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The Daily Tar Heel

Miami basketball welcomes nine newcomers to team

Men's Basketball v. Miami.
Men's Basketball v. Miami.

But in the 2014-15 season, Larranaga won’t be as fortunate.

Junior center Tonye Jekiri and sophomore guard Manu Lecomte are the only returning scholarship players from the 2013-14 team. Miami has nine newcomers, including three freshmen and three eligible transfers.

Larranaga said, with his past experienced teams, the players enter the season with a clear vision and only certain areas need to be tweaked. But this year, Larranaga expects growing pains.

“A team that brings in a handful of new players and has a couple of great freshmen, they may show that they have great talent,” Larranaga said. “But if you get into the NCAA Tournament and they don’t know anything about the opponent, they could be easily caught off guard and not play their best.”

Among the new crop of players is junior guard Sheldon McClellan who transferred from Texas. As a sophomore with the Longhorns during the 2012-13 season, McClellan put up 13.5 points per game and shot 83.3 percent from the free throw line.

For McClellan, sitting out last season was uncomfortable, but he said it gave him time to work on his game.

“It was very frustrating to see my teammates struggle on the court. Me and (Angel Rodriguez) wanted to be out there,” McClellan said. “But at that point, we were focusing on ourselves. I definitely got better in my year off — both offensively and defensively. So I looked at it as a positive.”

With its two leading scorers gone in guards Rion Brown and Garrius Adams, Miami will have to find a new source of offense. Returners Jekiri and Lecomte both averaged fewer than 10 points per game last season.

But Rodriguez, a redshirt junior transfer guard from Kansas State, said any player on the team is capable of carrying the offensive mantle in each game.

“I truly think that we have a lot of weapons and that it could be anyone’s night,” Rodriguez said. “That’s one of the beauties of this team. It’s an advantage feeling comfortable giving the ball to each other.”

To be successful, Larranaga said one player can’t carry the load. Instead, there needs to be a strong supporting cast in place to go far in the NCAA Tournament.

“You have to have an NBA first-round pick probably to win it all, but he can’t do it by himself,” Larranaga said. “One, two or three guys can’t do it by themselves. They have to have enough support.”

And with so many new faces, Miami will need all the support it can get.

sports@dailytarheel.com

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