Miami RedHawks selected to First Four in 2026 NCAA tournament

OXFORD, Ohio — The Miami RedHawks are going dancing.

After a historic season, Miami was selected to the 2026 NCAA Tournament as one of the teams to face off in the First Four.

Miami was selected as the No. 11 seed to face SMU at UD Arena in Dayton on Wednesday as part of the First Four. If Miami beats SMU, they’ll play No. 6 Tennessee on Friday in Philadelphia.

Head coach Travis Steele said they’re excited to get out there and play. Steele said he didn’t know a lot about SMU’s team, but they plan to fix that Sunday night.

“This is what you work for your entire life. … It’s a surreal moment for our guys. We put a lot into this,” Steele said.

The RedHawks have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 17 times, with the most recent appearance in 2007. During 2007’s tournament, No. 3 Oregon beat the then-No. 14 Miami 58-56 in the Round of 64. Oregon went on to fall in the Elite 8.

“I told each one of our guys when we recruited them, our goal was to advance in the NCAA tournament and get to the second weekend,” Steele said Sunday. “That’s the expectation, that’s the standard that we need to set here, you know. Getting into it, you gotta have a seat at the table, right — which, now we have a seat at the table.”

Miami ended its record-shattering season with a 31-1 record (31-0 regular season) — the best record in school history. They were also the first Division I team since Gonzaga in 2020-21 — and only the fifth team this century — to enter their conference tournament undefeated. The RedHawks went on to fall to UMass 87-83 in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

There was a lot of speculation about whether the RedHawks would make March Madness after falling in the MAC Tournament. The RedHawks’ strength of schedule ranked 344th out of 365 Division I teams, according to the NCAA Evaluation Tool.

The last team to go through the regular season unbeaten and not make the NCAA Tournament was Alcorn State in 1978-79. That was because the Southwest Athletic Conference was in a transition period to Division I and did not have an automatic bid.

While Miami did make the tournament this year, other Tri-State teams, including the UC Bearcats and Xavier Musketeers, did not make it.

The Musketeers ended their season with a 15-18 record and 10th in the Big East. Xavier’s season ended on Thursday when UConn defeated the Musketeers 93-68 in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.

The Bearcats ended their season with an 18-15 record and ninth overall in the Big 12. UC ended its season by falling to the UCF Knights 66-65 in overtime in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. After the loss, UC promptly fired coach Wes Miller, who had been with the Bearcats for five seasons. During Miller’s tenure, UC had been to the NIT twice.