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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 2:20 AM Saturday, February 20, 2010

OXFORD — Miami University basketball coach Charlie Coles is convinced that while his RedHawks lost a crucial battle earlier this week, they might have taken a giant step toward winning something much bigger.

Coles, whose team plays Southeast Missouri State today, Feb. 20, in an ESPN Bracket Buster game, saw something in the RedHawks’ 61-56 loss to Akron that gives him hope they can be a formidable presence into the Mid-American Conference tournament on March 7-13.

It was a throw-caution-to-the-wind style of play. Coles saw it and so did Akron coach Keith Dambrot, who said after the game, “That’s about as hard on the ball I’ve ever seen Miami play us.”

But Coles wants to make sure his own team sees it, too, and doesn’t mope about having lost two in a row and seen its hopes of a regular-season MAC East title slip away.

He spoke about the usual postgame meeting with his players after the loss to Akron that turned out to be not so usual.

“We have a little cheer we do,” Coles said. “My granddaughter leads them, and then they usually make one up of their own. Well, I was leaving, and the cheer was weak. I was on my way out the door.

“I went back to that huddle and, I didn’t lock nobody in the shed, so I can’t be barred for that, plus the athletic director (Brad Bates) was in the room, but I just grabbed guys by the arm and pulled them all together and said, ‘Hey, that was weak.’ And the reason why (I did that) is because I think our players, if they use this right, came a long way tonight.”

Coles said the average RedHawks fan might not see it either.

“All they know is we’re 11-15,” he said. “But if you were here, you saw us grow. But maybe we didn’t see ourselves grow. So I’ll be getting back with them on this and I’ll be talking with the coaches, too, because I thought there were some beautiful things there.”

That did not include Miami’s 0-for-15 shooting from the 3-point arc, Coles added with a grin.

“But I thought the effort was there for longer than we’ve had in a long time around here,” he said.

“I’ve got to be a crazy man on that,” Coles said. “And I’m not listening to anybody on this. I’m taking the lead on this and I’ve got to convince these guys that, hey guys, we can do the job. We can do the job. We just have to be a little bit tougher and a lot smarter.”

Miami will try to break its two-game losing streak against a team with the same nickname — Redhawks, with a small “h” — that has lost five in a row and eight of its last nine.