back game for Grant, who'd been struggling recently on the court while coping with the tragic loss of his brother off of it. Reggie Johnson had an off night with 7 points, but collected a game-high 7 rebounds despite struggling with foul trouble for most of the night.

Up next for Miami is NC State on Sunday at noon at the BankUnited Center.

Dear God, let's finally get an ACC win. Go Canes.............

The University of Miami announced seven early enrollees today. These guys will be able to compete immediately for playing time and will allow Miami to squeeze more players into its nominal 2012 recruiting class, since they all will count for 2011. Here are details on who will be in Coral Gables this March.

Gray Crow, QB, Countryside (Clearwater, Fla.)

Crow is a pro-style QB in the mold of ex-Canes Kyle Wright and Brock Berlin, which is expected to be the type of signal caller recruited to Miami by Al Golden. Crow is rated as a three-star prospect by the major recruiting services (for the benefit of my own sanity, I'm using rankings from Rivals, ESPN and 24/7), but if all goes right for Miami, he'll never see extended playing time as a Cane. Crow is rated as the 28th overall pro-style QB by Rivals, the 35th by 24/7 and the 80th overall QB by ESPN, and historically speaking no one in that ranking range from that position has ever made much of an impact at the major college level. Those rankings also place Crow behind fellow early enrollee Preston Dewey and presumably whichever QBs are brought in by Golden in his 2013 class. Crow will be just about the rawest QB at UM, and though it will be good for him to get work with college coaches, he will undoubtedly take a redshirt in 2012 and try and work his way up from there.

Preston Dewey, QB, Saint Andrews Episcopal (Austin, Tex.)

Of the three QBs (along with Crow and David Thompson) being brought in by Golden in the 2012 class, Dewey is the headliner. He's rated as a three-star prospect by Rivals and 24/7, but ESPN has him as a four-star and the No. 133 overall player in the 2012 class. Dewey had most of his senior season erased due to a wrist injury (he'll be 100% come spring practice), but he has excellent size at 6' 3" and 205 pounds and he can make most throws, though his calling card as a thrower is more his accuracy than his arm strength. Dewey will have a chance to start at Miami sometime down the line, though his chances in that department will be heavily dependent on the caliber of quarterbacks in Miami's 2013 class, as it seems unlikely that Dewey, or anyone on Miami's roster, will unseat Stephen Morris as long as Morris is at UM.

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