The University of Miami men’s basketball team reacts to learning on Selection Sunday that it is a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face No. 10 Missouri in St. Louis.
Dave Barry
Miami Herald
The sky was gray, a steady drizzle fell over the University of Miami campus on Sunday afternoon, and the power flickered, knocking out the T.V. feed for a few minutes before the start of the Selection Sunday show.
But that did not dampen the mood in The Rathskeller, the campus restaurant, where the Hurricanes basketball team gathered to learn its NCAA fate. Where would they be seeded? Where were they headed? And who would they play as the NCAA Tournament tips off this week?
Answers: No. 7 seed. Headed to St. Louis to play No. 10 seed University of Missouri on Friday at 10:10 p.m. at Enterprise Center. The game will be shown on TruTV.
The winner will face the winner of 2-seed Purdue (27-8) and 15-seed Queens (21-13) on Sunday. Arizona is the top seed in the West region.
Miami (25-8) has a better record than Missouri (20-12), but the Tigers will be in their home state.
The Hurricanes have an advantage when it comes to putting together a scouting report. UM associate head coach CY Young, who joined Jai Lucas’ staff this season, previously served as associate head coach at Missouri, where he helped the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in two of his three years on staff. Also, UM guard Marcus Allen transferred from Missouri.
“I’ve known Coach [Dennis] Gates for a while, so I kind of know a little bit about how they play and what they do; of course, we have some people on staff and a former player from Missouri, so hopefully, they can come up with some type of scouting report,” Lucas said.
“But for us, it’s business as usual. This will be a road game, even though we’re the higher seed. We’ve been in big environments like this before, so we’ll just go and do what we do.”
After not qualifying for the tournament for the past two years, following their historic 2023 Final Four run, UM basketball fans are excited to have the Canes back in the Big Dance. Miami cheerleaders, the pep band and a canopy of balloons welcomed Lucas and his Hurricanes to the watch party.
Retired coach Jim Larranaga and his wife, Liz, were also there for the festivities.
The Hurricanes earned an at-large bid for their 13th NCAA Tournament appearance after finishing third in the ACC with a 13-5 record. They beat No. 24 Louisville 78-73 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament last week before losing 84-62 to No. 10 Virginia in the semifinals on Friday.
Still stinging from that rout, the Hurricanes are ready to get March Madness started.
“It’s a whole new season,” Lucas said, when asked what his message has been to his players the past few days. “You get the opportunity to play against people who don’t know you, people from different conferences who aren’t as familiar with you. So, it’s exciting to play a new brand of basketball.”
He reminded his team that “everything we did put us in this position, but now none of it matters. It’s a clean slate.”
Missouri is led by All-SEC Second Team senior forward Mark Mitchell (18.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.6 apg), whom Lucas coached at Duke. Junior guard Anthony Robinson II was Donaldson’s teammate at Florida State High School and they won a state title together.
The Tigers finished seventh in the SEC with a 10-8 record.
Lucas, the 37-year-old first-year coach, directed the biggest turnaround in the nation, transforming the Hurricanes from a 7-24 team into a 24-7 team, from last place in the ACC and not making the conference tournament to a double-bye and the semifinals of this year’s ACC tournament.
The three seniors on the team, guard Tre Donaldson, forward Malik Reneau and center Ernest Udeh, Jr., all have tournament experience. Donaldson came from Michigan, Reneau from Indiana and Udeh from TCU.
“We get a chance to go out there and do something special,” Udeh said. “Some people are at home, their seasons are over, and we’re blessed that we get a chance to keep playing. My message to the guys is to stay poised, whether we’re up or down, no matter if the game’s getting out of hand, no matter if the other team goes on a run, just stick to what we do.”
Udeh said having seniors with tournament experience is huge for the Hurricanes.
“It isn’t really unchartered territory,” he said. “We know what comes with The Dance. We know how amped up everything’s going to be. It’s win or go home. We’re not going out there to play one game and think about our next moves. We want to be playing until April.”
Donaldson echoed Udeh’s sentiments.
“Regular season is over; it’s time to dance now,” he said. “I was made for these moments. March is my month.”
UM women to host Georgia Southern in WBIT
The University of Miami women’s basketball team was selected as the No. 2 seed in the 2026 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) and will host Georgia Southern in the first round on Thursday, March 19 at the Watsco Center.
Miami enters the postseason with a 17–14 overall record. Georgia Southern, which won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season championship, has a 23-7 record.
This story was originally published March 15, 2026 at 7:35 PM.
Miami Herald
Miami Herald sportswriter Michelle Kaufman has covered 14 Olympics, six World Cups, Wimbledon, U.S. Open, NCAA Basketball Tournaments, NBA Playoffs, Super Bowls and has been the soccer writer and University of Miami basketball beat writer for 25 years. She was born in Frederick, Md., and grew up in Miami.