Miami (Ohio)’s primary playmaker sat on the bench with an injury. Coach Travis Steele screamed at the officials at halftime, knocking over a speaker on his way off the court and picking up a technical foul. The deficit was as high as 9 points and was not overcome until less than two minutes remained.
But the dream season continues. Miami, the last unbeaten in men’s college basketball and one of the best stories of the season, is 29-0 after freshman guard Trey Perry’s driving layup with 0.4 of a second left delivered a 69-67 victory at Western Michigan. Dwayne Stephens’ Broncos (10-19, 4-12 Mid-American Conference) led for nearly 30 minutes of the game at University Arena and got 19 points from Jayden Brewer, but Miami (16-0 MAC) made four of its last five shots and finished the game on a 16-6 run.
That prevented a loss that could have been devastating to Miami’s at-large NCAA Tournament hopes, though there was good news after the game on starting point guard Luke Skaljac’s wrist injury. Steele said on his postgame radio show that Skaljac — who leads Miami in assists (4.8 per game) and is one of six RedHawks averaging double figures in scoring (10.4 per game) – should be fine for the next game and that an online report of a possible broken wrist was a “joke.”
Perry got the ball late with Skaljac out and made a tough, contested bank shot with his left hand to win it. He had 14, and Peter Suder scored 18 before fouling out. The win maintains some margin for error for the RedHawks — it’s possible they can lose in the MAC tournament and still get an at-large bid, but a loss in the regular season likely means it’s auto bid or nothing. Miami has two regular-season games left, against Toledo and at Ohio.
Miami is projected as a No. 11 seed in Tuesday’s Bracket Watch, and a media mock selection at NCAA headquarters last week indicated a one-loss Miami could get in. In a hypothetical scenario, Miami lost in the MAC tournament and still received an at-large bid — thanks in large part to a second-year metric that carries significant weight, Wins Above Bubble (WAB).
That measures how many wins a team has above the average bubble team, and it is a benefit to mid-major teams with excellent records that don’t have many opportunities for Quad 1 and Quad 2 victories. Miami came into Friday’s game ranked 48th in the NET rankings, with no Quad 1 games played and a 1-0 Quad 2 record.
But Miami ranked No. 28 in WAB with plus-3.05 wins above the average bubble team. That represents a series of small gains while never losing. A loss to Western Michigan would have been a major hit to that WAB number, and a second loss in the MAC tournament likely would have been too much for the RedHawks to sustain. The RedHawks are two wins from being able to exhale, slightly.
On his raging at halftime, Steele told CBS Sports Network: “Can’t get technical fouls, man. The margin for error is so small. I’ve got to be better.”