DaytonDailyNews.com

I became a fan of Miami University sports as a kid growing up in Cincinnati. The local papers covered the school's sports programs as though Miami were down the street from the University of Cincinnati, the way Xavier nearly is.

Plus, so many Cincinnati athletes played sports there. When I was in high school, I went there to see Scott Tyler, a great sprinter from Hughes High School, run. And there was Taft basketball star Charlie Dinkins.

One year, Wayne Embry did more than come to our neighborhood representing the Redskins (Miami's nickname in those days). He visited the playground court my friends and I played on just about every summer day.

In 1964 at Withrow High School's outdoor basketball courts, where all the best players, including Oscar Robertson, played in the offseason, I watched Charlie Coles repeatedly dunk with both hands while warming up for a choose-up game.

So pardon me if I root for the RedHawks above the other Miami Valley Division I teams to make NCAA men's basketball tournament. They faced Kent State Friday, March 14, in the MAC semifinals, with Coles unable to coach due to illness. They lost, 49-47, but that's OK.

They went to the Big Dance last season, and in 1999 they made it to a Midwest Regional semifinal against Kentucky. They were in the tournament in 1991, but my two favorites are their 1995 appearance, when they upset Damon Stoudemire and Arizona at UD Arena, and in '78, when my friend Larry Goins' little brother Rick, led them to an upset of Marquette.

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