Miami, FL
Bizarro Heat: Bam Adebayo makes the 3-pointers and Duncan Robinson delivers the assists
PHILADELPHIA – After all the 3-pointers Sunday in Detroit, including the one that made Duncan Robinson the fastest NBA player to 1,000 career conversions, the moment coach Erik Spoelstra spotlighted afterward was the pass from Robinson for a key late dunk by Bam Adebayo.
That Duncan Robinson can shoot has become a given. That Robinson can pass has opened new vistas for both the Miami Heat and Robinson in his sixth season.
“Just trying to be more of a basketball player,” Robinson said, with the Heat turning their attention to Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center.
Sunday, in addition to his seven 3-pointers against the Pistons, there also were five assists from Robinson, including two in the decisive fourth quarter.
In some ways, it’s almost become Bizarro Heat – Adebayo making a winning 3-pointer, as he did at Sunday’s buzzer at Little Caesars Arena, Robinson making decisive assists.
Averaging three assists this season, Robinson had not averaged more than 1.8 in his previous five seasons.
But that mostly was when he was stationed – almost anchored – at the 3-point. As the two-point attempts have increased this season, to more than twice his previous average, so, too, have the assists grown.
“When you get in the paint, a lot of times the right read just presents itself, depending on the situation,” Robinson said, with Sunday’s assist to Adebayo a perfect example. “So I’m trusting my instincts to just be a complete basketball player.”
Robinson, who turns 30 next month, said there wasn’t a specific goal of upping the assists.
“It’s been more so organically, just trying to be more of a complete player,” he said. “That just kind of tends to happen when you get a little bit more aggressive putting the ball on the ground.”
The irony is that any time Robinson previously bypassed a 3-point attempt, the staff made clear why he was on the court.
Now, there is the view of more than a specialist.
“I think the staff’s done a great job in just trusting me and allowing me to be a complete player,” he said. “And that’s kind of empowered me to explore different vistas throughout the course of the game.
“I think they just trust me a little bit more. And I’m at the point in my career where they just trust my instincts and my ability to be a basketball player and what I feel and what I read out there.”
As the roster has evolved, so, Robinson said, has his menu.
“It’s a combination of things,” he said. “Part of it is just being a little bit of a playmaker, just in the actions that I’m involved in, and not just somebody that comes in and shoots. Part of it is just reading the game, recognizing situations.”
And part of it is paying it forward, appreciating how on-time, on-target passes have benefited him over these six seasons, with a goal of easing the scoring of teammates.
“I’ve been a beneficiary of a lot of unselfish play and good passes and stuff like that,” he said. “Bam and I have a connection that we’ve been working on for a while now.”
That payoff came with the assist for the Adebayo dunk that put the Heat ahead with 5:08 to play in Sunday’s victory in Detroit.
Essentially doing for others as others have done for him,
“I appreciate a good pass, a good on-time, on-target, seams-in-line, shooter’s-pocket pass. I appreciate that,” he said amid this Heat four-game trip that concludes Wednesday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “So, of course you try to reciprocate that.
“Just having another person out there who can playmake, it’s just going to be a different version of me. I think that’s good for the team.”
It looked improbable two months ago.
Two years ago — impossible.
But against the odds, Miami and Indiana have a date in the College Football Playoff final — a first-of-its-kind matchup on Jan. 19 in the second national title game of the expanded-playoff era.
The Hoosiers (15-0), the top-seeded favorite in the 12-team tournament, stomped Oregon 56-22 on Friday night to reach the final. The Hurricanes (13-2), seeded 10th and the last at-large team to make the field, beat Mississippi 31-27 the night before.
Indiana opened as a 7 1/2-point favorite, according to the BetMGM Sportsbook.
The game is set for Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida — the long-ago-chosen venue for a game that happens to be the home of the Hurricanes. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is a Miami native who grew up less than a mile from the campus in Coral Gables.
“It means a little bit more to me,” Mendoza said of the title game doubling as a homecoming.
Miami quarterback Carson Beck (11) holds the offensive player of the game trophy after winning the Fiesta Bowl NCAA college football playoff semifinal game against Mississippi, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Glendale, Ariz. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
He’ll be going against the program known as “The U.” Miami won five titles between 1983 and 2001 and earned the reputation as college football’s brashest renegade.
A quarter century later, they are one side in a tale of two resurgences.
Miami’s was sparked by coach Mario Cristobal, a local boy and former ‘Cane himself who came back home four years ago to lead his alma mater to a place it hasn’t been in decades.
Among his biggest wins was luring quarterback Carson Beck to spend his final year of eligibility with the ‘Canes.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal yells from the sideline during the second half of the Fiesta Bowl NCAA college football playoff semifinal game against Mississippi, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Glendale, Ariz. Credit: AP/Rick Scuteri
Beck, steadily rounding back to form after an elbow injury that ended his season at Georgia last year, is getting better every week. He has thrown for 15 TDs and two interceptions over a seven-game winning streak dating to Nov. 8.
“He’s hungry, he’s driven, he’s a great human being, and all he wants to do is to see his teammates have success,” Cristobal said after Beck threw for 268 yards and ran for the winning touchdown against Ole Miss.
It was the latest step in a long climb from No. 18 in the season’s first CFP rankings on Nov. 4 — barely within shouting distance of the bubble — after their second loss of the season.
The Hurricanes haven’t lost since.
Hoosiers rise from nowhere to the edge of a title
Indiana’s climb to the top is an even longer haul. This is the program that had a nation-leading 713 losses over 130-plus years heading into the 2024 season. Since then, only two.
The turnaround is thanks to coach Curt Cignetti, who arrived from James Madison and declared: “It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me,” while explaining his confident tone at a signing day news conference in December 2023 when he landed the core of the class that has taken Indiana from obscurity to the edge of a title.
But Indiana’s biggest catch came about a year ago from the transfer portal — the oxygen that drives the current game.
Mendoza, who went to the same high school as Cristobal in Miami, chose Indiana as the place to finish his career. So far, he has won the Heisman Trophy and is all but assured to be a top-five pick in the NFL draft.
“Can’t say enough about him,” Cignetti said.
One more win and he’ll bring a national title and an undefeated season to Indiana, an even 50 years after the Hoosiers’ 1975-76 basketball team, led by coach Bob Knight, did the same.
Lots of people could see that one coming. Hard to say the same about this.
CFP selection committee almost kept this game from happening
It might seem like ancient history, but Miami almost didn’t make the playoffs.
In its first ranking of the season, back in November, the CFP selection committee ranked the Hurricanes eight spots behind a Notre Dame team they beat to start the season.
The history of Miami’s slow crawl up the standings, then its leapfrogging past the Irish for the last spot, has been well-documented. If Miami’s trip to the final proved anything, it’s how off-base the committee was when it started the ’Canes at 18, even if they were coming off a loss at SMU, its second of the season.
Though these programs haven’t met since the 1960s, there is familiarity.
One of the best games of 2024 was Miami’s comeback from 25 points down to beat Cal. The quarterback for the Bears: Mendoza, who threw for 285 yards but got edged out by Cam Ward in a 39-38 loss.
With Ward headed for the NFL, the Hurricanes were a consideration for Mendoza as he sought a new spot to finish out his college career. But he picked Indiana, Beck moved to Miami, and now, they meet.
Miami cashes in big
The College Football Playoff will distribute $20 million to the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conferences for placing their teams in the finals — that’s $4 million for making it, $4 million for getting to the quarters, then $6 million each for the semis and finals.
While the Big Ten divvies up that money evenly between its 18 members, Miami keeps it all for itself — part of a “success initiatives program” the ACC started last season that allows schools to keep all the postseason money they make in football and basketball.
New details are emerging in the death of a woman whose body was found on Hollywood Beach the day after Christmas.
Police say 56‑year‑old Heather Asendorf was discovered by a passerby. People who frequent the beach say she was a familiar sight at the bandshell near Margaritaville, where she danced most nights in brightly lit shoes.
Harrison, a frequent visitor who did not want to give his last name, said he saw her nearly every day.
“She was very friendly, polite. She loved to dance,” he said.
Suspect arrested four days later
Four days after she was found, Hollywood police arrested 28‑year‑old Brandon McCray and charged him with sexual battery, kidnapping, and battery by strangulation.
McCray was taken into custody at a Hollywood motel off Federal Highway. His permanent address is listed in Coconut Creek, where no one answered the door when approached for comment about his arrest.
Police are still working to determine how Asendorf’s path crossed with McCray’s.
Tributes pour in from friends
Tributes for Asendorf are pouring in, especially from the annual State College Townie Reunion community in central Pennsylvania, where she had deep roots.
Among the messages shared:
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“A beautiful friend forever in our hearts.”
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“Unforgettable. A sweet soul.”
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“I still can’t wrap my mind around this one. She was so amazing.”
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“One of our shining stars has left the stage.”
Investigation remains active
Hollywood police say their investigation is ongoing, and McCray could face additional charges as detectives continue to piece together what happened.
Should the CFP committee rethink the playoff schedule format?
Extended breaks and logistical challenges have reopened questions about whether the College Football Playoff committee should adjust the playoff schedule format.
Mississippi football’s Nick Cull avoided an ejection during the College Football Playoff Fiesta Bowl semifinal on Thursday, Jan. 8.
As Malachi Toney reeled in a catch from Carson Beck at the Miami 49 in the first quarter, he was hit by Cull in a helmet-to-helmet collision. Right away, the officials flagged Cull for targeting, with both Toney and Cull staying down on the field with an injury.
After officials reviewed the play, the call on the field was overturned, as the officials determined that Cull did not launch and the collision seemed to be incidental. Replay assistant Matt Austin concurred with the call on the field.
The play had a major impact on the game as well. If the call had been upheld, Miami would have had the ball at the Ole Miss 34-yard line with a chance to expand its 3-0 lead. However, a few plays later, the Hurricanes were forced to punt from the 49-yard line.
On the first play of the second quarter, Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacey scored on a 73-yard run to give the Rebels a 7-3 lead.
Because he was not called for targeting, Cull was not ejected from the game, which means Ole Miss will have him for the remainder of the game, if he can clear the concussion protocol. He was in the tent following the play.
Cull has 15 total tackles and three pass deflections this season for the Rebels.
Meanwhile, Toney went to the medical tent briefly for the Hurricanes, but returned to the game.
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