SI:AM | Miami (Ohio)’s Statement Win Was a Perfect March Madness Appetizer

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Remember to do some stretches before you plant yourself in front of the TV for 12 hours of college basketball.

In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 After the Cinderella run
⛹️‍♀️ 68 best women’s tourney players
🤔 Controversy around SMU’s berth

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Miami makes its mark

Miami (Ohio), college basketball’s most talked-about bubble team, had a lot to prove in Wednesday night’s First Four game against SMU.

The RedHawks’ perfect season ended with a loss to UMass in the opening round of the MAC tournament last week, but after several days of heated debate over whether they deserved an at-large bid, they earned one of the final spots in the field of 68 and a trip to the First Four in Dayton. After Wednesday night’s win, there’s no doubt they deserved to be included.

The biggest knock on Miami was that it played a weak schedule, which is undeniably true. Its toughest out-of-conference opponent was eventual Horizon League champion Wright State. But Miami had wanted to prove itself against power-conference teams—it just couldn’t get any to agree to put it on the schedule. A convincing win over SMU showed the RedHawks can hang with the big boys.

And it was a great game. SMU scored the first four points, but it was all Miami from there. The RedHawks carried a nine-point lead into halftime thanks to a barrage of three-pointers and held off a late Mustangs charge to come away with an 89–79 win.

Miami took 41 three-pointers, surpassing its previous season high of 35. But the RedHawks weren’t just trigger-happy. They looked like a smart, well-coached team—always making the extra pass at the right time to set up either an open three or a clean look at the rim. They only turned the ball over four times and had an assist on 20 of their 29 made field goals.

The biggest story, though, was the crowd. Dayton, the annual site of the First Four, is about an hour from the Miami campus in Oxford, and the UD Arena was packed with RedHawks fans eager to support their team on its historic run. The Miami men’s swim team even showed up in Speedos to distract SMU free throw shooters.

After watching last night’s game, it’s impossible to imagine how Miami ever could have been left out of the tournament. Yes, its résumé was weaker than some bigger schools’, but moments like last night are what people tune into March Madness to see. The First Four games are often dull afterthoughts. Remember two years ago, when the selection committee chose a middling power-conference team (Virginia) over an impressive mid-major (Indiana State) and then Virginia scored just 42 points in a boring and embarrassing First Four game against Colorado State? Instead of a repeat of that scenario, with Auburn playing the role of Virginia, we saw a team and a crowd that cared more about a First Four game than anyone who had played in Dayton before them.

Miami’s reward for beating SMU is an opportunity to play six-seed Tennessee in the first round on Friday (4:25 p.m. ET on TBS). The Volunteers will be a tougher matchup than the Mustangs were, but it would be foolish to think Miami doesn’t stand a chance.

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Davidson’s Steph Curry goes to the hoop in the 2008 NCAA tournament. — John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated

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The top five…

… things I saw last night:
5. Erik Karlsson’s sweet deke before scoring on a long wrist shot.
4. Ben Fall’s goal to cap Asheville City’s upset win over the Greenville Triumph in the U.S. Open Cup. Asheville is an amateur team, while Greenville is professional.
3. This tough bucket by Nebraska’s Britt Prince in her team’s First Four win over Richmond. Prince, a sophomore and the Huskers’ leading scorer, had 22 points in the victory on 10-for-14 shooting.
2. NBA ref Tre Maddox’s funny botched replay explanation.
1. Luka Dončić’s alley-oop to LeBron James, followed by a step-back three to seal the Lakers’ win over the Rockets.