The Miami (OH) Redhawks have been one of the most
surprising programs in College basketball so far this
season and really have arguably the most unreal story
of anyone. It has been an absolutely historic start as
they are one of just three teams in the country that
are currently still undefeated at 19-0. The last time a
mid-major college basketball team had a record like
that was Murray State during the 2011-12 season
where the Racers actually went on to go 23-0 before
finally dropping one. Miami (OH) was expected to be
great as they were second in the MAC preseason poll
only behind Akron, but you really have to understand
how much lower that projection is compared to what
they have done this season. If you’re expected to
finish second in the MAC, then it’s undeniably absurd
that they still have not lost yet and it’s the middle of
January. They are currently projected as an 11 seed in
the latest NCAA tournament bracketology and who
knows, depending on the way the rest of their season
goes they could be a much higher seed than that come
March. The program also hasn’t won an NCAA
tournament game since the Wally Szczerbiak days
where they made the Sweet 16 in 1999.
As of January 19, the news broke that Miami (OH) is
officially ranked in the AP poll for the first time this
century at #25! Many have argued that they should
have been ranked for the past 2-3 weeks, though and
that would have made a lot of sense considering they
were able to rack up some of their best and most
impressive wins of the season and obviously, remain
undefeated. To start conference play, they have beaten
Bowling Green on the road who beat Kansas State by
16 earlier this season, Akron who was top 50 in the
NET, Toledo by 14 on the road where the Rockets were
actually favored against them, and 13-4 Buffalo
105-102 in OT who had a dominant win over DePaul
back in November. Yes, they may have had a “weak”
non-conference schedule, but they did exactly what
they were supposed to do and if the Redhawks were
really not that good, then why do undefeated starts
like this not happen more often? Winning your first 19
games of the season is never easy for any team no
matter who you’re playing. Head Coach Travis Steele
even has stated multiple times during interviews that,
“No high-major would buy us. None.” He also stated in
an interview with Rebound Rundown,
“a lot of other really good mid-majors wouldn’t play us…we didn’t
finish our schedule until October.” That’s where the
new “rank us or play us” mantra comes from. They can
only control what they can control and something
they can’t control is teams agreeing to schedule them.
They should not be penalized or discredited for people
who aren’t willing to play them.
What makes this record and season even more
shocking, is that Miami (OH) has finished with a losing
record 15 of the last 16 seasons with last year being
the first year they finished above .500 since 2008-09
when they were under Charlie Coles. The Redhawks
went 25-9 last year falling to Akron in the MAC
championship, but with the most wins they have ever
had in a single season in program history. Now, it
looks like they’re gonna beat that win record for the
second year in a row, so it’s safe to say that this
season and last season are some of their two best
regular seasons in program history.
Obviously, the most credit has to go to Coach Steele.
He took over the Redhawks in the 2022-23 season and
is currently 70-46 since then. Steele started his head
coaching career at Xavier in 2018-19 and ended in the
2021-22 season where he led the Musketeers to a
winning record all 4 years. It was an absolute
homerun hire for the program. You also can’t forget to
mention the fact that Steele was able to bring back 5
of his top 6 leading scorers from last season. Very rare
nowadays especially for a team that was the
runner-up in its conference championship game the
previous year. They were also able to add what has
been a big impact transfer in Almar Atlason from
Bradley who has been a great all around scorer at 6 ‘8″.
Along with Atlason, Steele and the Redhawks also
brought in several freshmen who have been very solid
off the bench. Justin Kirby, Trey Perry, Tyler Robbins,
and Kyle Waltz have all had key contributions in just
their first year. So, they don’t just have great
continuity, but they have shown that they’re able to
get great additions through the portal and recruit well
which is what will make a smaller program like them
thrive.
19-0 level thrive, however? No one could ever even
think for that to end up being the reality even with
the numerous positives going for this program, but it
sure is and I’ll tell you what, this is the type of thing
that makes college basketball 10x more exciting than
it already is and reminds many people of why it’s the
best sport!
