Anyone else at the game hear Maddox Kopp be one of the five students to win $500 today?
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Was Brett with the football team? If so was he walking around on his own?
Claudia Negrete Garcia from field hockey also won
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I sit pretty close to Coach Steele and I was obviously not watching him all the time, but I did notice that 3 times in the second half he yelled out a special play which was different than our regular sets and all 3 worked. I just mentioned this because it was part of our discussion last week.
Also, Elmer got two open layups on an out of bounds play from under our bucket.
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I don’t know if this was one of them, but in the 2nd half, we dribbled over to the right, but threw it back over to Hunter on the left wing for a wide open 3 after he came off a flare screen set by Mirambeaux. That was new to me and was drawn up well.
Let’s talk about that attendance figure. There were never anywhere near that many people in the arena watching the game at any one time. The building opened at 12 and there were probably 1,000 people in the building when I got there at 12:25, mostly participating in Carnival on the Concourse. There were probably a couple of thousand in the house during the women’s game, Maybe 5,000 there during the men’s game. It was not anywhere close to the number during the UC game 3 years ago. However, I do believe that the number of people who came through the doors from 12:00 to 5:30 is probably accurate For two games, every TO and between quarters or at halftime there were groups being honored. In no way do I think all those people were in attendance all day or during the men’s game.
The complete football team, softball team, and field hockey teams were all honored as MAC champs. We had groups of both men’s and women’s alumnae honored. There were all kinds of University programs that were honored. There was an elaborate ceremony honoring our recently retired Volley ball legend, Coach Carolyn Condit, complete with graduation gowns and caps. We counted 9 times when President Crawford was out on the court congratulating, speaking, shaking hands with various people. I don’t think there was ever a time when anywhere near 7776 people were in the building at one time. 5,000 tops at any one time.
I would also say something about all the free tickets. President and Mrs. Crawford have been buying those tickets for One Miami Day for several years. Now how much per ticket they are paying is a complete unknown to me, but I am pretty sure it is highly discounted. I would also say that this did seem like a crowd that was a high percentage of parents with kids and townspeople and alums, not a high percentage of students. There were a couple of hundred athletes honored plus the players and band and cheerleaders and maybe another 1,000 students? And we had a small, lively group of students in the bleachers at the North End ( way to go guys!).
I was most happy with the performance put on by both the women and the men. So ofter when we have a big game with a big crowd we lose, or do not play well. That was not the case this time, people had a good time and saw us win both games and generally left happy and satisfied with the way they spent their Saturday.
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I agree Dick in your assessment that 5,000 might have been the max from looking at the photos. But even that is a great crowd now
My understanding is that you could order up to ten tickets. That would translate into a lot more seats ordered than sat in. So what? 5000 is still a lot better than 1000. It’s all about momentum and if the coach or media wants to say 7000, go for it. As you say, it’s great to win in front of a big crowd and hopefully they’ll come back and part with real money to watch. This seems very different than calling bullshit on announced attendance of 1000 because we know it was 300.
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Hey even if the seats were free, you still have to find 5,000 people interested in going to a Miami basketball game, so that’s something.
As far as the game goes, I think Eiam Elmer is our best player. Especially when you account for his defense. I’ve been impressed by him this year, but especially in MAC play. His offensive game is really advanced. Way more refined that I thought it would be coming out of Taft. The athleticism and energy were always going to be there, but the skill is what I didn’t know about. He scores at all three levels. Has a solid handle. Plays at a nice pace. Doesn’t rush. Makes good decisions and is a capital G great cutter. High IQ guy as well. I think the sky is the limit.
The offense from Bradley Dean was a pleasant surprise. It’s what I thought we would get from him from the outset based on the hype coming out of D2. We need it too because Cooper and Ipsaro are basically non-factors right now on offense and in modern basketball it’s really hard to win gamed when your point guard(s) aren’t scoring threats.
Ipsaro, man, he just doesn’t look like a confident basketball player right now. Which is the last thing I would’ve said he was lacking coming out of high school. He passed up multiple good looks yesterday and seems unable or unwilling to attack the basket. That injury seems to have really impacted him. Hopefully he can find his mojo again before the end of the season.
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Glad you said this. I was thinking the same thing this weekend. He should make the MAC All-Freshman team, and I’m so excited to watch his development. He can be a true impact player for this program sooner than later.
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We have so many impact players already if you think about it:
Anderson comes to MU and goes from 1.9? Whatever points a game to “damn this guy can really play”.
Hunter. Wow. How does he go so far under the radar for so long. Love his game.
The freshmen crew we have punching above their weight every day. The 2 dudes from D2 who have won us several games. Very impressive. And, the guys who came back from year one. I love Ryan. M. He could win you an NCAA game if he gets hot. Lewis who has also earned his keep over the last two years. Our walkon’s who can play and have actually logged real minutes. Our roster is legit. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s definitely back. We could win the whole thing. Not saying we will this year, but it’s no longer out of reach. Damn…Why not us. We’re not invincible but who else is?
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Nobody in the MAC…this year.
This team, at least to me, has far exceeded my expectations, especially after losing what most here should agree was our best returning player to the portal before the season even began. Credit to this coaching staff for terrific recruiting, even better coaching and player development. Miami men’s BB is a year ahead of where I thought we’d be at this point.
Congrats to the players also for embracing their roles, working hard and, essentially, becoming Men of Steele. Our future looks great…let’s see if ICA can keep this staff as the chemistry is obviously there…same too with keeping these kids…
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Kudos to the Crawfords for stepping up.
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Those free tickets were the only way to convince my wife to come watch a basketball game. We came for the mens game and stayed for most of it, but got out before the crowd.
Love the unfettered optimism fellas, but let’s pump the brakes a little bit. We are KenPom #249 in the country. Our best player is a senior and we have 2 other seniors in our top 5. We were #268 last year, so I guess we are technically better this year, but not by much. Jack Owens led us to #148 in 2019 and #157 in 2021, so we are nowhere near that level right now.
We have a lot of promising young talent, but there’s no guarantee that young talent will 1) stay at Miami and 2) continue to get better. We’ve had lots of promising young talent in recent years (Weathers x2, Nike, Adaway, Dae Dae, etc). None of them stayed.
I hope Steele can build us back to a consistent top 150 team, but we have a long way to go. Steele is a good recruiter who wins every press conference, but his track record would suggest his in game coaching is not good enough. Having said that, I hope he turns into a Chuck Martin type coach for Miami where he starts slow and gets better every year and ends up staying forever.
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Young rascal, you can think/feel whatever you want. This is 'Murcia. If you want to see the glass half empty, you can. But don’t ask me to see it the same way. Because, I don’t. We have made monumental improvements in the staff, roster, fundraising, student experience, fan engagement on social and prolly a bunch of stuff I’m not aware of. Ranking doesn’t mean anything until the last game has been played or unless you’re trying to get an at-large bid. We have lost to teams we shouldn’t have lost to but also beaten teams I never would have imagined we’d have beaten this year. I don’t worry about who we lose (what’s the point?) but truly believe if we keep going in the right direction, less people will want to jump ship. If we get dudes leaving to go to Duke, I will open some of my fine wines and toast them. I never want us to have guys leaving for lateral stuff ever again. The days of Duquesne pillaging our roster are over.
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I don’t agree with any of that. Hunter is not our best player. He’s inconsistent, plays poor off-ball defense, but is ice cold with the game on the line. The back half of the season, it’s been Elmer. Followed by Ipsaro and then Hunter. Then probably Cooper and Potter, although an argument could be made for Bultman.
This is college basketball. Age matters more than a lot of other things. Watch the teams that go deep in the tourney. I’d guess very few play freshman regularly if at all.
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If Hunter and Bultman aren’t 2 of our best players, why do they lead the team in minutes? If Andy isn’t our best big man, why is he getting the most minutes? By arguing those 3 guys aren’t in our top 5, then you are indirectly saying Steele doesn’t know what he’s doing because he is giving more minutes to inferior players.
Yellow, I gave you some objective facts and you responded with a bunch of subjective stuff. You are free to feel any way you want, but I am going to continue to focus on results.
Edit: our social media game is objectively better under Trav.
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