There was a lot of talk about the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks leading up to the NCAA Tournament. Did a team that went 31-0 in the regular season deserve a spot? Some said yes, since no other unbeaten regular season has gone unrewarded in NCAAT history. Others said no, since the Redhawks hadn’t played anyone.
When they lost the MAC tournament opener in heartbreaking fashion, thereby preventing themselves from getting the automatic bid, the conversation sped up. Now, they weren’t unbeaten and didn’t have a chance to win the MAC.
Ultimately, the committee went with the middle ground, so to speak. They put the Redhawks in as an 11 seed but made them play a First Four matchup with SMU. This way, they were put in the tournament, but if they lost, not much changed for the overall field. They won, though.
Miami (Ohio) wins NCAAT game
The First Four is essentially a way for the NCAA Tournament to expand the field without expanding to more rounds. It’s already a seven-round tournament, but more teams and games mean more money. The NCAA likes money, but the 64-team tournament is already massive.
Enter the First Four, which also helps ease the burden on the committee to pick the right final teams. Now, they can pick the last eight teams instead of having to choose just four out of those teams on the bubble, which is how Miami (Ohio) got in. 31-1 is impressive, but the record holds no significant wins.
Still, winning a First Four game, against an ACC team no less, is impressive. It means they likely deserved to be there, and that’s the team’s takeaway after outlasting the Mustangs by 10 points on Wednesday night.
Despite having 31 wins, the Redhawks opened as 6.5-point underdogs. They more than covered and won outright. “The reason people love March Madness is they love to see quote, unquote, upsets,” coach Travis Steele said. “This wasn’t an upset tonight, at all.”
The RedHawks led for most of the game, solidifying their worthiness. Miami (OH) also recorded its largest victory margin and made the most three-pointers, 16, they ever had in an NCAA Tournament outing.
They haven’t scored more than 89 points, which they did on Wednesday, in the tourney since the 1950s. Now, they’ll face six-seed Tennessee on Friday, with just one day of rest in between their iconic victory and the grind of the tournament.
Star guard Peter Suder took aim at the resume critics. “All the doubters that doubted us, all saying we don’t have Quad 1 wins, two wins, all that stuff, I don’t know what they’re going to say now,” Suder said. “We proved the doubters wrong. To win by double digits against a really good team, athletically, physically talented players, it’s huge for this program.”
Steele focused on the fact that his team had to essentially never lose just to make it into the tournament, a threshold pretty much no other at-large team in the field had to adhere to. “I mean, we had to basically be perfect in the whole regular season to get that at-large,” the coach said.
A MAC team had not earned an at-large bid (meaning without winning the conference tournament) since 1999. The Redhawks had All-American Wally Szczerbiak that year and made a run to the Sweet 16.
“Our guys deserve to be in this position,” Steele added. “I felt like we were the better team going into the game. And I think our guys have that real belief. That’s the most powerful thing you can have.” How far can Miami (Ohio) go?
Who knows? But the truth of the matter is that they silenced the critics by winning a game many expected them to lose in tournament action, thereby confirming that they were always an NCAA Tournament-caliber team.
Related Posts
