The Miami Hurricanes basketball team was back on the court Thursday night for an exhibition game against Eckerd College, in front of a sparse crowd. The return of college hoops is a welcomed sight for all of us.

The Hurricanes came out of the gates strong after a couple of Omar Sherman jumpers, but Eckerd College clamped down on defense and started piling up on offensive rebounds midway through the first half, and took a 5-point lead. The Canes rallied back a little bit, but still trailed by a point to a team with far less talent than them.

The second half was a lot better for Miami, and they imposed their superior talent on Eckerd, and they outscored the Tritons 45-28 en route to a 74-58 win in their lone exhibition game of the season.

We’ll usually do these game recaps a little differently, but since it’s an exhibition game, we’re going to take a look at three things that need improvement heading into the season opener against Howard.

Rebounding

Well, this is going to be a problem. Tonye Jekiri sat out Thursday’s game with what UM called a “lower extremity injury” but it could’ve just been to rest because he looked fine walking around in warm-ups. The loss of Jekiri, however, demonstrated the glaring weakness the Canes have on the boards. The Canes were out-rebounded 33-32 and that’s a horrible sign because Eckerd College’s tallest guy is 6’6”.

Ivan Cruz Uceda led the team with 8 rebounds, but looked a little flat-footed and he’s not going to be available for the first 16 games of the season. Omar Sherman had a couple of nice rebounds but we saw that he likes to hang around behind-the-arc, but that’s going to have to change starting a week from Friday, if the Canes want to win some games. We knew that this was going to be a problem this season, but the rebounding problems allowed a division-2 team hang around for the majority of the game. They have a relatively easy game against Howard which Miami should win, but bad rebounding isn’t going to do the trick against Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators.

Defense

Miami’s defense wasn’t entirely bad and they had some spurts were they looked like a good defensive team, but allowing 58 points to a division-2 team is not a good effort on that end. The Tritons shot 37% from the three-point line, and with a game coming up against Florida, that’s something that needs to be addressed. Again, it’s just an exhibition game and the majority of these guys haven’t played together so nobody should be hitting the panic button just yet.

Rotation

Coach Larranaga elected to go with a two-point guard lineup on Thursday by starting Angel Rodriguez and Manu Lecomte, and even though I like the idea, I think there should be a small change. The second unit lacked a pass-first guy when both Ja’Quan Newton and Deandre Burnett came into the game. I think both of those guys are capable of creating for others, but they’re far more effective when they get the ball in their preferred spots and go to work. I think Coach L should look into perhaps starting Burnett, who is a very good scorer, while having Manu Lecomte — who is a pass-first guard — running the show with Newton and the rest of the second unit.

Another thing that bears watching is the rotation at the 4 and the 5. Tonye Jekiri is definitely starting at the center position and the starting power forward spot is there for either Joe Thomas or Sherman. Regardless of who starts, Miami is going to have a dilemma with who their backup’s at the position are going to be. I see Sheldon McClellan logging some minutes at the big forward spot and Miami going small ball with their second unit, at least until Cruz Uceda is back from suspension.

***

All-in-all, the Canes came out victorious and they did show some signs of being a good team. McClellan lead all scorers with 24 points and he looks to be the team’s best scoring option. Angel Rodriguez ran the show effectively with 6 assists, including a couple of beautifully thrown ally-oops to McClellan. I would’ve liked to see just a little more from Newton, Burnett and James Palmer, but the team is in good shape and we should see a better team out on the floor against Howard next Friday at the BankUnited Center.