Miami, NTM

Did you know Miami (not that Miami) is 24 in the AP. Wild. The undefeated RedHawks are off to the best start in school history and MAC history. How good are they?

Well, probably not that good. They’re 90th in KenPom which isn’t the best in their league. That belongs to Akron who is 53. But Miami owns a win over them, the RedHawks only win over a top-100 KenPom team. While think Akron is better, Miami is still a fun story.

They’re 63rd in adjustedO and 169th in adjustedD. What they excel at is shooting. They just passed St. Louis to take the top spot in real shooting. They’re 18th in 3-point shooting % and 4th in 2-point shooting %. They’re also 23rd in FT shooting and 64th in FTA/FGA.  They’ll go as far as their shooting takes them.

The results are padded by a bit of luck. They have 3 overtime wins and 4 single possession game wins. Still, Travis Steele’s team shouldn’t apologize for winning. They’ve been building to this since he got to Oxford at the start of the ‘23 season. With 4 players shooting 40% from 3, if they do make the dance, they can outshoot someone(s) and get their first tourney win since Wally Szczerbiak took them to the Sweet 16 in 1999.