Miami brings the NCAA Tournament’s biggest story from Ohio to Philadelphia
The RedHawks captivated the nation by going 31-0, then lost their conference tournament opener. That could have knocked them out of the NCAAs, but they got in and won their First Four game.
The NCAA men’s tournament is back in Philadelphia on Friday, and it has brought plenty of blue bloods to town: Connecticut, UCLA, Tennessee, and Virginia.
But none of them has either the record or the sizzle of Miami, the Mid-American champion from Ohio that is the toast of the nation.
The RedHawks went 31-0 in the regular season, the first undefeated campaign since Gonzaga in 2001. But they didn’t get much attention until late, in part because they didn’t play any big-time opponents — though not for lack of trying.
A report by the college sports news website Extra Points found that Miami tried to schedule Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Marquette, Kansas, Ohio State, and Brigham Young, only to be rejected by all of them.
By the time the MAC tournament arrived, the RedHawks definitely were getting attention. Then they lost in the first round, the same thing that happened to unbeaten St. Joseph’s in 2004 with Jameer Nelson and Delonte West.
But it’s no offense to say Miami doesn’t have quite that level of talent. Instead of getting knocked from a No. 1 seed to a No. 2, it almost got knocked out of the field. Fortunately, the selection committee let the RedHawks in, awarding a No. 11 seed and a trip to the First Four.
Coincidentally, the round’s perennial home in Dayton, Ohio, is just over an hour from Miami’s campus in Oxford. So it was no surprise that the arena was a sea of red on Wednesday night. And when the RedHawks toppled Southern Methodist, 89-79, the rest of the country joined in the party.
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“This is what you work your lifetime for,” coach Travis Steele said Thursday afternoon at Xfinity Mobile Arena. “These are dreams that you have as a little kid. You fill in all the brackets, you watch all the NCAA Tournament, all the March Madness games over the years — man, this is it. When you get to be a part of it, it’s really surreal.”
‘We wanted to come to Philly’
His team had only been in town for around 12 hours, but the high of winning ensured the RedHawks were all in great moods.
“I don’t think anybody is really too upset about it,” junior guard Eian Elmer said. “It’s something we dreamed of. We wanted to come to Philly, and we’re here.”
That’s especially true for sophomore guard Brant Byers, who grew up in Chambersburg, Pa., and played his senior year of high school at the Perkiomen School.
“I know a lot of friends and family of mine are going to be here,” he said. “I got a ton of ticket requests and had to turn a couple down because I didn’t have enough. So it will definitely be a really cool environment.”
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As fun as it has all been, Steele was emphatic that it hasn’t come out of nowhere.
“Our guys know our level of expectations [is] to advance,” he said. “I recruited each guy in our team, in our locker room, to try to get to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.”
That fortitude helped when Miami lost to UMass in the MAC tournament quarterfinals.
“I just said, “Fellas, listen, our season’s not over,’” Steele said. “I can’t have any doom and gloom around our program, Debbie Downers, whatever you want to call it. I don’t need any sad faces. … Now we have to own this performance: Watch it, get better from it, learn from it, but then we’ve got to flush it, and we have to be who we’ve been all year.”
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‘There should be a buzz about it’
For as much of the country wanted to see Miami in the field, there were critics. The players knew it, and knew the win over SMU silenced them.
“Obviously there was a lot out there, a lot of hate, a lot of doubt that we couldn’t accomplish what we did [Wednesday],” senior guard Peter Suder said. “We have a group of guys that collectively, we just do such a good job of ignoring all the outside noise and just getting it done on the hardwood floor.”
Sophomore guard Luka Skaljac added: “We’re not really trying to prove it to media, fans or whatever. We all know inside the locker room who we are as a team.”
Miami will face Tennessee, the No. 6 seed in the Midwest Regional on Friday at 4:25 p.m. (TBS). Volunteers coach Rick Barnes is one of the game’s most storied veterans, and knows the national mood will be against his side.
“Well, it’s a great storyline for one and they’ve earned it,” he said. “I understand, and there should be a buzz about it, because they’re a really good basketball team, and extremely well coached. They play hard, they do everything you have to do to win that many basketball games.”
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Tennessee went 22-11 this season, including 11-7 in the Southeastern Conference for a sixth-place finish. There were big-time wins, including one over Houston, but more than enough losses to keep Barnes vigilant about an upset.
“I think our team understands that we’re not one of those teams that can just show up and beat anybody,” he said. “When you’re in a situation like this, the team that normally wears the darker uniforms [the lesser seed], the house is going to cheer for them, and all that. But it will get decided on the court, and we’ll have to have a great mindset, and great game, and a competitive mind, or it won’t go our way.”