RedLocks: Miami (Ohio) Must Be in the NCAA Tournament or College Hoops Is Broken

The Miami (Ohio) RedHawks are going to the NCAA tournament. There is no other acceptable outcome. It happens, or college basketball is broken beyond repair.

They might be in the First Four in Dayton, which would probably be fine for a school located 56 miles away. But they’re in. Don’t waste any oxygen arguing against it.

A No. 93 KenPom rating is immaterial. So is a No. 54 NCAA NET rating before Miami’s loss to Massachusetts on Thursday in the Mid-American Conference quarterfinals. If you must have a metric to fall back on, make it Wins Above Bubble—Miami was No. 33 heading into Thursday, which ranks ahead of several other tournament teams and those clustered on the bubble.

Mostly, there is the win-loss record. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, no one-loss team has been omitted from the field. Nor has any two-loss team. At 31–1, the RedHawks are RedLocks.

An undefeated regular season has to matter. Deserving mid-major representation has to matter. Otherwise, the committee is telling about 275 members of NCAA Division I that there is absolutely no point in the regular season—the only thing that matters is a few weekends in March at a league tournament site.

Unless the tournament selection committee wants to become the most unpopular group in America on behalf of some dysfunctional power program, it will do what’s right Sunday. Not even a rash of bid stealing, the likes of which kept Indiana State out of the field in 2024, would justify snubbing Miami.

The sport already caters too much to high-major underachievers, and there has never been less reason to do so than this year. The bubble is a mess, a pileup of teams that keep botching quality win opportunities, a lot of backsliding teams are going to get in as it is.

With an 18–14 record and six losses in its last seven games, Indiana’s own fans don’t want to watch this team anymore. They might have to. Same with Texas and SMU, which have both lost five of their last six. Missouri is on a three-game losing streak. Cincinnati blew an eight-point lead in the final 130 seconds against Central Florida on Wednesday, ending its tourney bid.

It’s so bad that at 17–15, Auburn might have staggered into the Big Dance with a victory over Mississippi State on Wednesday. Woo-hoo.

When it comes to team selection, the committee’s work might already largely be over. Pending a few results in the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West, everyone else has pretty well played themselves in or out of the field of 68. Mostly out.

Given the wreckage, there is no compelling reason to exclude Miami. Its schedule is undeniably weak, which is not the school’s fault. Attempts to schedule better competition were rebuffed because the RedHawks were viewed as an all-risk, no-reward opponent by power-conference programs.

The current scheduling game for many power-conference teams is to play a mix of games against each other and low-major opponents who stand no chance of pulling an upset. The teams in between don’t get the opportunities for Quad 1 wins—especially the good mid-majors.

Miami isn’t alone in being caught in scheduling no-man’s-land. Belmont played no power-conference opponents. Among fellow MAC schools, Kent State and Bowling Green also played none, while Toledo played one (Michigan State), as did Ohio (Louisville).

When Miami got through the regular season unbeaten, its tournament place was secure. Losing in the MAC tournament was not a shock, given the undefeated target the RedHawks carried through the latter stages of the season and their propensity for close games. Ten of their victories were by five points or fewer, and/or in overtime. That included the last three games of the regular season, all of which were won by two points and came down to the final possession.

One of the close calls was at home against UMass, This time around, the Minutemen had nine days off to rest and prepare. They hit Miami with a late 13–2 run to climb back into the game, then made more plays down the stretch of the victory.

So the résumé now reads 31–1. A single loss by four points on a neutral floor is not the end of the world, nor the end of an NCAA tournament dream. Miami will hear its name called on Selection Sunday.

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