Of course it would not be easy. The Miami RedHawks refuse to take the easy way to a win.
Of course it would be dramatic. The RedHawks have mastered tension in tight moments better than any team this season.
Of course it had to be an epic.
An instant classic.
The Game of the Year.
Though easily overlooked, the rivalry between Miami University and the University of Ohio ranks among the fiercest — and oldest — in college basketball. Going into Friday night’s ultra-hyped regular season finale, the two had met 217 times dating back to 1908.
The 218th meeting took 218 points to decide the game, and by that fact surpassed any and all previous battles these two endured over the past 116 years.
No. 19 Miami’s 110-108 win to remain spotless required 45 minutes, 17 lead changes and 11 ties, but the RedHawks did it again. For the 31st time this season, they won. They won, they won, they won. They won again by two points, just as they did on Senior Night earlier this week against Toledo and just as they did a week prior in a fire-escape win at lowly Western Michigan.
They won.
They did the same earlier this year with overtime rabbit-pulls against Buffalo and Kent State.
And on Friday, Miami fended off an upset-minded Ohio program that hadn’t experienced a defeat in its home gym to its hated rival in red in 15 years.
For the ninth time this season, the RedHawks won by one possession and/or in overtime.
And for the 18th time this season, they won against a MAC opponent. That makes them just the third MAC team ever to run the regular season table, joining their 1957-58 RedHawk predecessors who merely had to go 12-0, and the 1949-50 Cincinnati Bearcats that were perfect with just eight games on the league ledger.
The game was a carnival. Miami took on three technical fouls and a Flagrant 1 for good measure. At one point, an Ohio fan allegedly threw something onto the court in the second half that landed near Miami coach Travis Steele. How fitting that Ohio had a chance in regulation and in overtime — Jackson Paveletzke’s 3-pointer fell awry as time expired; what a stake to the heart that shot would have been — and Miami survived.
It’s all this team does. There is so much to be said for purely knowing how to win.
Paveletzke put up a career-high 37 points, by the way. Ohio big man Javan Simmons added 30. Jeff Boals’ Bobcats team averaged 1.30 points per possession.
But Miami averaged 1.32.
It got 32 points and 12 rebounds from Eian Elmer, an epic showing when his team needed every bit of it.
And now this program has its first outright MAC championship since 1994-95. That’s right, not even the Wally Sczerbiak-led Sweet 16 team from 1999 had a standalone regular season title that year. They are just the sixth team to run the regular-season table since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, joining 1990-91 UNLV, 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s, 2013-14 Wichita State, 2014-15 Kentucky and 2020-21 Gonzaga.
The odds are incredible. According to college hoops stat maestro Evan Miyakawa, the preseason chances of Miami doing this — even against that terrible schedule — were 1-in-3740. And they should be even longer than that when you factor in the most impressive thing about the streak: Miami 20 straight games without its starting point guard and one of its three best players, Evan Ipsaro.
Astounding resilience.
The drama, the defying the probabilities and, most of all, the number zero is why Friday night’s result will linger and matter on Selection Sunday.
I’ve taken too long to get to the point that is in this story’s headline. But know this: The RedHawks are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament.
No eligible team with two or fewer losses has missed the Big Dance in the 64-/65-/68-team era.
The selection committee sure as hell isn’t leaving out a team with one.
And that’s the maximum Miami can take. And I don’t care if that loss happens in its next game, in the MAC quarterfinals, by 40 points. The selection committee should not, will not, cannot leave out any team that didn’t lose a game in the regular season.
To do so would be the biggest disgrace in the history of college sports. It would render the past four-plus months meaningless. It would bring eternal infamy to the committee, to the NCAA, to college basketball.
It won’t happen.
There is also the matter of a crucial metric that is working in Miami’s favor. The RedHawks will most likely rank in the top 30 of Wins Above Bubble heading into the MAC Tournament. They’re also 21st in Strength of Record. Those metrics purely rate you against your schedule and how much better you did vs. what the win expectation would be for an average bubble team. Broadly speaking, you want to be in the top 40 of WAB in order to have a safe spot in the tournament. Top-35 is lock-lock territory.
Miami is unlikely to get anywhere near 40.
And the selection committee is putting particular emphasis on WAB when it comes to team selection in this new era of résumé evaluation.
Beyond the magic of the flawless record and the strong WAB/SOR case, there is also the style of basketball and the impressive way Miami has played high-octane hoops that makes it such an easy team to watch. After getting to 110 points on Friday, Miami is again the No. 1 points-per-game team in college hoops. It makes nearly 53% of its shots, including 61.5% from 2, making it the top field goal percentage team in college basketball, too.
And it made history in this way as well:
The object of the game is to win. To win 31 times in a row (28 of them against Division I team) and to get there without succumbing to the pressure — as a mid-major! — is something to be treasured forever.
The only question that matters now isn’t about Miami’s inclusion into the NCAA Tournament, but rather, what seed will this team get? It’s three wins away from presenting the committee with an unprecedented type of résumé … and probably its most challenging seeding assignment in the history of the tournament.
If you’re a detractor of this team because it lacks a Quad 1 win, has just one Quad 2 win, has the 275th-ranked strength of schedule and couldn’t convince a single high-major to schedule it in the nonconference, I don’t know what to tell you. You’ve lost the plot. You don’t get why college basketball carries a unique capacity to be special and why Miami is THE example of what separates this sport from all the others.
Cinderella and undefeated at the same time. Love it. Honor it. Because only college hoops could produce a story like this.
