{"id":192382,"date":"2026-03-15T12:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/192382\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:09:33","slug":"miami-of-ohio-went-undefeated-and-still-isnt-guaranteed-a-spot-in-the-big-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/192382\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami of Ohio went undefeated and still isn\u2019t guaranteed a spot in the Big Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Steve Prohm lets out a deep exhale and Bryce Drew sighs an extended, \u201cOohhhh.\u2019\u2019 Josh Schertz kind of tsk-tsks, before muttering, \u201cIt\u2019s a tough one.\u2019\u2019\n <\/p>\n

\n Independent of one another, each has been asked the same question: \u201cWhat does it feel like to be Travis Steele this week?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n They have all been Steele, or at least some iteration of him. The Miami (Ohio) coach should be sitting in the catbird seat. After surviving a dizzyingly chaotic regular-season finale at Ohio University that included two technical fouls and one flagrant on Miami, his RedHawks completed a perfect 31-0 regular season, the first to do so since Gonzaga in 2021 and only the eighth in the last 50 years.\n <\/p>\n

\n Except this is Miami with that pesky attachment to its name \u2013 Ohio. Were this the Miami of U fame<\/a> in Coral Gables, Florida, copious amounts of words would have been spewed about the team\u2019s awesomeness and this week \u2013 conference tournament week \u2013 would be nothing more than a stop gap between the regular season and an inevitable bid to go dancing in the NCAA Tournament<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

\n In the Ohio version of this tale, the RedHawks are at best a lightning rod, at worst an annoyance and now perhaps a little uncomfortable as it awaits Selection Sunday. After teetering on the brink of losing for weeks, Miami finally succumbed. The RedHawks lost in the first round of the MAC Tournament to a UMass team that had dropped six of its last seven regular-season games and owns a tanking NET ranking of 204.\n <\/p>\n

\n It is not just a bad loss; it is a really badly timed one. While one loss shouldn\u2019t erase 31 victories, it gives the Selection Committee an out if it wants to take it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cinderella is a funny girl when her glass slippers are Nike issued. We are amused by her as a lead-up to the ball and love her if she earns a party-crashing admittance and then goes on to trash the place in the first weekend. But not everyone is so eager to hand our protagonist one of the coveted 37 extra tickets held in reserve.\n <\/p>\n

\n For every person who believes that Miami deserves a bid to the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens this week in Cleveland, there is a counterprogrammer who argues that the RedHawks\u2019 weak schedule means they should be tossed for a power conference member.\n <\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

\"Miami's<\/p>\n

\n The mid-major versus high major value is hardly new. The reason Prohm, Drew and Schertz can relate is because they all had their spin through this particular blender: Prohm twice while at Murray State, Drew while he was at Valparaiso and Schertz with Indiana State. The interesting twist on Miami\u2019s case is their test balloon is being floated as the powers-that-be debate expanding the NCAA Tournament field.\n <\/p>\n

\n In theory \u2013 theory \u2013 that should offer more opportunities for the future Miamis of Ohio.\n <\/p>\n

\n But those who live in the real world of college athletics question if that will be the case.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe system is not designed to be equitable,\u201d Schertz told CNN Sports<\/a>, who is now the head coach at Saint Louis. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re a Power 5 team, you don\u2019t want it to be. Bids mean money and everyone wants more money. Expansion, if we go to say eight more, I think it means maybe one mid-major bid or two. The allure of the tournament is Cinderella, this team you never heard of suddenly winning games. It\u2019s not the 13th team in the Big Ten playing the 14th team in SEC, but that\u2019s what we\u2019ll get.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The plight for the mid-major has never been easy.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite a phonebook of NCAA rules designed to create an even playing field, it never has been. With the advent of NIL<\/a> and revenue sharing, not to mention a transfer portal that pickpockets good players, it\u2019s even harder.\n <\/p>\n

\n That Miami was able to build on a 25-win season a year ago, retain the better part of its roster and up its record to 31-0 is in and of itself worthy of something.\n <\/p>\n

\n The question is if it\u2019s worth an NCAA bid. Since the tournament expanded in 1985, no team with two or fewer losses has been left out of the bracket. That\u2019s 2,616-0 for those keeping score at home.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou should reward excellence,\u201d Prohm says. \u201cI don\u2019t care about Quad 1 games or any of that. To go out and win all of your games, to have your team focused and ready to play every single night, there\u2019s a reason so few teams have done it and that excellence deserves to be rewarded.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

\n In sports, where hard stats create black-and-white lines, no one has a whole lot of time for nuance. Those in the \u201cno Miami\u201d camp point to a schedule that includes not a single Quad 1 team and 26 from Quads 3 and 4. What they don\u2019t see is the reality behind those numbers \u2013 the road games, the scheduling headaches, and frankly, the pressure.\n <\/p>\n

\n The NCAA uses a combination of metrics \u2013 Ken Pomeroy<\/a>, Torvik<\/a> and BPI \u2013 to assess how good a team is beyond just their record. Teams are then grouped by quad \u2013 Quad 1 teams are the best in the country, on down. More weight is given to wins against better teams and weighted even more if the game is on the road.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2012, Prohm\u2019s first at Murray State, the Racers opened their season on November 14 with a win against Morgan State and continued to pile up nothing but victories all the way through February. In win number seven, the Racers knocked down Southern Miss in two overtimes, and in win No. 10 upset 21st-ranked Memphis at the FedExForum. They erased SIU-Edwardsville with ease for their 20th victory.\n <\/p>\n

\n Along the way, the national media, whose knowledge of Kentucky basketball typically began in Lexington and ended in Louisville, found their way to tiny Murray, winding their way down Highway 641. They popped into Sammons\u2019 Bakery or stopped in Nick\u2019s, the local sports bar, to get the temperature of a place making college basketball history.\n <\/p>\n

\n On the road, ordinary gyms suddenly felt like coliseums. At SIU Edwardsville in January for game number 20, 4,157 people crammed into the Sam M. Vadalabene Center \u2013 the second-most in the building\u2019s history \u2013 for a game televised by ESPNU. At the Cougars\u2019 next home game, 1,158 showed up to watch Morehead State.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou get to 17-0, 19-0 and suddenly everyone is paying attention to you,\u201d Prohm says. \u201cI don\u2019t care where you go. Everyone wants to knock you off. I think anyone can appreciate how amazing and how stressful that is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Murray\u2019s run at perfection that year ended in game No. 24. A guy by the name of Robert Covington \u2013 who would go on to play 10 years in the NBA \u2013 dropped 17 and Tennessee State pulled off the upset, but the Racers won the OVC Tournament and never had to sweat out a tourney bid.\n <\/p>\n

\n That wasn\u2019t the case for either Drew or Schertz.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2016, Valparaiso finished the regular season 26-5 overall and 16-2 in the Horizon League. Along the way they beat Oregon State and lost by just six on the road to Oregon. Both the Beavers and the Ducks later would make the field \u2013 as No. 7 and No. 1 seeds, respectively.\n <\/p>\n

\"Then-Valparaiso<\/p>\n

\n But the Beacons also lost twice to Wright State during the regular season and to Ball State in the non-conference schedule, which put them solidly on the bubble. Playing without regular starter Tevonn Walker, who injured his ankle the game before, Valpo lost to Green Bay in overtime in the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament.\n <\/p>\n

\n That loss combined with the bad in-season Ls outweighed the solid results they put up in the Pacific Northwest.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn a one-bid league, to be a coach, that is the most stressful three days of your life,\u201d Drew told CNN Sports. \u201cAll it takes is one bad stretch or a couple of bad plays and it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re 16-0 or 18-2, it\u2019s all over. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s over.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n There is a tendency at this time of the year to blind-resume compare \u2013 to throw up two schools with all their metrics and argue who does and doesn\u2019t belong in the tournament.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re not the same,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cAt the mid-major, every loss is looked at as a bad loss. At the high major, you\u2019re playing with house money. If you win, it\u2019s a great win. If you lose, well that\u2019s OK, too. If we lose to someone in the bottom of the Atlantic 10, it would be, \u2018H no.\u2019 There is incredible pressure at the mid-major level to not lose. Incredible pressure.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2024, Schertz made the unforgivable mistake of losing at exactly the wrong time. His charming Indiana State team \u2013 led by the bespectacled and beloved cult hero Robbie Avila, better known as Cream Abdul-Jabbar \u2013 won 28 games in the regular-season, and the Missouri Valley crown.\n <\/p>\n

\"Robbie<\/p>\n

\n But in the Valley tourney title game, Indiana State couldn\u2019t come all the way back from an 18-point hole, losing the game and the automatic bid to Drake. The Sycamores\u2019 lack of a signature win \u2013 they lost at Alabama and Michigan State \u2013 along with a few bad regular-season losses and a wild bid-stealing postseason loss left them on the outside looking in.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe were the last four in, the first four out, the next four out; it was exhausting,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cYou\u2019re just sitting there watching the results, knowing there is nothing you can do.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Critics crow that there is, in fact, more mid-majors can do by bumping up their schedules.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prohm, who spent six seasons at Iowa State running through the gauntlet that is the Big 12, will be the first to admit his challenges at Murray State were not the same he faced with the Cyclones. That doesn\u2019t mean they didn\u2019t exist.\n <\/p>\n

\n At Iowa State, he had opportunity \u2013 to get big wins in league, to schedule equal opponents in the non-conference schedule and to play in multi-team exempt tournaments that offered up a cornucopia of chances. Those weren\u2019t offered while he was at Murray.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019d beg and plead with ESPN to let us in the MTEs,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Miami<\/p>\n

\n Similarly, a published report<\/a> showed just who Miami did try to schedule this year \u2013 Pitt, Marquette and Wisconsin. No one bit.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere have been a lot of talk about Miami already on the committee,\u201d said NCAA vice president for basketball Dan Gavitt, who sits in with the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee as it deliberates the bracket. \u201cBut they also know they don\u2019t get the return phone calls.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The combination of conference expansion and the nitty-gritty methodology behind the NET Rankings don\u2019t bode well for that changing anytime soon.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bloated leagues mean there is less wiggle room for non-conference games and the way the NET is weighted \u2013 teams are rewarded for quality of opponent, with extra weight on road and neutral games, as well as points per possession \u2013 means that it makes no sense to schedule a home game against a good Quad 2 team that you might not beat by enough points.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUnless they know we\u2019re going to be a Quad 1, they\u2019re not playing us,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cIt makes more sense to play each other. Every win will be a great win, and every loss isn\u2019t so bad.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n All of which leads full circle back to Cleveland, where Miami just conceded the one thing no one else could take away: Control of its own destiny.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou know, all I can say is control what you can control,\u201d Drew said. \u201cThat\u2019s my advice. Our team, Indiana State, there was nothing we could do once we lost, and it\u2019s an awful feeling. There\u2019s no question in my mind that Miami belongs in the tournament. But I thought we did, too.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Prohm lets out a deep exhale and Bryce Drew sighs an extended, \u201cOohhhh.\u2019\u2019 Josh Schertz kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-192382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}