Miami of Ohio trailed the University of Buffalo by three points on Saturday with eight seconds to play. As the clock was winding down, RedHawks guard Peter Suder lofted a shot from the top of the key. The outcome of the game hung in the air along with the ball, but there was far more at stake than that. The RedHawks’ undefeated record hung in the balance, too.
The shot missed, but Suder’s teammate, 6-foot-8 sophomore wing Brant Byers, got a palm on the rebound and slapped it away from the rim. It was scooped up by 6-foot-6 junior guard Eian Elmer, who buried the dagger from beyond the arc. Overtime.
The conclusion of overtime was just as electric. The score was tied 102-102 with three seconds to play when 6-foot-2 sophomore point guard Luke Skaljac found Suder, set a screen and watched as Suder let it fly once more.
“All trust,” Byers told Hoops HQ.
Swish. Final score: 105-102. College basketball’s most unlikely undefeated dream was still alive.
The RedHawks are indeed flying high as one of three remaining unbeaten teams (Arizona and Nebraska are the others), yet they remain well under the national radar. Despite owning the nation’s longest win streak and leading Division I in both field-goal percentage (53.8) and three-point percentage (41.8), the RedHawks had yet to crack the AP Poll coming into this week. Blame a weak schedule, which ranks No. 355 on KenPom. Miami spent its nonconference season bulldozing Quad 3 and 4 opponents, then won at Bowling Green and Akron to open conference play. Coach Travis Steele barely touched the transfer portal this year, so most of the team is homegrown and untested against high-major opponents.
The RedHawks have noticed the lack of respect from voters. “We should definitely be in that Top 25, but we’re not going to dwell on it,” Suder told Hoops HQ.
The RedHawks have thrived under the direction of Steele, a Big East native who saw mixed success with Xavier. Between 2018 and 2022, Steele’s Musketeers went 70-50 overall but failed to qualify for an NCAA Tournament. After a mutual separation during the 2022 National Invitational Tournament, Steele signed with Miami and started his rebuild.
“It was a great learning experience for me and it’s made me a heck of a lot better here for my second go-around,” Steele told Hoops HQ, “I’m just more comfortable with who we are and what I do, and how we go about our business on a day to day basis.”
Steele’s assuredness has kept the RedHawks cool under pressure. “His style is very free flowing,” said Suder. “He gives guys confidence, he’s the biggest fan and that’s why we’re all good shooters, and why we all like playing with each other.”
Now in year four at Miami, Steele’s focus is on depth. Of his top 10 players by usage, nine shoot better than 37.5 percent from the arc and eight better than 50 percent from the field. The RedHawks have developed elite court vision and a penchant for unselfish basketball. “The connectivity our guys have is elite, and I think it shows on both ends of the floor,” said Steele. “Our guys are just concerned with getting Miami a great shot, not necessarily their own individual stats, which I think is super unique in today’s landscape.”
Suder is the perfect example of that. He leads RedHawks starters in three-point accuracy (49 percent), but averages more assists than trey attempts. He is Miami’s lead facilitator, Glue Guy and voice on the floor. When the crowd noise drops, you can make out Suder’s bark over the broadcast. “My role is to be the ultimate leader for these guys,” he said. “I don’t care about points. As long as we get the win at the end of the night, that’s really all I care about.”
The faith that the RedHawks have in one another is something that Steele has carefully cultivated. “The offense is very read and react,” Byers told Hoops HQ. “Lots of freedom in our offense and all trust. It makes us very hard to guard and works because (coach) has a lot of trust in us.”
When an ACL tear took starting point guard Evan Ipsaro out of the lineup, Skaljac subbed in. His first career start was Dec. 22, a 54-point win over Milligan. “We lost our starting point guard for the year at the first game of the MAC season. He was playing as well as any mid-major point guard in the country,” Steele said. “And we really haven’t missed a beat.”
Byers’ height is another quirk of Miami’s playbook. Since Ipsaro’s injury, Steele has fielded long starting lineups, led by an oversized backcourt in Byers, Suder and Eian Elmer (6-foot-6). The frontcourt runs through 6-foot-9 center Antwone Woolfolk, with support from 6-foot-8 forward Almar Atlason. Steele has used positional size to hunt for mismatches, which he has found all over the MAC.
“Toledo had a couple smaller guards so we’d try to get them on Elmer or Suder or someone like that,” Byers said. “We look inside for them. If a big gets switched to someone like Skaljac, we exploit it.”
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The win streak has begun to intoxicate Miami’s campus. In last Tuesday’s game against Central Michigan, the RedHawk swim and dive team crammed the bleachers, dropped their pants and flashed their Speedos during CMU free throws attempts, a technique popularized by the Duke Speedo Guy in 2003. The Chippewas shot just 57 percent from the line in the second half and lost by 39. “That was awesome,” said Suder. “That’s exactly what we need to take this program to the next level. We need some crazy students, and that’s what we showed.”
In Steele’s first two seasons at Miami, attendance was dismal. But as the win streak has expanded, so have the crowds. The stakes were sky-high for Miami’s Jan. 3 MAC championship rematch versus Akron. In last year’s final, a buzzer-beater ended the RedHawks season and sent Akron to its third NCAA Tournament under John Groce — Steele’s half-brother. “That game was on our radar for a while, and we felt like we owed them one,” said Byers.
That evening, 4,000 spectators packed Millett Hall. Miami held Akron to a season-low 73 points, and sealed the deal with a kiss-of-death fadeaway from Suder. “We won with our defense, our fight and our grit”, Steele said. “We’re an elite — one of the best — offensive teams in the country, but we weren’t necessarily great on offense that night, and so it’s good to see that we can win a game that way.”
The NCAA Tournament selection committee has not been kind to mid-majors historically, so there’s plenty riding on Miami’s performance in the conference tournament. Akron, Buffalo, Toledo, Ohio and Kent State have all been competitive this year, so winning isn’t guaranteed.
Miami hasn’t won the MAC or qualified for the tournament since 2007. Their last win came in 1999, when future NBA All-Star Wally Szczerbiak led the team on a run to the Sweet Sixteen.
“Unfortunately, because nobody would play them in the nonconference, it looks like (an at-large bid) would be tough,” Szczerbiak told Hoops HQ. “There are other mid-major teams that had the deck stacked against them because of the schedule they were forced to play. You have to have the attitude where there’s only one way to get into the NCAA Tournament, and that’s to win the MAC Championship.”
Until then, Szczerbiak doesn’t think the RedHawks have anything left to prove. “They continue to dominate whoever’s in front of them and win basketball games,” he said. “They’re doing everything they possibly can, and they’re doing it the right way.”
Szcerbiak knows the right way to do things. At Miami, he led two NCAA Tournament teams (1997, 1999), including a run in which the RedHawks defeated no. 2 seed Utah to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. His heroics scored him the sixth overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and a RedHawk jersey retirement — one of just six in the team’s 127-year history.
Between calling games for the New York Knicks, Szczerbiak has found time to spend in the Miami locker room. He sees many similarities between his teams and this one. “They’re dominant at home. We didn’t lose a home game my entire senior year,” he said. “This team is also really close. You can tell on the floor they play like a team, but even more so off the floor, they really like each other.
“So that type of stuff goes a long way,” he continued. “It’s not really about one guy. I think Peter Suder was the guy that everyone picked for first team All-MAC, Player of the Year, but he’s been very selfless this whole season. He had a monster game (against Buffalo) because that’s what the team needed. But I’m impressed with how selfless the guys are. They’re just worried about the greater good and making each other better.”
To be sure, there are concerns for this Miami team. Despite elite guard play in the Buffalo game, the RedHawks were one dime away from a loss — twice. While competitive by MAC standards, the Bills are ranked 157th in the NET. Miami’s other near miss — an overtime win at 237th UNC Asheville — was a similar story. But Miami has all the hallmarks of a bona fide contender. The RedHawks are tenacious, consistent, compatible and clutch under pressure. Their ability to fill holes — particularly the point guard-shaped gap left by Ipsaro — has been remarkable. They won’t play a ranked opponent before March, but a postgame comment from Steele has proved astute through the beginning of conference play.
“We are going to get better as MAC play goes on,” he said. “You are going to see our team take another step.”
With energy mounting at Miami, Steele is eager to enjoy the ride:
“Man, it’s just a blast. I can’t tell you how much fun we have together,” he said. “We work really hard, but we have a lot of fun doing it. And we know when to keep it light, when to focus in. We really enjoy each other.
“Down the home stretch, I think you’ll see us really hit our stride.”
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