Miami’s latest NCAA Regional projections following ACC Tournament

The 6th-ranked Miami Hurricanes lost both of their games at the ACC Tournament and have dropped in recent NCAA Tournament projections, which will be officially announced on Monday (12:00 p.m., ESPN2).

Miami (39-17) entered the tournament as the No. 7 national seed and projected to be one of the 16 regional hosts for the first time since 2016.

However, with the losses to NC State and Wake Forest, Miami has dropped to the No. 9 national seed, flip-flopping with Notre Dame who is 2-0 at the ACC Tournament and set to play in the semifinals on Saturday. The top eight seeds are in position to host super regionals.

Miami is still projected to host a regional, which also includes Florida, Connecticut and Florida A&M.

Miami has won 23 of the 27 regionals it has hosted with an overall winning percentage of 83.8 in regional games in Coral Gables. The Hurricanes are 28-8 at home this season.

“We have an unbelievable opportunity—everybody is 0-0 going into Friday,” head coach Gino DiMare said after Friday’s loss to Wake Forest. “We should be hosting a regional, not sure about the other one and we play well in our ballpark. There’s no doubt, the biggest coaching moves I have to make is making sure our team is ready to play. That’s the biggest thing I’m concerned about. We have to make sure we do that before Friday.”

Miami also dropped from No. 10 to No. 15 in the RPI.

Despite dropping a bit in the rankings, the Hurricanes’ strong 20-10 conference record in the regular season (second-best winning percentage) in the toughest conference in the country with as many as a record-11 teams (all ranked in the top-35 in RPI) advancing to the tournament bodes well for their case

The latest projections also have ACC teams Virginia Tech (2-seed), Notre Dame (7), Louisville (10) and North Carolina (13) as regional hosts with Wake Forest, Virginia, Georgia Tech, NC State as 2-seeds in the regional and Florida State as a 3-seed.

The Hurricanes are led by All-ACC First Team pitchers Carson Palmquist and Andrew Walters, Second Team picks in first baseman CJ Kayfus, third baseman Yohandy Morales and center fielder Jacob Burke and All-ACC Freshman Team pitcher Karson Ligon.

Christopher Stock has covered the Miami Hurricanes since 2003 and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and on Twitter @InsideTheU.