With each growing win and increased national attention, Miami (Ohio) head coach Travis Steele is getting more and more questions about the secret to his team still being unbeaten in late February.
“I think in the landscape that we’re in, we have a lot of retention,” Steele said of his No. 22 RedHawks, which are 27-0 and 14-0 in Mid-American Conference play entering a road game at Eastern Michigan on Tuesday.
“We have real relationships,” Steele continued. “We have guys that have won before. They understand sacrifice. And we put this roster together being very, very intentional on what we’ve done. And I think that shows on the floor the way that our ball moves, the togetherness, the sacrifice, the connectivity on both sides of the ball. That’s our superpower.”
Miami has been arguably the best mid-major squad this season behind a high-scoring and balanced offense.
The RedHawks are averaging 92.3 points a game this season, second nationally, and has six players averaging in double-figures, with another averaging 9.9 points a game.
Peter Suder leads the way at 14.6 points per contest, followed by Brant Byers (14.5 ppg.), Evan Ipsaro (13.9 ppg.), Eian Elmer (12.2 ppg.), Luke Skaljac (10.6 ppg.), and Almar Atlason (10.5 ppg.).
As a team, Miami is shooting a national-best 53.4% from the field overall and ranks fourth (40.3%) from 3-point range.
“It’s hard to prepare for,” Steele said. “You know, we don’t run a ton of sets. We run sets on dead ball, so we play more free flow concepts, a lot of space. Our guys know all the solutions. So it’s going to be different guys, different nights, right?”
The RedHawks also take care of the ball, only turning it over an average of 10.7 times a game. Miami is coming off a 91-77 win at home on Friday over Bowling Green.
“We take care of the ball and we’re hard to stop,” Steele said. “I don’t care if you zone us. I don’t care if you press us. I don’t care if you go man-to-man, drop coverage, hard hedge, switch, it really doesn’t matter. We’ve got so many guys and our guys share it. Defensively, we’ve got to have that identity, right? It’s got to be man-to-man defense.”
The next challenge will be against struggling Eastern Michigan (10-18, 4-11).
Coming off a 94-75 loss at Toledo on Saturday, Eastern Michigan has lost nine of its last 10 games.
The lone victory over the past five-plus weeks was last Tuesday’s 66-54 home win over Central Michigan. Coach Stan Heath was impressed with the defensive effort in which the Eagles allowed their fourth-fewest points of the campaign.
“Just our intensity,” Heath said in a postgame television interview. “We played hard, we really connected defensively.”
Despite its record and rough stretch, Eastern Michigan might be one team that can somewhat slow down the potent Miami offense.
The Eagles enter the game third in the MAC in points allowed per game at 73.4 a contest.
Offense has been the big problem for the Eagles, given they are 11th out of 13 teams in the MAC in scoring at 71.1 points a game.
Mohammad Habhab is the leading scorer for Eastern Michigan at 14.3 points a contest. Addison Patterson (13.7 ppg.) and Carlos Hart (13.1 ppg.), also are averaging in double figures.
