First of all, it was obviously the best possible draw, beating SMU in Dayton was fantastic and unequivocal proof we belonged.
But more generally, this season was special because of the absurd over performance to go 31-0. I don’t think there will be a season quite like that for any team in the nation any time soon. But we weren’t even the best team in the MAC by the predictive metrics used to seed at-larges, Akron was. There’s nothing stopping a Miami team from being elite and getting a higher bid even if they don’t go 31-0.
It’d be one thing if we were beaten like a drum against SMU, but taking them down (on top of ending the NCAA tourney drought) is a big deal would be huge even without the historic regular season. The mantra was “unfinished business”, even without a MAC tourney title we still fulfilled the broader mission.
This season is definitely one of the most memorable for sure. The crowds at Millett, the crowds on the road, the cardiac kids and their close games, etc., all were incredible.
Millett being packed and the atmosphere that it brought was something I never thought I’d see. Even when I was there (‘09 grad), we always had the black curtains up blocking some of the seats… it made me wish Millett could have always been packed and how much of a difference that could have made for some of those teams in the 2000’s.
My favorite Miami Men’s basketball season ever has to be 1977-78. MAC Champions, 11-1 in Millett, NCAA tourney, biggest upset win in Miami history over Marquette, and just a bunch of great players & Miami legends (Archie Aldridge, Randy Ayers, John Shoemaker, Rick Goins, Todd Jones, Bernard Newman, and even local boy, Phil Greisinger). I watched the Marquette game on TV back in Oxford, and then went uptown afterward with my Dad to take in the celebrations. Then we went to the Kentucky game at UD Arena, and then to the Miami Basketball banquet in the 1809 Room. What a great year!! Then comes the 1983-84 season with another MAC Championship & NCAA appearance, an upset over Indiana (I was in Assembly Hall for that one), the emergence of Harper, great games against Ohio, Ball State, Purdue, and others. After that, it’s probably this year’s team with their magical run (plus, I got to see a game in person). I also got to see Harper during the 1984-85 campaign and, while not as successful as the prior year, it was fun watching him dominate the MAC and carrying Miami to an at-large bid to the NCAA tourney. I remember the team driving around Oxford in a convertible blaring their horn after the selections were announced.
Not sure any ceiling was broken. A 31-1 team went to Dayton. That will never happen in the MAC again.
Unless there’s a realignment, the bottom of the MAC will never be good enough for an elite MAC team to get into at large talk due to their drag on analytics.
Akron this year was probably one of the best teams in the last decade and wasn’t even in any real discussion for at large.
If a team of our or Akron’s caliber got a few neutral Q1 wins at MTEs, and otherwise had a fantastic season, I wonder if that would at least get us to the level of ISU a few years ago…
New Conference as in joining an existing or reconstituted Power Conference…new hope.
The MAC, as it’s now constituted in the current landscape of college athletics (especially basketball and football) is facing a Doomsday Scenario. If you stay, you become increasingly irrelevant; if you move intelligently, you’ll have a chance.
Beyond Miami, which owns the MAC’s best brand, there are perhaps only 2 other schools in the conference, that have a snowball’s chance in hell to escape the inevitability of sinking further on the national landscape and, they too, must move.
My previous favorite year was the 77-78 team that defeated defending national champion Marquette in OT in the first round of the then NCAA tourney to advance to the sweet 16.
It was my favorite partially because I was on campus as a senior that year, but also because we had consistently good teams in that era sprinkled w star players while also being very competitive against an exciting and challenging schedule. We had come close to winning the conference the prior three years and the culmination of the Ayers-Aldridge era was the win over Marquette. And the town and campus went absolutely nuts!
Naturally I enjoyed the Harper years only marred by excruciating first round losses in the NCAA’s 3 years in a row, two by last second type shots.
And then we had the excitement of Wally World and another award 16! Incredible!
And now this year! It was not only exciting for the winning streak, but also because of the style of play along w the fact that we got to see our team on TV so many times. The first Four win over SMU also validated our inclusion as an at large pick!
So, I will have to change my vote to this year’s team, but the 77-78 season is still a close second, followed by Wally World!
Akron was a great MAC team of course, but they had 4 really nice non-conference games to prove they were worth at large consideration and lost all of them (and only the neutral site Yale game was close). Their best win was against Kent State.
The Miami game was certainly up for grabs, and it was in Oxford, but the nice size crowd (4500 with only a few students) was lame until the final 5 minutes, Skaljac had still not settled into the PG position, and Miami shot like crap (38% overall and 31% on 3s).
The metrics liked them because they mauled the bad/okay teams and played 2 Q1 games.