There was a lot of talk about how deserving the Miami (Ohio) basketball program was of an NCAA Tournament berth. They had a confusing resume: they finished the regular season undefeated, but did not play many teams that were NCAA Tournament-worthy. After the Redhawks lost their first game, they got in and were sent to the first four, where they will play SMU in Dayton, giving them a location advantage.
Despite all of the talk about whether they actually deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament, Travis Steele was happy with where they ended up and said that, with how close Dayton is, this should be a home game. The RedHawks are based 50 minutes from Dayton, so it will be easy for the Miami (Ohio) basketball program to create a home environment during the First Four.
Miami wasn't the last team included in the field; it was ahead of Texas, SMU, and North Carolina State, but it was punished, regardless, for its weak metrics and strength of schedule, and escaped off the bubble.
“(Miami) came in before NC State, Texas, and SMU,” NCAA selection committee chair Keith Gill said on the live show. “And during our scrubbing process, those teams scrubbed above (Miami) relative to the predictive metrics and also the difference in the quality of wins.”
Travis Steele was not the only person to notice that the committee decided to send Miami to Dayton and give the RedHawks a potentially massive home-crowd advantage. Former NBA All-Star and Miami standout Wally Szczerbiak, now an analyst for CBS Sports, was surprised Miami is headed to Dayton for the First Four and thought they should have been in regardless.
“Very surprised that Miami was sent to the First Four,” he said. “It is in Dayton, it's an hour from campus. So they're gonna have a huge crowd, and they have a lot to prove by being put into that First Four.”
In total, the RedHawks played 0 Quad 1 games, won 3 Quad 2 games, and lost 1 Quad 4 game. They were also the lowest-ranked team to qualify for an at-large bid at 64th, but the committee thought their record overruled their weak metrics, and they got a home atmosphere in game one.
