'Heck of a Journey,' Miami (OH) HC Reflects on Season After March Madness Loss to Tennessee

Miami of Ohio men's basketball head coach Travis Steele reflected on his team's historic regular season after their NCAA Tournament run ended Friday night with a first-round loss to Tennessee.

"Congrats to them, but it doesn't take anything away from our team," Steele said around the 1:10 mark of his Friday press conference about Miami's 78-56 loss. "Our team has had a heck of a journey. It's what I told our guys.

"Obviously, everybody sees the results, but the quality of human beings that we have in our locker room is, man, we're everything that's right about college athletics, in my opinion. I couldn't be more proud of our group."

Steele added that he doesn't expect this to be the last March Madness bid for his program, which before this week hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game since 1999.

"It does make me feel proud, where we were, but we're not done yet," Steele said. "We're sure not where we were, but we're not where we wanna be yet, either.

"My goal is to get this thing to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Fell short of that goal this year, but we'll be back. I'm very, very confident of that."

The RedHawks became the first undefeated MAC team in history after going 31-0 this regular season.

After losing in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament, Miami qualified for the NCAA Tournament after claiming their 89-79 win over SMU.

Steele's team was unable to hold onto that momentum for long against Tennessee. After trading baskets for the first six minutes, the Volunteers went on a run to pull out to a 20-point lead late in the first half.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the win that Miami, despite the blowout loss, should not have been a bubble team heading into the tournament.

"You win 32 basketball games, I don't care what league you play in, I don't care what anybody says. And they would win some games in our league, make no bones about it," Barnes said.

As Miami heads home, Barnes and Tennessee will advance to take on No. 3 Virginia in the second round. The two teams will tip off Sunday at a time yet to be determined.