Men of Steele: How the 20-0 Miami RedHawks are beating the odds and becoming an irresistible sports story

Flying to the top of the list of stories that are turning this 2025-26 season into one of the best college basketball has seen in 15-plus years: The 20-0 Miami University RedHawks.

The sport doesn't get a 20-0 team every year, but when it does, it's typically a high-major program. Reinforcing the specialness of this year: Arizona (18-0) and/or Nebraska (18-0) could get there in the next week.

But a mid-major reaching 20 games without a scratch is rare. How rare? Since 1990, only six teams that could reasonably be classified as "true" mid-majors have opened 20-0, and even within this list there are a couple of squads (UMass in the '90s, San Diego State just six years ago) that flex the definition of what constitutes a mid-major outfit.

Now Miami (Ohio) is on the list and just became the first MAC team to start a season 20-0, too. It's a pair of wins away from breaking 2001-02 Kent State's record for the longest win streak in league history as well. 

Travis Steele's group has not only hit this point without a defeat, but they've also started to lean into the drama of it all. The No. 25 RedHawks could easily be a two-loss team, but instead they remained perfect in their two most recent games by taking matters into overtime twice — upping their national profile in the process. On Saturday, a pair of near-buzzer-beating 3-pointers against Buffalo led to a 105-102 win, including the clincher from star wing Peter Suder, who dropped 37 points.

This is how you get a nation to start paying attention.  

Tuesday night's road escape against Kent State was arguably even more incredible, given the locale and how the game progressed in the second half. The din of Kent State's home gym provided the best atmosphere anywhere in college hoops Tuesday night. Miami blew a 14-point lead, and in the closing minutes, it looked like its first loss was imminent. Instead, a Kent State turnover with less than 15 seconds in regulation led to Miami sophomore guard Luke Skaljac pulling out a wicked Eurostep to create space and tie the game at 92. The RedHawks handled their business in a harsh environment in overtime, winning 107-101.

"Our guys are unflappable," Steele told CBS Sports after the win Tuesday night on the team's four-hour bus ride back to Oxford, Ohio. "If you could be inside our huddle in those moments, there's complete and utter belief we're winning the game. I don't care what the situation is, we're down four, down six, up six: do your job. Our guys stay really, really focused and actually get tighter as a unit in big moments." 

Men of Steele overcoming the odds

Though Miami's overall strength of schedule is woeful (339th out of 365 teams), the slope of difficulty in getting to 20-0 is reflected in its Strength of Record ranking (21) and its Wins Above Bubble mark (29th). Those are objective indicators of how well Miami has done against its schedule vs. what the average bubble team would've done to this point.

In SOR, the RedHawks rank better than the likes of 16-4 Clemson, 14-4 Villanova, 14-5 St. John's, 13-5 Louisville, 12-6 Tennessee and many more.

And this isn't the richest program in the MAC, either. Not by a long shot. Miami is somewhere in the middle of the pack of the league from an NIL perspective, well behind the likes of UMass, in addition to in-state peers Akron, Kent State and Ohio. Which makes the most surprising thing about this run all the more special: We have a 20-0 mid-major team in 2026. 

That was a near-unbelievable proposition as recently as two months ago. The RedHawks are doing this at a time when it's never been more difficult for coaches and programs outside the power-conference structure to thrive. The gap is widening to concerning levels.

Yet here's Miami University, reminding us that it CAN be done. That's an important development amid a time of ever-present anxiety about the power structure of college basketball as it hurtles toward the back end of this decade. 

"Incredibly fun, just the day-to-day is unbelievable," Steele said. "In the hotels, on the bus trips, practices, shootarounds, lifts. Man, our guys have a TON of fun together. Our whole group does. Staff, players, we're a very, very connected group. And it was that way last year, too. People see the results, but the day-to-day is even better than the results."

Keep in mind, they're doing this without their starting point guard, which makes it even more outlandish. Miami lost its maestro, Evan Ipsaro, to a torn ACL in a Dec. 20 win against Ball State. 

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"He was as good as any mid-major point guard in the entire country," Steele said. "An absolute monster."

Skaljac was subsequently forced into playing point, something he'd never done in college. He's making it work and the team hasn't slowed — not at all. Miami ranks second nationally in points per game (94.6) and is No. 1 in effective field goal shooting (60.4%). It ranks top-15 in 3-point accuracy and top-five in 2-point percentage. 

Tuesday night's win wasn't just the 20th straight win, it was 20 in a row with at least 75 points scored. In the past 40 years, the only teams to win 20 in a row and put up 75-plus in every game are: the famed 1987-88 Loyola Marymount team that had one of the best offenses ever; the 1990-91 UNLV team that made it to the Final Four undefeated; the 1998-99 Duke team that made the national title game; and the 2001-02 Duke team that made the Final Four.

And now: these men of Steele.

The RedHawks popped into the AP rankings this week at No. 25, landing in the rankings for the first time since the days of Wally Szczerbiak. With no more games until next Tuesday's home tilt vs. UMass, Miami is assured of a ranking for the second week in a row. The RedHawks are the first MAC team to be ranked since the Nate Oats-coached Buffalo Bulls were ranked — ready for this? — every week of the regular season in 2018-19. That Bulls team went 32-4 and got as high as 14th in the rankings. It earned a No. 6 seed, too. The idea of a MAC school in 2026 taking up an AP ranking every week of the season seems nearly impossible, and that's an indictment of the power shift over the past few years with the portal. 

Aside from this, this is still highly uncommon.

Prior to Buffalo in 2019, the most recent MAC team to earn an AP ranking came in 2007-08 when Kent State popped in for one week in February at No. 23.

None of this has stopped Miami from defying the odds. One of the key ways to do it: retention. Seven significant rotation players from last season's 25-9 team that was three points away from beating Akron in the MAC title game and reaching the NCAA Tournament. Miami hasn't danced since 2006-07. 

It's more than the roster, though. Steele said 25 people who were in the program last year carried over into this year. That is a huge part of this story. Mid-major coaching staffs regularly lose people each year for a variety of reasons. The core in Oxford stuck together, and as a result, is authoring one of the feel-good stories in all of sports in 2026.

"There's a reason why we brought them here," Steele said, adding that many players on this roster were on title-winning teams in high school. "They are so easy to coach in those big moments. I think retention is everything in today's landscape. You've got NIL, the portal. What's the term some coaches use, mercenaries? We don't have that." 

In fact, Miami only added one player in the portal last season. 

"We recruit a lot of high school guys and I'm still holding on a little bit to that old model: development, get our guys better, we have fun together, we win and I hope that means something," he said. "I think it does to our guys."

How the Xavier failure made Steele the right coach for Miami

On March 9, 2022, Xavier was a bubble team, coached by Steele, that entered the Big East Tournament needing to win at least one game, if not two, to ensure its credentials to make the NCAAs. But it lost 89-82 in the opening round to Butler. It was Steele's fourth season with the program and, as expected, Xavier was left out.

It went to the NIT and, after winning its first game by four points against Cleveland State, Steele was hastily fired the next day by Xavier AD Greg Christopher, who was eying Sean Miller and trying to get ahead of South Carolina (who would also offer Miller a job in the ensuing days). As a result of his firing, Steele was the first Xavier coach since the 1970s to not take the team to the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.

That's a major résumé stain, but it didn't stop Miami from wanting Steele and it didn't affect Steele's confidence in his coaching acumen. In fact, it ultimately did the opposite.

"I know I would not be the coach I am today if I didn't have my experience I went through at Xavier," Steele said. "It was a hard moment when I got let go, but I was appreciative of the opportunity I was given there. I don't know how many people are ready to become a head coach until you get your feet wet, let alone how many people can do it at the P5/P6 level unless there is so much support around you." 

He could have taken a year off or easily landed on a high-major staff elsewhere.

But he still wanted to be a head coach. 

The Miami job opened that same cycle in 2022 and he chased it. Crucially, athletic director David Sayler gave Steele full control of the program and trusted him to bring the RedHawks out of the muck. Steele interviewed like he had nothing to lose (because maybe he didn't) and said it had to be his vision entirely, otherwise go hire somebody else. 

"It was carte blanche, full control of everything over the program and being patient in this landscape," Steele said. "Everybody wants instant success every year because of the portal and NIL. We had to build it the slow-and-steady way." 

There was no deviation from the plan. Steele told Sayler the first year would not be good and it wasn't: 12-20. Year 2 had some improvement at 15-17, including 9-9 in the league. The RedHawks made their jump last year to the upper echelon of the MAC, and now they're a national story. 

Steele doesn't hesitate to talk about what didn't work at Xavier, why he was ready in some respects but also not ready in others to be a head coach at a power-conference program.

"You look back at those moments, and I did, and it hurt when it happened, and you ask what could I have done different?" Steele told me. "What could I have changed? I've been able to implement that here at Miami. You live and you learn on how to build culture. I've got my non-negotiables on the staff, bringing in the right young men, style of play. I never even got to coach offensively the way I wanted to coach at Xavier. Here, I've been able to do it my way since Day 1."

Steele's more clear-eyed, levelheaded now about what the job actually is. What's this season-by-season journey about for everyone? That's trickled down to his players. Watch his team: It's fun, but composed. It's a lively group but never out of sorts. The trust in the huddle is easy to see through a TV screen. As the wins keep piling up, the players are enjoying it all the more. They're a big deal on campus right about now, but Steele said there isn't any outside pressure on this group.

"They don't feel any pressure at all. Live life, enjoy it, have fun, play for one another," he said. "It's amazing when you think about others how you don't feel any pressure. When you play for the guy next to you and not for yourself."

Statistically, the road game against Kent State was the toughest one remaining on Miami's schedule. When's the first loss going to come? Nobody in Oxford's worried about that right now. KenPom gives the team a 4.5% chance of running the regular season table, but after the past two games it's hard to discount the magical element to this team. If 20-0 is possible, why not 24-0? Why not 27-0? Why not 31-0?

This is the glory life of a 20-0 team in the bus league that is the MAC. After the four-hour ride across Ohio, Steele walked in his door at 2:54 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning. He stole a few hours of sleep, then was back in the car shortly after breakfast and readying for the next win. It's a story that feels as fun now as it is unfinished.

With love and honor, the Miami RedHawks are starting to flirt with history. Let's see how high they soar.