I had my Wednesday breakfast with people I coached with or against in high school basketball. The Bee Gee grad said “you guys (Miami men) have a lot of talent,” the UT guy said “I thought you had us”. The Miami guy, me, said “shut the hell up and let’s talk about something else “
PS-the BG guy said the BG women really press well this year. The Miami guy,me, once again hinted strongly we should change the subject.
True, though within your list there’s only one athletic program with FBS football (Temple) and none with DI hockey. Our 1999 squad is the only mid-major team to make the Sweet 16 since the field expanded to 64 within an athletic department with FBS football and DI hockey. It’s not impossible we do it again, but I’m not counting on it if I’m being a realist given where we’re at today and the direction that college sports are heading.
When OU made the Elite 8, the tournament had 25 teams. It’s a less impressive accomplishment than any Sweet 16 since the tournament expanded to 64.
Sounds good…you know what’s truly not impressive…16 straight losses to Toledo!
Athletic Director should resign on that fact alone.
A bit silly…debating if others programs accomplishments are less impressive in NCAA tournament…when Miami is on trajectory of never dancing again…potentially never having a legitimate winning season against D1 competition.
IMO, Jack should be required to have winning season, make some run or play well in MAC tournament or he should be let go.
There will be COVID excuses, etc…but next year will be a disaster less Dalonte and likely a couple other defections, and there will be very little that this downtrodden program can attract in portal or recruits at this point.
There is zero sign of development of Ames, ELI has disappeared…Harrison not really developing (or unknown) b/c Ayah takes all minutes and Ayah deserves minutes, but takes Harrison’s nonetheless…is Etzler a player, don’t know…but Ellar (sp?) is not, Beck is a player who had limited minutes at Oakland (he’s been hurt, but still not All MAC player at any level)…what do we have in guard play if Dae Dae, ICL and Mekhi all leave?
Looking bleak…time for new look, hopefully correct hire…one that has some energy.
Maybe the solution is right before our eyes. There are those on this board who feel strongly that it is impossible to sustain three competitive major men’s programs. Since hockey has been our most popular sport with students in recent times and already has one of the best collegiate facilities in the country and since Millett is a multi-purpose relic from 1969 in need of an expensive makeover or an even more expensive replacement to adequately support winning basketball, and since Miami’s ex-urban/rural, low-NIL opportunity setting is no longer an ideal one for establishing a thriving basketball program, perhaps we should simply discontinue hoops and put the money we would save into rebuilding our hockey team’s performance and upgrading our football program.
Football is going to be an increasingly expensive proposition to continue playing at the big boy level.
We could possibly launch and support a women’s hockey program with the savings. There could be more interest among students in attending those games than the 100-200 who now come out for basketball.
Millett could continue to serve as a very adequate concert venue, volleyball arena and intramural basketball facility.
It’s not like we’ve produced scores of NBA players who are throwing big money back at Miami after they leave. But we’ve had numerous former and current NFL and NHL players who support our program financially.
As hard as it is to believe, our hockey program has been far better than our basketball program throughout the past 25 years. Our traditional basketball rivalries with our four local opponents have largely vanished. Instead of home and homes with Dayton, UC and Xavier, we’re playing home games against three D3 teams and D1 games at home against the likes of Stetson, Lamar and Bellarmine.
Bringing hockey back to prominence would seem to be far more economical than trying to rebuild our comatose hoops program from a new arena - and another new coaching staff - up.
We would need to find a new conference then because basketball is required
If that’s the case, we’re pretty much painted into a corner unless that changes. Our Elantra in the country club parking lot is almost out of gas and our credit card is maxed out. The fact that hoops is mandatory in the MAC does not in itself provide any solution to our current conundrum. It merely compounds it.
There is always some impediment to doing anything constructive and positive at Miami. That’s unfortunate.
The state of Kent has the best most recent run as although the tourney has expanded slightly since they went to the final 8, it was still 64 teams. Also I believe that coach of theirs (Stan Heath) who was hired at Arkansas right after that run is back in the Mac. His teams were always fun to watch.
Stan is @ EMU…I mentioned in another thread…had no idea!
Heath at EMU…Tubby at High Point, a Hurley been at Buffalo…lots of other MAC coaches moved up and others from Kent, UB, OU are having success in MAC long term (UT, OU, Akron, Kent)…and we have our mess of borderline DII play.
Eff’n do something David S! If you stop for a moment in life and actually say…let’s look at Miami basketball compared to its peers for a moment and pay attention, what you find is frightening.
Ten to twelve years ago…that winning % was 60% all time, MAC was 60+%…no idea where MAC is at this point, as not bothering with spreadsheets, that’s Moll’s job 
Where is Moll anyway??
Lurking…of course.
PS. No Charlie, no Moll at this point, and there’s not been a worthy Charlie on bench or in the press room, until then no Moll…think I need to join his quest.
This is a very bad idea lol
Make your case.
Oh, no thank you. The burden of proof for such an outlandish idea is on you.
Upgrade football by fixing the home stands like Oregon State did theirs
I stated my case in considerable detail. Awaiting your counter.
Damn! I’ve sat in those stands a couple of times!
I was told once years ago by Coach D (long before he left to be the strength coach of the Saints) that basketball was the easiest program to have an immediate impact on. Everything from the roster to the schedule could be reshaped in two years or less whereas the others took more time. He also said it had the most profitability potential. Granted, this was long before football money went bonkers but all these years later, I still believe the general sentiment of this to be true. I certainly would never have challenged him as he used to do leg presses with several dudes sitting on the machine acting as weights for show. That dude was OG.
It would be a very bad idea to drop hoops. We would be THE only FBS and D1 Hockey Program WITHOUT Basketball. Also what about Women’s Basketball? Are you suggesting replacing that with Women’s Ice Hockey?
While I don’t want to see Hockey go away, the reality is that Hockey would be the only sport you could easily drop that would save money and not create conference affiliation problems or title 9 issues. (Although I think Hockey gets a lot of external money so I’m not sure about actual savings from dropping it. Others might know better.)
