Miami Ohio Haters Aren’t Sports Fans

As the MAC tournament tips off with no longer undefeated 31‑1 Miami (Ohio) losing today, I’m at a loss over all the comments still somehow against this squad. For anyone in that crowd, you’ve lost touch with what sports…and specifically March Madness, are supposed to be about. Unless you root for another MAC team, all of America needs to be watching RedHawk basketball.

The thing with this team isn’t just the insane feat of going 31‑1 It’s the pure watchability. Their games are exciting, so many of them going down to the wire with nonstop back‑and‑forth basketball today was just another example of sometimes basketball isn’t just metrics on a website. Add in the drama of trying to hang onto a dream of going dancing, that’s why we love sports.

The haters will try to tear it down with strength‑of‑schedule talk or “mid‑major fluke” nonsense, meanwhile title contenders like UConn, Gonzaga, Kansas, and others have some real head‑scratching losses to teams that won’t even sniff the tournament or any postseason play. So yes, Miami’s schedule has been abysmal, but they tried to schedule Indiana, Ohio State, and Kansas State and were turned down. At some point, you just play the teams that show up at the gym for tipoff.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done, time and time again. They haven’t lost focus once, even while battling starter injuries and surviving crazy finishes. They’ve stayed the course and become the kind of story you’d think America would wholeheartedly embrace, just like we did with Wichita State, VCU, Butler, and, hell, if you’re old enough, Gonzaga way back in the day.

If you’re a true Madness junkie and a Cinderella lover, no matter what happens in this MAC tourney, come Selection Sunday you should be screaming for Miami (Ohio) to hear their name called, and setting at least six alarms for their first‑round tipoff in the Big Dance.