Miami (Ohio) defeats SMU for 4th place: “Deserves” to be here

DAYTON, Ohio — Miami (Ohio) found itself in a unique position Wednesday night in the First Four.

The RedHawks were a polarizing 30-win team leading up to their NCAA Tournament selections. Was Miami good or just a product of a poor schedule? Were all the major conference teams avoiding the RedHawks silly or smart? After a 31-1 start, Miami is in the NCAA field, but hardly a big one, and will make a run in the Top Four, just 40 miles from its campus in Oxford, Ohio.

The 11th-seeded RedHawks were 6.5-point underdogs to SMU, though neither they nor the thousands who came to support them felt that way.

“The reason people love March Madness is because they love to see the quotes, the quotes, the teases,” coach Travis Steele said. “That wasn’t annoying at all tonight.”

Miami left no doubt about its ability to continue in the tournament, or the historic path it has taken, by defeating SMU 89-79 at UD Arena. The RedHawks led for most of the game, recorded their largest margin of victory and made the most 3-pointers (16) in an NCAA Tournament game and recorded their highest point total in a tournament contest since 1958. They advance to face No. 6 seed Tennessee in a Midwest Region first-round game on Friday in Philadelphia.

Steele said he thought his team was better than SMU entering Wednesday’s game, and his players proved him right.

“All the doubters who doubted us, they all said we’re not two wins in the first quarter, two wins, all that stuff, I don’t know what they’re going to say now,” star Peter Soder said. “We proved the doubters wrong. Winning by double digits against a really good team, and athletically and physically gifted players, is huge for this program.”

Miami has not faced a power conference team in non-league play — the school has repeatedly stated that those schools do not want to schedule the RedHawks — and went 31-0 in the regular season before falling to UMass last week in the Mid-American Conference tournament quarterfinals. For all of Miami’s wins, a strength of schedule that hovered near the bottom of Division I created a broadly odd profile for the tournament selection committee to consider.

“I mean we had to be perfect basically the entire regular season to make it happen overall,” Steele said.

A MAC team hasn’t had an at-large berth since 1999, when Miami took All-American Wally Szczerbiak to the Sweet 16. The RedHawks were one of the last at-large teams and are making their first tournament appearance since 2007 in nearby Dayton.

The positive was Wednesday’s crowd, red and loud, that exploded with every 3-pointer and score by the Redhawks. Miami and former NBA star Ron Harper was among the supporters and celebrated in the locker room.

Miami players frequently acknowledged their supporters, including Luke Skaljak, whose 3-pointer with 7:15 forced SMU to call a timeout.

“That was a great crowd game, a home game for Miami,” SMU coach Andy Enfield said. “They probably had 12,000 fans here. It felt like 40 or 50,000.”

The crowd included the Miami men’s swimming and diving team, some wearing only Speedos and caps, who sprinted down the lane behind an SMU basket early in the second half to distract free-throw shooter Corey Washington, just as they do at Millett Hall, Miami’s home court.

“What really surprised me was the swim team when they came out,” forward Antoine Woolfolk said. “That was elite.”

Miami’s willingness to take and make 3-pointers propelled its offense, as the team made more 3s (10) than 2-point attempts (9) in the first half. But the undersized RedHawks also held their own inside, where rebounds were even at 35. They collected 12 offensive boards, including Suder’s with 3:08 to play that set up a 3-pointer by Eian Elmer that increased the lead to 81-68.

Steele challenged his team after the UMass loss, in which the RedHawks were outscored 41-24 and allowed 54 points in the paint and 23 second-chance points.

“We smashed the glass,” said Woolfolk, Miami’s tallest player at 6-foot-9. “We push the edge, instead of allowing pressure on us.”

The rebound performance reinforced Steele’s pre-match theme: attack.

“Our guys deserve to be in this position,” he said. “I felt like we were the better team in the game. I think our guys have that real belief. That’s the strongest thing you can get.”

Miami now has another power conference opponent in Tennessee, and more success means similar opponents will follow. But the RedHawks were in the championship game on Wednesday night.

How many people know about Miami, Ohio now?

“I don’t even know, I can’t even count,” Souder said with a smile. “But it’s definitely a lot.”