DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — When it comes to her coaching, Maria Fantanarosa needs more than a game plan, she needs a map.

... And some crayons.

"Lauren, my 5-year old, is learning a different state every time we travel," said the Miami RedHawks women's basketball coach and mother of two. "We have a map where we color in each new state that she and her sister (2-year-old Allison) have been to.

"Even when I'm on the road alone, Lauren knows just where I am. She knows every state we've been in."

Now she knows two more:

There's Connecticut — where the No. 13 seed RedHawks meet No. 4 Louisville in an ESPN-televised, first-round NCAA tournament game this afternoon, March 23, at Bridgeport Arena.

And there's the state of euphoria that has swept through the Miami program with this first invitation to the NCAA tournament.

After winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament — and the league's NCAA bid — last weekend, the Miami women have received an outpouring of well wishes and support from alumni, fans, rival programs, the Miami campus and the Oxford community.

Because of their blue-collar make-up and their beat-the-odds success, the 23-10 RedHawks are an easy team to embrace. Before the season began, they lost four players to injury — two starters — and were figured to finish as a MAC also-ran.

Instead, they were lifted by their two seniors — Springfield's Amanda Jackson, the all-time women's scorer in Miami hoops history, and rebounding stalwart Laura Markwood — as well as junior guard Jenna Schone and especially by their head coach.

Fantanarosa — who has gone from the most fabled player ever to wear a Miami women's uniform to now the RedHawks' resurrectionist coach — is someone who has long known how to put this program on the map.