OXFORD — About an hour before tipoff, Travis Steele slips quietly into the stands at Millett Hall. Sort of tucked away.
There’s no clipboard in hand. No whistle around his neck. Just a seat — though not his usual one.
The recent massive home crowds made him detour away from behind the student-section basket.
“Usually I go out there before about the 52-minute mark of warmups,” Steele said. “I like to kind of watch both teams warm up, see kind of where we are mentally.
“And I can’t sit in my normal seat anymore. So I kind of got moved.”
From that perch Friday night, he began to watch a crowd of 10,640 fill the building to its record-matching capacity.
He watched the student section in their white-out apparel spill into the aisles.
He watched a program he believed in a couple years ago become the only unbeaten team in college basketball this year.
And then he watched his team respond.
Five RedHawks scored in double figures as Miami defeated archrival Ohio 90-74 to improve to 25-0 overall and 12-0 in the Mid-American Conference.
“Man, it just propels our team,” Steele said. “The student support that we’re getting — from the whole Miami community — it just makes Millett one of the hardest places to play in college basketball. It is so cool.”
The energy started the night before at Brick Street, where Miami hosted its first “Battle of the Bricks” pep rally. A visit from former RedHawks legend Wally Szczerbiak added to the aura.
“Had a great turnout with students,” Steele said, “and that carried right over to tonight’s game.”
Miami led by eight at halftime. Not comfortable. Not safe.
“We knew we were going to get Ohio’s best shot,” Steele said. “In rivalry games, you can throw the records out the window. Who’s going to be tougher? Who’s the first team to the floor? We wanted to set that tone.”
Brant Byers felt it too.
“With the building this full, obviously emotions were going to be pretty high,” said Byers, who scored 21 points and went 13-of-16 from the free-throw line. “We knew we were the better team, and if we just did our jobs, we would pull away.
“Even though we didn’t in the first half, we knew fate would kind of happen — and that’s kind of what happened.”
Built, not borrowed
Four years ago, Steele saw possibility on a campus he calls “the best in all of America.”
“It’s like Disney World around here,” he said. “You don’t have bad days.”
But building something sustainable required alignment — from President Gregory Crawford to athletic director David Sayler to a coaching staff that has largely remained intact.
“When you get like-minded people pulling in the same direction, these types of things can happen,” Steele said.
The first year tested that belief.
“My first year tested me in a lot of ways,” Steele said. “But our staff kept me positive. Our guys never stopped having fun.”
Fun remains foundational.
“You only live life once,” Steele said. “When you stop having fun, you flatline.”
Byers has seen that evolution firsthand.
“It’s amazing. It’s a lot different than even two years ago, my first year here,” Byers said. “To see the amount of people there even before our warmups start is insane. We weren’t even getting that amount of people to our games. So yeah, we’re grateful for it.”
Steele allows his players to enjoy the ride without losing focus.
“He keeps us focused without overdoing it,” Byers said. “It allows us to enjoy the ride. I know not all places are like that. It makes it a lot of fun.”
The RedHawks’ mottoes are many.
“Coach Steele has a million of them,” Byers said with a smile. “But one that he’s used since I’ve been here day one is, ‘Victory favors the aggressor.’”
That aggressiveness showed Friday. Miami won the rebounding battle 38-29 and controlled the paint.
“We knew they rely heavily on getting to the rim or the midrange,” Byers said. “So we knew the rebounds were probably going to be short. We just tried to pack the paint, hit our man. I’d say we did it pretty well tonight.”
When Miami’s offense cooled briefly in the first half, Steele’s other long-standing mantra surfaced.
“Water will always find its level,” Byers said. “He’s preached that since day one. It’s kind of ingrained in our head.”
The main thing
Winning 25 in a row invites noise.
National television cameras. Rankings. The No. 23 next to Miami’s name — something few in the locker room envisioned when they arrived.
“I’d be lying if I said we all didn’t think about it,” Byers said. “Seeing that number 23 next to our name is something none of us expected when we first came here.”
But the mindset has not shifted.
“If we have one bad game, most likely it’s gone,” Byers said. “So we’ve just been trying to focus on winning every day, and with that comes winning each game.”
Even after Arizona lost earlier in the week, officially making Miami the only undefeated team in the country, the response inside the locker room was steady.
“We were all tuned into that game,” Byers admitted. “But I can’t say that it changed our mindset a whole lot. Still just trying to win each game.”
Steele sees maturity in moments that once would have unraveled.
He pointed to veterans understanding how to play with two fouls instead of sitting to players who care more about winning than stat lines.
“Our go-to guy is the open guy,” Steele said. “I like open shots. I like layups. I like free throws.”
Byers found plenty of the latter, drawing 11 fouls.
“I don’t really know if it’s something that’s the main focus of my game,” Byers said. “It kind of just came tonight. Once I knew I could get to that spot and get fouled, I just kept going back to it.”
The confidence to do that — to keep attacking — reflects Steele’s philosophy.
“We have a really mature group,” Steele said. “We know each other. We love each other. We can have honest conversations.”
Before every home game, he takes that solitary walk into the stands. He gauges focus. He feels the pulse.
He appreciates it.
“The support that we’re getting — just appreciate it,” Steele said. “It’s awesome.”
Soon enough, he rises from his borrowed seat and heads back to the floor, where the message is simple.
Stay aggressive. Keep the main thing the main thing. Have fun.
At 25-0, Miami has done all three.
And about 52 minutes before every tip, it all begins again.
