Sports Update Monday: Hassan’s Historic Game, Canes Baseball in Top 10 & Nova Softball Starts Fresh
Heat Beat Bulls After Whiteside & Wade’s Dominance
In his first game back from a sprained right ankle, the Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside came off the bench to set a franchise record Sunday at United Center with 12 blocks while also scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the Heat’s 96-84 victory. Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning held the Heat’s previous franchise record for blocks in a game with nine. Whiteside’s rare points-rebounds-blocks triple-double came as a reserve, and despite first-half foul trouble. He played less than 25 minutes. Dwyane Wade led the Heat in scoring with 26 points, going 10 of 18 from the field and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line. The Heat led 74-62 after the third quarter and Wade closed out the game scoring 12 points in the final period.
Hurricanes Baseball Ranked in Pre-Season Top 10
If you haven’t already gotten excited for Canes baseball season, you probably should — and quickly. The Miami Hurricanes baseball team has been ranked in the top-15 in pretty much every baseball poll there is (there’s a lot of them), and they should be really, really good this year. After winning the ACC last year, the Hurricanes are looking to take it a step further and reach the College Baseball World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, for the first time in what feels like forever. On Monday, the baseball team was ranked #9 by Baseball America.
Miami’s No. 9 ranking continued an impressive stretch of preseason honors for the Hurricanes. Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper named sophomore catcher Zack Collins to the Preseason All-America first team, while closer Bryan Garcia was a third-team selection by both publications. In addition, nine Hurricanes were ranked among the Perfect Game top 100 player breakdowns by class released earlier in January
Nova Softball Looks to Build on Last Season’s Momentum Down Stretch
The Nova Southeastern University softball team was picked third in the Sunshine State Conference preseason poll, as voted on by the conference head coaches. The Sharks received 46 votes in the poll, finishing behind Rollins and Tampa, who finished with 60 and 58 votes, respectively. NSU was three points higher than fourth-place Barry. This ties the second-highest the Sharks have been in the preseason poll, after being named favorites in 2010, and the first time NSU has appeared in the top three since 2011. NSU ended the 2014 season playing its best softball, but narrowly missed out on the NCAA postseason. The Sharks will begin the season on Feb. 1 at home against Ave Maria, in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.