I know this team hasn’t achieved what those teams did, but damn….in 25 years of Miami fandom, this is by far the best team I’ve seen
The vibe is similar, but that was a very different team – realistically about seven deep and going on as far as Wally could take them. But he was a generational talent by MACTION standards, and the role players all were capable of backing him up on a given night. The box score from the Utah game is illustrative. Wally and Damon Frierson both played all 40 minutes, and two other starters went 35+. Ensminger typically would have played more, but it looks like Charlie went small early in that game with Jason Stewart off the bench.
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Crazy, isn’t it?
It’s a punchline at this point, but the quality of depth that we have is insane. Would anyone be shocked if Kam went scoreless tomorrow but Elmer and Byers go for a combined 40 while Pete puts up an 8/8/8? I wouldn’t. It’s been happening all season!
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Refiloe Lethunya getting into that 2nd round game vs. Utah, too.
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My guy! I think he was the only guy on the team with a dunk one season when I was in school.
Didn’t we used to have a word censor for Refiloe Lethunya?
ROTFLMAO Lethunya
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Looking at that box score, I am surprised Rob Mestes only played 35 minutes. His stats page shows that he led the country in minutes played that year at 39.9 per game, but my (now fading) memory led me to believe he averaged over 40 minutes per game that year because of the overtime games we played.
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Been a fan of this team since I started at Miami in 04-05. I’ve traveled all over the world from Spokane to Cancun, from little Harrisonburg, VA and Valparaiso, IN to Rupp, Cameron Indoor, and Assembly Hall: watching Miami hoops…almost always lose. I can probably count the number of truly special wins on one hand (my first game vs Purdue, Penno, Xavier at Millet) over that timeframe.
Barely gonna sleep tonight I’m so excited to drive 5 hours to Cleveland tomorrow (who has ever said that?) Gotta win at least two more (hell why not 4, 5, or 6 more) and finish this special season.
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I think it’s gonna get a whole lot better.
Reading HoosierHawks post reminded me of who the most dedicated fans truly are. Many of us became fans during periods of relative excellence. The individuals on this board whose undergraduate years coincided with the down years of Miami athletics deserve an extra dose of love!
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In my opinion, not close. Don’t get me wrong, this a great year, but Wally’s team beat ND, Tennessee and Dayton that year. You felt Miami had a legitimate chance to beat Kentucky after wins over Washington and Utah in the tourney.
Plus, I don’t think anyone on this team could take the ball to the hole like Wally. He was literally built different-strong with the ball inside. This team is missing that one guy that can get to the rim and finish, plus shoot outside.
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This season isn’t on that level. No one’s fault. That’s the best team in the history of the school. And yeah, I love these players, but we don’t have a top 6 pick in the NBA draft on the roster. Wally was on the cover of multiple national magazines before during and after the season. That team was ranked at two different points. Beat a top 25 team. Also, and the crowds this year have been awesome, but that season we had multiple games of 8,000+ and a couple pushing 9000.
If this team wins the MAC tournament and then wins a couple games in the dance then we can discuss, but let’s make the championship game first.
Although worth noting, the 98-99 team didn’t win the MAC tournament. Last time the MAC got two teams in.
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It may be “back in my day” bias, but I still think the '84-'85 team was better than the Sweet Sixteen team. They got a much tougher draw in the first round of the tournament, having to play against a great, underseeded Maryland squad featuring Len Bias and lost by one in OT.
Story time: That tournament game was at UD Arena on the Friday leading into Miami’s spring break so a bunch of us bailed off campus early to go to the game on our way home or elsewhere for break. We saw a great basketball game with a disappointing result. And in the other game, a strong LSU squad featuring future NBAer John “Hot Rod” Williams got upset by a Navy team with a then-unknown center named David Robinson. Just a fantastic day of tourney basketball.
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I would say that this team is deeper than the 98-99 team, as others have mentioned. However, in addition to Wally, there was Damon Frierson, Mr. Basketball Indiana who Miami got because he’d injured his knee his junior year in high school, letting Miami get a foot in the door. Frierson was a more athletic Suder and 1st team all-MAC during a time when the conference had a number of future NBA players.
Also Rob Mestas, Mr. Basketball Minnesota. While Mestas didn’t score much, he was so quick and strong, his defense was excellent and he had the best ball handling skills, to the point where it was stupid to press Miami as Mestas would singlehandedly beat the press.
Rumor has it that Herb Sendek was telling each of the 3 Mr. Basketball’s (Wally was Mr. Long Island) that the other 2 had committed to Miami before even any of them had done so. 
Then you had the Jasons (Grunkemeyer and Stewart), both transfers who could really shoot. Stewart had a 30-point game while at Furman (I think).
Miami was preseason #23 in Sports Illustrated. I remember listening to Xavier coach Skip Prosser on 700 WLW talking before the season about their schedule. The radio guy was bringing up teams, and without prompting, Prosser exclaimed something like“and you are gonna be shocked at how good Miami is going to be, they are loaded”. XU beat Miami that season, but a year earlier at Millett, Miami had upset #8 Xavier.
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Speaking of Wally I saw it mentioned in a post on Threads that his daughter now attends Miami. Not sure if that’s been brought up here.
I dont think Jason Grunkenmeyer played on the sweet 16 team.
He sure did. He made a couple of long 3s vs Tennessee in that amazing game at Millett that season.
Yes he did.
You are right. And of course all I had to do was check the boxscore posted above. Doh.
We are deeper this year because Steele plays 9 guys and the difference between 1-9 isnt that great
That Miami team having Grunkenmeyer and Anthony Taylor playing 5-7 minutes a game is amazing. Those were great Miami players
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