Even With A Season Ending Illness, Marcus Allen Continues to be the 'Heartbeat' for Miami
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A season ending injury can derail a program and a season for many programs. The Miami Hurricanes had a different case.
Sophomore Marcus Allen was the Hurricanes 6th man entering this season and before the ACC/SEC Challenge he was starting to find his groove in the rotations.
However, he started missing games. Then it was announced that he would be out for the rest of the season before being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Some would crumble, but others rise from the ashes. The Hurricanes used this as a rallying point for their season. This was all on a team with a first year head coach, brand new roster, while also trying to rebuild a program that had reached rock bottom.
Allen continued to be around the team, work with them, practice with them, and even play one-on-one after games with teammates. It's what Jai Lucas loved about Allen from the start, and the team is rallying behind it.
"His treatments have been kind of once every six weeks. After the treatments is when he kind of feels his worst, so now that he is almost a week from his last one, he was able to kind of come and [practice with the team]," Lucas said.
"I would say it has been pretty consistent about those two weeks in between the treatments where he comes and practices and participates in practice, whether it is -- he is not out there full blast. He will get a few reps and then rest and kind of do that. But it is a big part of his treatment is just making sure we keep it as normal as possible for him. Part of this battle of not only the chemo, it is the mental part."
"Making sure that he is still feeling like Marcus. I had the unfortunate circumstance of dealing with this with Andrew Jones when he was at Texas when he was there, when he had leukemia," Lucas said. "I have kind of been through it and seen it and understand kind of what it is. Being able to help Marcus through that also, I kind of knew some of the little things that could help him."
A true fighter on and off the court 💚
— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) January 6, 2026
A GoFundMe has been created to support Marcus Allen and his family during this time 🙏
🔗 https://t.co/3Jy1jmI450#4STRONG 🤞 pic.twitter.com/jBvqEprsF3
Mentally, the Hurricanes are built to last in the NCAA Tournament as one of the best teams in the country. Having someone like Allen on the team still fighting with his teammates even when things are down. He has turned into the heartbeat of the team, and that is why they keep fighting and growing.
"Whenever Marcus is around, even before he was diagnosed with cancer, he is kind of the heartbeat of the team, he is the guy who was hear and the guy everybody kind of gravitated towards," Lucas said. "Same thing when he is around and him being on this trip with us and being able to be back and forth in between treatments and practicing. He did scouting for us yesterday. He was Mark Mitchell."
"Having him around keeps the guys and keeps the perspective of the program in the right place."
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.
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