Miami point guard Evan Ipsaro remembers that nobody on campus paid attention to the program during his freshman season, and a small group did during his sophomore year. Now, those days seem like an alternate reality.<\/p>\n
When a group of Miami players went out in Oxford, Ohio, students often came up to thank them for what they had done for the program. When they went to Fort Lauderdale on spring break, multiple groups of people came up to ask for pictures and tell them they had followed the run. Ipsaro and company never envisioned notoriety like this, but it\u2019s their reality these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe entire nation knew who we were,\u201d Ipsaro said. \u201cIt was like \u2018wow, more people are paying attention to us than we really thought.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Miami’s brand has elevated significantly after its 31-0 regular season. (Miami Athletics)<\/p>\n
Smith would love to give the classic coach-speak answer regarding whether Miami\u2019s coaching staff still discusses the run they went on a year ago. He\u2019d love to say that everyone involved has moved on and put the memories away for now, focusing solely on Miami\u2019s 2026-27 team.<\/p>\n
He can\u2019t, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just not real,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s not our focus, but I think it\u2019s hard to not talk about it. It was a great accomplishment. In the history books, it will be there forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result, Smith and the rest of Miami\u2019s program who chose to come back for another season still take a moment to remember what they did and what it took to get there. They still remember the larger-than-life moments on the floor following its overtime win over Ohio that clinched an undefeated regular season. They still rave about junior guard Luke Skaljac\u2019s heroic performance against SMU in the First Four and about the way their group of seniors bought into the vision to make it all happen.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because they did, things have changed for Miami as a program. The consensus is that the run has expanded the pool of recruits who are willing to listen to what Steele and company have to say\u2013although Steele warns that the program shouldn\u2019t change the type of people they recruit just because higher-caliber players want to listen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steele isn\u2019t changing the way he recruits, and the 2025-26 season gives him the conviction to think that way. He believes that part of how his undefeated team should be remembered is how his group stayed together while other schools, agents, and critics tried to tear them apart. Despite never losing in the regular season, Steele argues that his team weathered a fair amount of adversity and was connected enough to get through it. As a result, he says, it put together what he calls a \u201cremarkable season, incredible ride.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Steele calls 2025-26 an “incredible ride.” (Miami Athletics)<\/p>\n
Miami won eight one-possession games in 2024-25\u2013including its last three regular season contests\u2013as a result of a unique composure that Ipsaro says manifested itself in Miami remaining unmoved while other teams were intimidated by the moment at times. Ipsaro admits that his team was almost too cocky at times, but that it was always of the belief that it was better than the teams it played against. That\u2019s how it was able to pull off what it did.<\/p>\n
That Miami team had plenty of opportunity to be overcome by the moment, but it never did. Even when it was the subject of criticism for never playing a Power Five opponent\u2013its answer to that: you can only play who\u2019s on the schedule and who will play you\u2013and was the center of a polarizing debate as to whether it should be in the NCAA Tournament if it didn\u2019t win the MAC Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTowards the end of the season, we were kind of the story of college basketball,\u201d Ipsaro said. \u201cI think we should be remembered as a team that didn\u2019t care what anybody else would say, that just put their head down and went to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people will remember that group for how close we were,” Suder added in a text message to Basket Under Review. “Everybody bought in, played for each other, and that helped move the program in the right direction\u201d<\/p>\n
Those within Miami\u2019s program also feel as if part of that group\u2019s legacy should relate to it getting everyone\u2019s best shot\u2013particularly in the eight weeks it was ranked in the AP Top 25\u2013even if it wasn\u2019t facing power-five programs. Smith also believes that the way it responded to losing Ipsaro\u2013its starting point guard on opening night\u2013for the season should add to its legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In any case, it can say something that only 24 teams in college basketball history can.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever they want to rank us among the undefeated teams, it’s up to them, but they can’t deny what we did,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe’ll forever be in history, whether people agree with it or not, so we’re proud of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Miami believes it has a real place in college basketball history. (Miami Athletics)<\/p>\n
In the moments following Miami\u2019s 78-56 loss to Tennessee in the Round of 64, Steele couldn\u2019t help but think about the big picture of what his team accomplished. He also couldn\u2019t help but think about what it left out there, though.<\/p>\n
Steele never set out to just make the NCAA Tournament. He wants to be in it every year, but he has aspirations of making it to the second weekend\u2014where he says anything can happen. He likely knows that some will think he\u2019s crazy for that, but he believes he can take this program there by sticking to what he\u2019s doing and evolving along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed our guys a picture of an iceberg, and it’s like, you just see the tip of the iceberg usually,\u201d Steele said, \u201cAnd I think that’s what the nation saw last year. For us, there\u2019s a lot under the water that we haven’t done yet. A lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Had Steele not believed that, he likely would\u2019ve moved on to a new gig following Miami\u2019s magical season. At the very least, he likely wouldn\u2019t have signed a contract extension through the 2033-34 season\u2014which added two seasons to his existing deal.<\/p>\n
Steele attributes signing the extension to not wanting to leave a place he\u2019s happy with and feels he has the resources to win consistently. He says he\u2019s appreciative of the belief that Miami athletic director David Sayler had in him in the immediate aftermath of his firing at Xavier and has taken that to heart.<\/p>\n
The grass isn\u2019t always greener, Steele says, and he says he\u2019s intent on watering it where he is.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to be like Gonzaga, like a mid-major team that built a powerhouse,\u201d Ipsaro said.\u00a0 \u201cMiami has all the tools to do it. They got the money. They\u2019re building a new facility. They have all the tools to do it, and Steele is more than capable of leading a team to a sustainable run that can last a long time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gonzaga comparison is one that many successful mid-major coaches have aspired to match over the years, only to fall short for one reason or another. Building it that way in a one-bid league will be difficult for Steele\u2013particularly in an era that\u2019s relatively unfriendly to schools like Miami. What he does have going for him, though, is that his program and Gonzaga are the only two non-Power Five schools to go undefeated since 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steele believes that as he continues to build this thing, more similarities will continue to arise.\u00a0No matter how crazy anyone thinks he is. <\/p>\n
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Steele believes he’s building something special at Miami. (Miami Athletics)<\/p>\n
As he opened Miami\u2019s summer program, Steele had a message to get across. It\u2019s the same one that was a staple of his locker room throughout Miami\u2019s 2025-26 run, but he felt it was as prevalent as ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A car\u2019s windshield is much bigger than its rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n
Steele\u2019s in-season analogy was slightly different in that it related more to distracted driving\u2013and in his team\u2019s case, keeping the main thing the main thing\u2013while this one relates more to focusing on moving forward, but they came from a similar place. Steele wants this program to focus on where it\u2019s going rather than where it\u2019s already been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a good point that there\u2019s so much more ahead of us,\u201d Ipsaro said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking, and we\u2019re like \u2018we need to prove that this wasn\u2019t a fluke.\u2019 Obviously, winning every regular season game isn\u2019t a fluke, but we\u2019re trying to prove that it wasn\u2019t just a one-time thing or because we had the player of the year. We need to prove that we can do it again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ipsaro says that everyone in Miami\u2019s locker room is like-minded regarding the belief that Miami can accomplish everything it sets out to do in 2026-27. That\u2019s more about its group of returning guards, Ball State transfer Preston Copeland, Milwaukee transfer Stevie Elam, Youngstown State transfer Rich Rolf and the leaps that its young players will make than what they did a season ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That, they say, won\u2019t stick with them once Miami opens its season in early November.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing 31-0 in the regular season, 32-0 overall, isn\u2019t going to help us win a game next year,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe know that now we’re gonna be the hunted, even though we always want to remain the hunter, but we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot because of what we did. And so we got to have that mentality of \u2018how can we do it again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Steele, by nature, is a chip-on-the-shoulder guy and says he still has a bad taste in his mouth because of the way Miami left the NCAA Tournament a year ago and fell short of the MAC Tournament Championship. He says those things motivate him to move the program beyond where it\u2019s already been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says that for his program to do that, it can\u2019t skip any steps\u2014even if it did complete an undefeated regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can’t think just because we were good last year that we’re gonna be good this year,\u201d Steele said.\u2029You have to earn that right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami assistant coach Khristian Smith has gotten used to it over the years, walking around the convention center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-325734","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\/325734","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=325734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}