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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
 Miami now a No. 2 seed?
By Luke Lapinski

 Safe to say there's not much margin for error if you're a team that entered the season unranked and is now slotted among the top programs in the nation. That seems to be the case for Miami, who has just one ACC loss so far this season -- and now finds itself slipping in most projected brackets as a result.

Of course, that one loss just occurred on Saturday. And it came in fairly convincing fashion against a Wake Forest team the Hurricanes need to be able to handle if they want to be ranked among the very best. According to our own Joe Lunardi, Miami has dropped from a No. 1 seed to a No. 2 as a result -- though he reminds us that there's still plenty of time and opportunities for the 'Canes to climb back up. And the newest AP Top 25 has Jim Larranaga's squad falling to No. 5 overall, after coming in at No. 2 last week.

It's worth noting that the two games prior to the loss to the Demon Deacons weren't exactly Miami's best efforts either. The Hurricanes managed to win close contests against Clemson and Virginia, but only totaled 99 points in the process. This is still a very dangerous team for plenty of reasons that we've outlined in this space before. And they're more than capable of a deep run in the tournament. They just need to make sure they're playing their best basketball in March, not January.

Here's more from Lunardi on where things stand with the Hurricanes as of Tuesday morning.

Joe Lunardi
Miami drops
"When you really look at it closely, you're looking at a Miami team that as great as they've been all season long, this loss was not entirely out of the realm of possibility. When you look at how close they came to losing their two previous games against Virginia and particularly against Clemson. So I think these narrow victories by Miami of late signify a drop-off in their overall level of play, and at least for the time being drop them off the top line. They're at No. 5 overall, so it's not like they're completely off the radar for a No. 1 seed. In fact, they are very much in position to come back up either if a team ahead of them loses or if they earn it with their own play."