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The University of Miami men\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Dave Barry<\/p>\n
Miami Herald<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Miami (25-8) has a better record than Missouri (20-12), but the Tigers will be in their home state.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes have an advantage when it comes to putting together a scouting report. UM associate head coach CY Young, who joined Jai Lucas\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve 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,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for us, it\u2019s business as usual. This will be a road game, even though we\u2019re the higher seed. We\u2019ve been in big environments like this before, so we\u2019ll just go and do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Retired coach Jim Larranaga and his wife, Liz, were also there for the festivities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Still stinging from that rout, the Hurricanes are ready to get March Madness started.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole new season,\u201d Lucas said, when asked what his message has been to his players the past few days. \u201cYou get the opportunity to play against people who don\u2019t know you, people from different conferences who aren\u2019t as familiar with you. So, it\u2019s exciting to play a new brand of basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reminded his team that \u201ceverything we did put us in this position, but now none of it matters. It\u2019s a clean slate.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s teammate at Florida State High School and they won a state title together.<\/p>\n
The Tigers finished seventh in the SEC with a 10-8 record.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s ACC tournament.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a chance to go out there and do something special,\u201d Udeh said. \u201cSome people are at home, their seasons are over, and we\u2019re blessed that we get a chance to keep playing. My message to the guys is to stay poised, whether we\u2019re up or down, no matter if the game\u2019s getting out of hand, no matter if the other team goes on a run, just stick to what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Udeh said having seniors with tournament experience is huge for the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t really unchartered territory,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know what comes with The Dance. We know how amped up everything\u2019s going to be. It\u2019s win or go home. We\u2019re not going out there to play one game and think about our next moves. We want to be playing until April.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donaldson echoed Udeh\u2019s sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegular season is over; it\u2019s time to dance now,\u201d he said. \u201cI was made for these moments. March is my month.\u201d<\/p>\n
UM women to host Georgia Southern in WBIT<\/p>\n
The University of Miami women\u2019s basketball team was selected as the No. 2 seed in the 2026 Women\u2019s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) and will host Georgia Southern in the first round on Thursday, March 19 at the Watsco Center.<\/p>\n
Miami enters the postseason with a 17\u201314 overall record. Georgia Southern, which won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season championship, has a 23-7 record.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published March 15, 2026 at 7:35 PM.<\/p>\n