Travis Steele was confident his Miami University squad would be a contender in the Mid-American Conference going into the season.
The 25th-ranked RedHawks have not only proven their coach right but also gotten off to a historic start and are making national headlines.
Besides breaking into the AP Top 25 for the first time in 27 years, Miami is off to the best start in conference history. At 20-0, it is one of three unbeaten Division I teams.
It is also
the first time since 2019, when Buffalo got as high as 14th, that a MAC program has been ranked.
This national recognition is especially meaningful for Wally Szczerbiak, who led Miami to the Sweet 16 in 1999 before a decade-long NBA career.
“Miami is playing as good as any team in the country. They weren’t able to get a tough schedule, because they tried. Nobody would play them. So you can only play the games that your schedule allows you to play,” said Szczerbiak, who is a commentator for CBS Sports Network. “To win 20 straight games in a row, that is very hard. To bring it at that level every single night, it’s really impressive to the culture, the routine that Travis Steele has built there within that locker room.”
Steele’s squad featured 10 returning players from last season, a team that set a program record with 25 wins and reached the MAC Tournament final. Heading into this year, Miami was ranked second in the MAC preseason poll, just behind defending champion Akron.
Key returnees include senior Peter Suder, Miami’s first first-team All-MAC selection since 2012, and MAC Freshman of the Year Brant Byers.
Byers leads the team with 15.3 points per game, while Suder is averaging 14.1 points.
“We only had one guy in the transfer portal, which I think probably speaks to the confidence level of the guys that I had returning,” Steele said. “Some guys were in lesser roles last year when they were freshmen, but I knew that they could take a huge jump.”
Junior Eian Elmer is one of two players to start all 20 games and has averaged 11 points, while point guard Evan Ipsaro was scoring 13.9 per game before being sidelined by a shoulder injury.
“I’m still holding on to the little bit of the old model of development. Development matters,” said Steele, who is in his fourth season at Miami. “You look at a guy like Elmer, who’s continued to get better throughout his college career. All of these guys have continued to get better.”
The RedHawks have served notice in January that their start isn’t a fluke. They began the month with a 76-73 win over Akron and followed with consecutive overtime victories over Buffalo and Kent State — rallying from at least four points down in the final minute of regulation in both games.
“The accolades and attention we’re getting are all given just through our preparation and work every single day. But we still got more to prove for sure,” Suder said.
Miami leads the nation in effective field goal percentage (63.4%) and field goal percentage (54.1%), while also ranking second in scoring (94.6 points per game) and 3-point percentage (41.2%).
The RedHawks showed their versatility over the last two games. They relied on 3-point shooting, making 13 of 29 beyond the arc, in their win over Buffalo, then had to rely on their inside game in the victory at Kent State after struggling from long range. They were 29 of 39 on 2-point shots after going 9 of 31 from beyond the arc.
Miami’s resurgence also marks a comeback for Steele, who joined the program after four years at Xavier. Although he produced two top-20 recruiting classes with the Musketeers, the team made the postseason only twice after faltering late.
Steele’s career as an assistant and head coach has been spent in Indiana and Ohio, giving him a recruiting edge in the Midwest and Pennsylvania.
“I think his approach is great and that’s the way to get Miami back on track. I remember back in college how crucial it was to be developed by an elite coaching staff,” Szczerbiak said. “I love what he’s done with each individual player. It shows how much he and his staff care about the development and the character. They get to know the guys off the floor. That’s a big part of coaching a guy in between the lines, is learning what makes them tick in life.”
Miami’s next game isn’t until Tuesday, providing an opportunity to reset for the season’s final six weeks. The RedHawks host UMass before playing Northern Illinois on Jan. 31, after which five of their next seven games are on the road.
“I don’t think it’s any pressure for us personally. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot, and that’s what’s been happening. So it’s on us to just remain level-headed, just do our job,” Elmer said. “We’re a team that’s built to win. We don’t panic under pressure. We just know we got to go out there and do our jobs in those moments.”
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