Coming into Friday’s game at the Xfinity Mobile Arena, WSU was a 17.5-point underdog according to FanDuel Sportsbook and the KenPom ratings gave the Raiders only a 7 percent chance of winning.
WSU treated the oddsmakers and prognosticators like it did most of its opposition this season.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of these young men,” WSU athletics director Joylynn Brown said after the game as she stood outside the Raiders dressing room.
“When you get to this level, sometimes people freeze like a deer in the headlights. They did not. They took advantage of the spotlight and shined.
“And I can tell you this, Virginia definitely knows who Wright State is now.
“This team has put us on the map.”
Some 2 ½ hours later, Miami athletics director David Sayler basically said the same thing. He stressed that this loss did not diminish the RedHawks season:
“This was a legendary year in terms of what they accomplished. They’re going to be in the record books forever. They will never be forgotten in the history of Miami athletics I can tell you that. I think across the nation they captured people’s attention and their hearts. I’m really proud of the job the players and coaching staff did this season.”
Miami went through the regular season a perfect 31-0. They were the only Division I team in the nation to go unbeaten and one of only five D-I teams to accomplish the feat this century.
Then last Wednesday in an electric scene at UD Arena, they wowed a sold-out crowd and a national TV audience as they silenced naysayers and stunned SMU, 89-79 — making a record 16 3-point shots in a First Four game to open the NCAA Tournament.
Wright State put on a long-range show of its own Friday, making 13 treys, several from what was the most unlikely of beyond the arc marksmen.
Just 79 seconds into the game, Michael Imariagbe, WSU’s 6-foot-7 inside presence, got a rebound and promptly tried to put a shot right back up.
It wasn’t just blocked, it was plucked right off his fingertips by Virginia’s 7-foot center Johann Grünloh.
With a pair of 7-footers sharing the post, Virginia leads the nation in blocked shots and many thought this early stuff would be the start of a storyline of Cavalier dominance.
But that never happened thanks to a smart gameplan by Raiders’ coach Clint Sargent — the Horizon League Coach of the Year — and his staff; and some nighttime dedication by Imariagbe.
Coming into the game, 75 percent of WSU’s offense came inside the arc. Virginia’s size and the fact that they’re the No. 3 scoring defense in the Atlantic Coast Conference, prompted Sargent to up his team’s 3-point attempts in order to draw the defenders out and, if his team was hitting, give the Raiders an edge.
Virginia coach Ray Odum admitted the strategy caught the Cavaliers off guard and no one did more so than Imariagbe.
He came into the game as statistically, the Raiders’ worst 3-point shooter. He had made just one long-range shot all season (in six attempts) and that was way back on Nov. 25 at Stetson.
But in the days leading up to the tournament, he put extra emphasis on his three-point shot.
“He had been working super hard on it,” said sophomore guard Solomon Callaghan. “I had been in the gym a couple of times at night and saw him working on his shot.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Imariagbe said he’d shoot some 400 shots a night, with maybe 250 from long range.
“Before the game, coach was saying: ‘Dog’s gotta hunt!’ ” Callaghan said.
“That means shooters got to shoot, including the bigs. We told him he had the green light today and he shouldn’t shy away from it.”
Imariagbe did not.
In what many thought was an: “Oh no! No! Don’t!” moment, Imariagbe launched his first trey attempt four minutes after his inside shot was smothered.
It went in.
Then so did four more.
He finished with five 3-pointers in nine attempts for a team-high 19 points and completed his double-double effort with 10 rebounds.
“I knew that was inside of me,” Imariagbe said as he stood in the dressing room afterwards. “My teammates and coaches gave me the confidence to bring it out. That’s what our team is all about. We lift each other.”
‘They should have been the darlings’
Miami relied on the same thing this year.
After Friday’s game, senior guard Peter Suder, the cornerstone of the Miami team and the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, talked about: “Our culture and connectivity, the brotherhood we have. We’re best friends on and off the court and I think it shows when we play. People enjoy watching us because (of that.)”
That bond served them well this season, especially when they found themselves in tight situations. The RedHawks won eight games by either two points or in overtime.
Friday though, they struggled in strange new territory.
They seemed spent: emotionally and physically. Their shots came up short, often a sign of tired legs.
They were matched with an opponent who presented even more size than WSU had faced with Virginia.
The 23-11 Volunteers — who played one of the toughest schedules in the nation with non-conference games against Houston, Kansas, Syracuse, Illinois and Louisville added to their SEC schedule — started 6-foot-11 Felix Okpara, 6-11 J.P Estrella and 6-10 Nate Ament.
While the trio bottled up the inside and controlled the boards, the knockout punch came from Volunteer point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who made six of 11 3-point attempts — some from NBA range — to finish with 29 points and nine assists.
Miami’s only answer was Suder, who made four of seven 3-point attempts and nine of 10 free throws for 27 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“I can’t say enough about Peter Suder. He’s the real deal,” said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. “We couldn’t do anything with him, he was terrific.”
As good as Suder was on the court the past two seasons after transferring to Miami from Bellarmine, he was even better when it came to the “brotherhood” he spoke of.
When he decided to turn down NIL money and go to a bigger school after last season, he convinced other players — specifically fellow star Eian Elmer — to do the same and that allowed Steele’s rebuild of the recently moribund program to continue.
“I can’t say enough good things about Pete,” Steele said. “Ultimate winner. He has zero agenda. Zero. He doesn’t care about himself. He doesn’t care whether he scores or not.
“He’ll have a game where he scores 30, and the next game he has 6, and he doesn’t care, Which is unbelievable.
“In today’s landscape, a lot of these dudes are just collecting hollow stats out there to get more money. He only plays to win. He leaves it all out there every day, that’s in practice, that’s in the spring, playing three-on-three, one-on-one, five-on-five.
“He’s the ultimate winner, man. Leadership, just everything you want in a young man that guy is. He’s a great basketball player, skilled and all that, but his intangibles are ridiculous. He’s the best I’ve ever been around.”
As the Miami team continued to win this season and invigorate the campus, its fans and alums, there were some in the basketball world who criticized from afar about their anemic non-conference schedule, even though numerous power conference schools refused to play them because they were a mid-major program with little cache to help their own tournament resume.
The convincing victory over SMU in the First Four dispelled much of that and Barnes further picked up their banner after Friday’s game:
“I really want to congratulate Coach Steele and his team on an incredible year. Any team that wins that many games — and it took maybe our best half of the year, the start of the game to beat them today — my hat’s off to them.
“They put on a show in Dayton … They should have been the darlings, the talk of the tournament. You win 32 basketball games, I don’t care what league you play in. I don’t care what anybody says.
“And they would win some games in our league, make no bones about it.”
‘More than one college basketball team in Dayton’
Virginia coach Ryan Odom similarly praised Wright State:
“I can’t say enough good things about Wright State. They played lights out. They gave us everything that we could handle throughout the game. It was an excellent and well-played game, a real competitive game.”
He especially praised Raiders point guard T.J. Burch, who had five steals and gave his teammates confidence they could play with the Volunteers.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“Burch is excellent — he’s number one in the country at stealing the ball per possession of any kid in the country,” Odom said. “That’s what he does. You can show guys film over and over again, but you have to live it. Our guys experienced it, certainly, today, and fortunately, we were able to come out on top.”
The Raiders were also stabilized early by Callaghan who scored 10 of the team’s first 16 points and finished with 18.
After the game, before the team headed to its bus, the players returned to courtside and went up into the stands to thank their family and fans for their support. They were given a standing ovation.
Callaghan’s dad, Scott, himself a longtime coach in northeast Ohio, talked about just how special this team was:
“It’s heartbreaking it had to end. I’ve never been around a team with such a strong culture. I’m incredibly proud of them.
“They showed a lot today. I think the whole basketball world now knows there’s more than one college basketball team in Dayton.”
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