PHILADELPHIA — The postgame scene had all the hallmarks of a Cinderella season cut short.
Bleary eyes and sniffling noses emerging from the locker room. Towels draped over heads, arms around shoulders. Hugs that linger a few seconds longer. A team still struggling to accept its fate but appreciative of the journey that got it there.
“Great season,” athletic director David Sayler said, slumped against a wall in Xfinity Mobile Arena after the game. “Just hate that it has to end.”
No. 11 seed Miami (Ohio)’s stellar season came to an abrupt end on Friday, losing 78-56 to No. 6 seed Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The RedHawks emerged as an unexpected mid-major darling over the course of an undefeated regular season, going 31-0 out of Oxford, Ohio, and the Mid-American Conference to become one of the biggest stories in college basketball. But Tennessee, an SEC brute that held a size and physicality mismatch over Miami, proved too much to handle.
The Vols outrebounded the RedHawks by 17 and outscored them 40-16 in the paint, shooting 53 percent from the floor and 9-for-20 from 3-point range. Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie led all scorers with 29 points on the offensive end, and Tennessee suffocated its opponent defensively. After a couple of 3-pointers by Miami in the opening minutes, Tennessee contested every shot, drive and cut Miami attempted all afternoon.
The Vols raced out to a 51-32 halftime lead with what head coach Rick Barnes described as “maybe our best half of the year.”
“Really everything that we did well today stemmed from our defense,” said Barnes, coaching in his 30th NCAA Tournament. “It got us in a flow. We felt like we could spread them out a little bit and get some of those lobs we were getting early and felt like we could make the right read.”
Coming off an Elite Eight run in 2025, Tennessee advances to face No. 3 Virginia in the second round on Sunday.
Less than 48 hours after Miami shot 41 3-pointers and made 16 in its First Four win over SMU — both record marks for the play-in round — the RedHawks went only 7-for-29 from deep and shot just 35 percent overall.
“They were very, very physical with us on offense,” Miami coach Travis Steele said. “On the other end, Gillespie was unbelievable. But that doesn’t take anything away from our team. Our team has had a heck of a journey … I couldn’t be more proud of our group.”
Miami ends the season 32-2, the 21st Division I team to complete an undefeated regular season. It set the school single-season wins record with ease. It won the MAC crown at 18-0 in league play and tallied the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 1999. But the RedHawks also came to represent much more than a spunky mid-major that earned an at-large bid.
The team captured national attention during the final weeks of the season, with a number of dramatic wins to keep its unbeaten streak alive. Its NCAA Tournament resume sparked endless debate thanks to a putrid strength of schedule, with zero power conference opponents and Quad 1 games prior to the First Four. And Miami brought attention to the challenges that good mid-major teams face when trying to schedule high-quality nonconference opponents.
High-major teams don’t want to schedule them because, as far as the metrics are concerned, a win doesn’t help and a loss can hurt, something High Point head coach Flynn Clayman talked about after his team upset Wisconsin on Thursday.
“We couldn’t get games. (Miami) couldn’t get games,” Clayman said. “If we can get games like this on neutral courts and some home games, I think we’d know who’s really the best teams.”
It was the same sentiment in Philadelphia on Friday, even after a dominant 19-point win by the power-conference opponent.
“Miami of Ohio should have been the darlings, the talk of the tournament,” Barnes said. “You win 32 basketball games, I don’t care what league you play in, I don’t care what anybody says. And they would win some games in our league, make no bones about it.”
Informed of Barnes’ comments, Steele said, “We didn’t get a chance to play anyone in the SEC. We played an ACC team, we beat them.”
“We have a really good team,” Steele added. “Unfortunately we didn’t play that way today, but give Tennessee credit.”
Whether the attention and discourse changes anything remains to be seen. Either way, Miami’s season is one to be remembered. Players like Peter Suder and Eian Elmer. Steele and his lucky Skyline Chili T-shirt, building the program from 12 wins in Year 1 to 32 in Year 4. The Speedo-wearing Miami men’s swim team distracting opposing teams. A perfect 31-0 regular season, and a memorable First Four win in Dayton, just an hour from campus.
“This team is going to be in the record books forever,” said Sayler.
Steele felt the same way. And he was optimistic about what comes next.
“I think it shows that it can be done anywhere,” he said. “But we’re not done yet, though. We’re not where we were, but we’re not where we want to be yet, either. … We’ll be back. I’m very, very, very confident of that.”