I know my fellow MBA blogger Maryland Conservatarian was happy about his Holy Cross Crusaders making it to the dance…well my Miami RedHawks are joining his team as we knocked off the #2 seed Akron Zips 53-52 in the MAC Championship!! A Doug Penno 3 pointer as time “expired” gave the RedHawks the win. The clock had ran out as the ball fell through the net but it was eventually determined that the time had restarted tardily after a missed Akron free throw. Thus 0.6 seconds were placed back on the clock. But Akron’s long inbounds pass went harmlessly out of bounds as time again expired and the RedHawks pulled an upset for the second straight night (beating #1 seed Toledo in the semifinal) to win it all!
I’m betting we’ll be something like a #14 seed since we’re only 18-14 with the win but we get to go back to the dance for the first time since 1999, when a team led by current Boston Celtics player Wally Szczerbiak made it to the Sweet 16 before succumbing to defending champion Kentucky. Every few years a MAC team makes a good run in the tournament (Kent State was an elite 8 team in 2002) so hopefully my RedHawks can make some noise in their 17th trip overall to the dance.
Meanwhile, Doug Penno will probably never have to buy another drink in Oxford the rest of his life. But would someone please tell the AP that nowhere on my diploma does it say “of Ohio.” We are Miami University, that other one is the University of Miami (although in reality they should be the University of Coral Gables.) Named after the Indian tribe and the nearby Miami River, we were a university well before Florida was a state.
