WE HAVE SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS!
Miami opens its stint in the 2026 Mid-American Conference Tournament with a
quarterfinal contest with No. 8 seed UMass on Thursday, March 12 at 11 a.m. on ESPN+. The Red and White enter this Thursday’s game as the only remaining undefeated team in the country
with a 31-0 (18-0 MAC) record, its best start to a season in program history.
UMass is currently 16-15 (7-11 MAC), as the Minutemen closed out the regular season with a 94-82 win at home over Ohio on Tuesday night. UMass went 12-20 (7-11 A10) last year. Head coach Frank Martin is in his fourth season with the Minutemen. Heading into the 2025-26 season, UMass was selected to finish fifth overall in the 2025-26 MAC Preseason Men’s Basketball Poll. Senior forward Daniel Hankins-Sanford was named to the Preseason AllMAC Second Team. Graduate student forward Leonardo Bettiol leads the Minutemen in points
(17.8/game) and graduate student guard Marcus Banks Jr. follows closely behind (16.9/game).
Bettiol has brought down the most rebounds (7.9/game), freshman guard Danny Carbuccia
has recorded the most assists (6.3/game), Banks Jr. has totaled the most steals (1.3/game) and
Hankins-Sanford has produced the most blocks (0.6/game).
Mass may miss third leading scorer 11.6 ppg, second leading rebounder 7.2 rpg, Hankins-Sanford who played against us in our last encounter but missed the last 3 games with a foot injury.
Nope. As the #1 seed you earn the right to play first and in return you get a longer period of rest between the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, which this team needs.
I disagree. 11:00 a.m. is not a common start for acollege basketball team. And a few hours is not going to make a big difference when it comes to rest. Give me a game later in the afternoon.
When going back over the numbers from the first 2 games, a couple of things stood out.
Free throw shooting: UMass 22/33, Miami 52/71. We need to be willing to drive and dish, drive and dish, cut and cut again. Keep putting their bigs in ball screens. Another stat: we assisted on 2/3 of our made field goals. Some teams, especially higher seeded ones that fall behind, lose their patience. We need to stay patient offensively.
Defensively, run them off the 3 point line. We still want certain guys to shoot 3s, but let’s not leave them wide open as we did OU’s guys. We should be closing out under control. Placide shouldn’t take us by surprise with his shooting. Just like last time, no points off the butt seal in transition.
No easing into this. Let’s be ready from the jump.
Like HawkAttack said, UMass has to play at 11 too. And they have go thru the airport and fly in on a cramped airplane. Would bet we bussed up and probably a 3-4 hour trip but all spread out on a nice big chartered bus.
