Miami University gained some significant respect Wednesday night with its 89-79 downing of SMU in an NCAA basketball tournament First Four matchup in Dayton, Ohio.
The RedHawks won their first 31 games this season before getting bounced in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament, with that loss instantly putting them on the NCAA tourney bubble due to a nonconference schedule that contained the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Indiana East, Mercyhurst, Milligan and Trinity Christian.
Miami assumed the role of David despite SMU hardly being a Goliath with its 20-13 record and with Mustangs senior guard B.J. Edwards not playing, but the metaphor will fit when the Midwest Regional’s surviving 11th seed takes on sixth-seeded Tennessee in Philadelphia on Friday (4:25 p.m. on TBS). The Volunteers (22-11) of the touted Southeastern Conference have won three games in each of the past two NCAA tournaments.
“Yeah, we watched them,” Vols five-star freshman forward Nate Ament said Thursday afternoon during a press conference. “A lot of us watched them together. They’re a really good team. They play a really exciting brand of basketball. It was fun to watch them play. We enjoyed it.
“They’re really talented, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. They’ve got talented players at every position, so we have to be locked in from the jump.”
Miami launched 41 attempts from 3-point range in its First Four encounter, connecting on 16. The Mustangs made only five 3-pointers, so the RedHawks outscored SMU from behind the arc by a whopping 33 points.
RedHawks junior guard Eian Elmer led the charge from long range by shooting 6-of-9.
“They’re a great storyline, and they’ve earned it,” Tennessee 11th-year coach Rick Barnes said. “To go through the season and do what they did was certainly impressive, and I thought they were just terrific last night. Everybody is going to talk about their 3-point shooting, but there’s so much more to them than that.
“There should be a buzz about them. They’re a really good basketball team and are extremely well-coached, but we have to do what got us here at a very high level. We certainly have great respect for them.”
The RedHawks played Wednesday night roughly 45 minutes from their Oxford campus and had the overwhelming crowd advantage. That likely won’t be the case when Friday’s game tips off, but if Miami can keep things tight, the fans of Connecticut, UCLA and Virginia who also will be inside Xfinity Mobile Arena could side with the underdog.
Tennessee as of Thursday night was an 11.5-point favorite.
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“This is everything,” RedHawks coach Travis Steels said. “It’s the best month of the year. My mom would keep me home sometimes so I could watch all the games, because I asked her. I’m not saying you should do that for all the parents out there, but my mom would keep me at home so I could watch all the games. It’s something you dream being a part of.
“It’s incredible the memories that you will have with this thing, and our group is uber, uber confident. We know we belong. I told our guys afterwards, ‘Man, I’m happy, but the job is not finished.’ We want to continue to advance.”
As does Tennessee, which is seeking to win its NCAA tournament opener for a fifth consecutive year.
“I think our team understands that we’re not one of those teams that can just show up and beat anybody,” Barnes said. “We’ve learned that this year. We lost some games that we felt like we should have won.”
Odds and ends
This will be Tennessee’s first postseason contest in Philadelphia. … The Vols last played the RedHawks on Dec. 1, 1999, winning 78-59 behind 19 points from former Cleveland High School standout Vincent Yarbrough. … Tennessee has racked up double-digit offensive rebounds in 32 of 33 games this season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.