Whether it was the Mustangs’ 7-foot-2 Turkish center Samet Yiğitoğlu, the tallest player in the Atlantic Coast Conference, towering over 6-foot-9 Antwone Woolfolk or 6-foot-10 Jaden Toombs rising up above 6-5 Peter Suder, SMU’s advantage in the much-anticipated, much-debated First Four game of the NCAA Tournament seemed obvious.
And therein lay the deception, said Miami point guard Luke Skaljac.
“This was all about heart over height,” the RedHawks fearless’ 6-foot-2 sophomore said.
“They’re bigger than us. They’re taller and probably stronger than us overall, too. But there’s so much more to the game than that.”
Miami coach Travis Steele said he had hammered that point home once more just before the team left the pregame dressing room:
“I said they should leave no doubt who the attacking team is tonight.”
That, too, tapped into a new dynamic for the RedHawks who had gone through the regular season 31-0, one of only five Division I teams this century to finish the regular season without a loss.
“Travis and I talked about this beforehand,” said Miami athletics director David Sayler. “For the past two months we have been the hunted.
“Every single game of the season the other team was hunting us, trying to beat us, their fans getting ready to storm the court.
“Tonight, we were going to be the hunter. Tonight we would be able to shed all that and just go out and play.”
And from the opening tip, Miami dictated much of that play, whether it was with their diving on the floor for loose balls, double-teaming every SMU ballhandler they could sandwich or finding a way — as Suder did so often — of steeling themselves to box out the bigger Mustangs and corral a rebound.
A raise the decibels through the roof, pro-Miami crowd of 12,588 — a First Four record since massive renovations seven years ago reconfigured the Arena — picked up on the give-no-quarter game plan that mixed grit and will with heart and skilled ballplayers and that made it embrace the RedHawks all the more.
The players responded more than anyone — except themselves — imagined.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The RedHawks led for over 32 minutes of the 40-minute game, made a First Four record 16 three-pointers, battled the bigger Mustangs to a draw on the boards, turned the ball over just four times and proved Skaljac right.
Heart can overcome height.
Miami overwhelmed SMU, 89-79, and now, as a No. 11 seed as were the Mustangs, advances to play a first-round game with No. 6 seed Tennessee Friday afternoon at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
Tip-off on the Philadelphia 76ers home court is scheduled for 4:25 p.m.
As luck of the draw would have it, No. 14 seed Wright State meets No. 3 Virginia on the same court at 1:50 p.m. Friday.
A night to remember
“Before last Sunday’s Selection Show we figured we were in the field, but what we weren’t sure about was whether it was going to be in Dayton or not,” Sayler said.
“What we wanted to make sure of was that our student athletes never felt less than.”
He didn’t want them to feel slighted and Wednesday night that never happened.
With a night-long give and take with the mostly red-clad crowd — the vocal fans lifting the Miami players every time down the court and the RedHawks giving them something to roar about almost every time — it became, as Steele said, “A night our team will never forget.”
“It was surreal,” said Eian Elmer, the marquee star for Miami in a game when the RedHawks had a whole cast of top contributors. “This night could not have been any better.”
The 6-foot-6 Elmer, even as he battled foul trouble that caused him to play just under 24 minutes, led the RedHawks with 23 points. Making big shot after big shot, the junior out of Taft High in Cincinnati — who by the way won a state title on this very same court four years ago — made six of his nine three point attempts.
Brant Byers, who made four of nine trey attempts, had 19 points and Skaljac — three for five from beyond the arc, had 17.
Almar Atlason, the 6-foot-8 transfer from Bradley who grew up in Iceland, added 12 points.
Suder, the team’s leading scorer who had an off-night shooting and finished with seven points, impacted the game in so many other ways Steele stressed as he noted the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year had seven rebounds, six assists and zero turnovers.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Afterward though, none of the Miami players talked about personal accomplishments. They embraced the team concept and marveled at the crowd and the electric vibe at UD Arena.
“What an incredible atmosphere,” Steele said afterward. “I told our guys beforehand: ‘This is the best atmosphere in the NCAA Tournament I’ve ever been a part of.”
As an assistant coach at Indiana and especially Xavier, Steele had coached in 10 NCAA Tournaments and twice been to the Elite Eight. He was at UD Arena when the Musketeers played NC State in the First Four in 2004.
He told his players beforehand: “This is going to be a night you remember for the rest of your lives.”
‘Bigger and louder’
When he looked up at the crowd, RedHawks freshman Trey Perry said he couldn’t believe it: “Everywhere there were Miami fans.”
Suder agreed: “We had big crowds at home, but this was bigger and louder.”
“Everybody was into it,” Skaljac said.
If you looked straight across the court from the RedHawks’ bench, there in the front two rows of fans who were on their feet cheering, were Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and his wife Fran, both of them Miami alums.
A few feet away was Ron Harper, one of the greatest Miami players of all time. A Dayton Kiser High grad, he is the program’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder and then went on to a storied NBA career where he won titles, three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Next to the DeWines was Brian Niccol, the CEO of Starbucks and a 1996 Miami grad, who had flown in to see the game.
The most talked about Miami presence in the crowd though was the RedHawks swim team, which clamored down an aisle in the Red Scare student section behind the Mustangs basket with 13:58 left in the second half.
SMU forward Corey Washington had just been fouled by Suder and would be getting two free throws.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Before the ref handed him the ball, the Miami swimmers — as they had done at Millett Hall earlier this season — suddenly shed their street clothes, stripping down to nothing but red Speedos.
Some wore white swim caps, all were smiling. And then, in an instant, they were a swirl of waving arms, skin and distraction.
Washington missed his first free throw, but managed to make the second.
The antics made folks laugh and further endeared Miami on the national scene.
‘They know we are legit’
Afterward Sayler talked about what this night meant:
“The way we saw it, this was a two-hour commercial for the whole country to watch what Miami basketball is all about.
“In the games this Thursday and Friday, there are four going on at once and people have their quad screens or they may be looking at one game and not yours.
“Tonight, we had the entire national audience, and I think our team gave them a show. Our players showed we’re a team you can get behind.”
In the process he said Miami carried the banner for the MAC and mid-major programs across the nation.
In the past week there had been debate whether Miami — after losing its first game in the MAC Tournament to UMass — belonged in the NCAA Tournament.
The detractors cited Miami’s anemic non-conference schedule — never mind that power conference teams refused to schedule them — and instead trumpeted middle of the pack teams from the most famed leagues who had played better opponents but had near break-even records.
During a recent Field of 68 podcast, former college standout Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina and the NBA) said Miami should not have been included in the NCAA Tournament over Power 4 schools.
Fellow podcaster Terrence “Toi” Oglesby, who played at Clemson and overseas, seemed to take special delight in deflating Miami, saying SMU is going “to beat the (expletive) out of them.”
Sayler, who has been his team’s biggest defender of late, addressed the treatment Miami has gotten recently:
“Anyone who has spent time with our program or been at our games or practices, they know we are legit.
“The haters out there, they’re lazy. They’re just looking for a hot take. They don’t know what makes this team tick.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The UD Arena crowd sure did Wednesday night and just before the end of the game, Steele drew up a play to send the Miami fans home even happier.
With one minute left, Atlason got the ball at the high post, turned and fed Elmer who was roaring along the baseline to the hoop.
He gathered in the pass and soared up above the rim for a rousing dunk,
“It was a way to put an exclamation point on the night,” Elmer said with a smile.
And that proved that sometimes, in the right hands, heart and height can combine so perfectly that everyone is left roaring in delight.
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