{"id":477606,"date":"2026-02-13T15:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477606\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:46:07","slug":"miami-university-likes-pressure-as-last-unbeaten-in-mens-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477606\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami University likes pressure as last unbeaten in men’s hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Travis Steele and his Miami University<\/a> squad haven’t wilted under the pressure of being ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for four weeks as they got off to the best start in school history.<\/p>\n

Now that they are the last unbeaten team in Division I men’s basketball, Steele and the RedHawks don’t expect their approach to change.<\/p>\n

Miami (24-0) became the last unbeaten team after top-ranked Arizona<\/a> lost 82-78 at Kansas<\/a> on Monday night. It also has the nation’s longest winning streak heading into Friday’s game against Ohio<\/a> (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).<\/p>\n

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“I had a family friend of ours, he has season tickets at Marshall<\/a>, and he told my father-in-law, ‘I can’t believe how loose Miami is. It looks like they’re having a lot of fun.’ And that’s our group,” Steele said. “I mean, we have a true love for each other, and I think when you’re trying not to do it for yourself, but rather do it for others, you don’t feel as much pressure. I am a firm believer in that, and I think that’s why our group has not let the pressure affect us at all.”<\/p>\n

The RedHawks are 5-0 since entering the Top 25, including a 90-74 win at Marshall on Saturday. They have surpassed the best start in Mid-American Conference history, previously held by Western Michigan<\/a> at 19-0 in 1975-76. Miami also holds the longest winning streak in conference history, breaking the 21-game mark set by the 2001-02 Kent State<\/a> squad that went to the Elite Eight in the 2002 NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

Miami leads the nation in scoring, averaging 92.7 points per game. It is also first in field goal percentage at 53.6%, sixth in 3-point percentage at 39.8% and eighth in scoring margin at 18.4 points per game.<\/p>\n

Steele said his squad has made the most gains on defense. In the past three games, Miami has held opponents to 41.2% from the field and 28.4% on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

But Steele wants to cut down on turnovers after having 13 in each of the past two games.<\/p>\n

“I feel like we’ll score 90-plus in every game if we commit 10 or fewer turnovers,” he said. “We’re very efficient offensively, but I want more shot attempts. And then just defensively protecting the paint.”<\/p>\n

Sophomore guard Brant Byers<\/a>, last season’s MAC Freshman of the Year, leads the RedHawks in scoring with 14.7 points per game, while senior guard Peter Suder<\/a>, a first-team preseason All-MAC selection, is averaging 14.2.<\/p>\n

Miami could have another record crowd at Millett Hall on Friday night. Its last home game Jan. 31 against Northern Illinois<\/a> drew 10,640 to the 57-year-old arena, surpassing the previous mark of 10,634 set in 1976 against Cincinnati<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Northern Illinois game, Ron Harper, a five-time NBA champion and the leading scorer in school history, received an honorary degree. Miami graduate and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Wayne Embry also attended the game.<\/p>\n

The last two home games have each drawn more than 9,000 fans. Miami is tied with Akron<\/a> and Duke<\/a> for the nation’s longest home winning streak at 28 games.<\/p>\n

“I think we’ve put out a good product for them to cheer on and get behind, and it’s been very fun to watch this kind of build-up to the crowds we have here at Millett,” Steele said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Travis Steele and his Miami University squad haven’t wilted under the pressure of being ranked in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-477606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}