This will mark just the second NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this tremendous season,” Miami third-year coach Glenn Box said. “It’s great to see the joy. I know for a fact that these kids really appreciated the moment. They put a lot of hard work into this. Everyone has put a lot of hard work into this — from administration to staff to the players. The fans have been extremely supportive. I’m just delighted that everyone can enjoy this moment.”
Miami (28-6) secured its spot Saturday with a 68–58 victory over Toledo in the MAC championship game at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, capturing the program’s first conference tournament title since 2008.
“I think our defense gives us confidence,” Box said. “We feel like we can make things hard for other people. It’s really hard to go on big runs against us because we can not only score, but we can hold people and make things really difficult.
“Defense travels, especially come tournament time, because it’s more physical. We’re a physical team, and we’re going to get in your face and defend.”
Miami’s run through Cleveland showcased that defensive identity, along with an offense capable of exploding at any moment.
The RedHawks defeated Kent State in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals and Ohio in the semifinals before knocking off Toledo in the championship game.
Preparation and confidence, Box said, played a major role in the tournament success.
“It’s basketball and you’re not going to play well every night, but I do think that our kids competed really hard every night in that tournament,” Box said. “I feel like as far as preparation was concerned, they were really, really ready to go. They were confident.”
Down the stretch of the championship game, Box turned to junior forward Amber Tretter to deliver in the biggest moments.
“If I was going to go down, I was going to go down with Amber,” Box said. “She’s earned the moment to win. She’s a kid in today’s time that could have easily abandoned us, but she chose the hard and persevered. She defends, she leads, she scores, she rebounds. She’s everything to us.”
The celebration following the bracket reveal Sunday quickly shifted toward preparation.
“It starts with me working tonight, so I’ll be watching film alone with our staff,” Box said. “We’ll be getting everything together simply to prep, but we don’t need to come out of our element. We just need to do what we do.
“The first couple days will be habitual things that keep us in touch with our base — things that we emphasize and stress, things that we value within our program. There will be a lot of review early.”
The full magnitude of the program’s accomplishments this season began to sink in when Box returned to his office early Sunday.
“I never really felt it until I came into the office today and saw the two trophies next to each other,” Box said. “Today I was able to really, truly enjoy what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Joy has remained a central part of the RedHawks’ culture during the season’s biggest moments.
That involves road-victory ice cream trips — which included a celebratory stop after winning the MAC championship.
“Of course we stopped for ice cream,” Box said. “Winning should be fun. If eating ice cream is what they want after a win, I’m willing to give them whatever they want.”
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