Hump Day Hoops: Wintertime Sadness

To say that Miami has had a disappointing season on the hardwood would be a gross understatement.

The men’s team has been atrocious on its way to losing nine of its last ten games and now finds itself in last place in the MAC (but first in the OAC!). The end of the season doesn’t look any better for the RedHawks to recoup their losses, as they have to take on the Ohio Bobcats twice and face both the Central Michigan Chippewas and the Akron Zips in a bottom-heavy conference schedule.

The women’s team has not provided much relief for those trying to look away from the inferno that is the men’s team either, as it has dropped 10 of its last 11 contests and is currently tied for the worst record in conference play at 1-9.

Each of the RedHawks’ nine losses have been by double digits, with their only win coming at home against an equally bad Eastern Michigan Eagles squad, so there might not be another win on the schedule for the rest of the season.

For Miami basketball to fall so far speaks to the inept leadership for both programs.

The men’s team in John Cooper’s tenure has deteriorated the program’s image to the point where its history of good basketball is almost irrelevant and has mostly, if not completely, lost the support of a good number of alumni. The men’s program needs a dramatic reboot after this season if the administration is serious at all about fielding a competent basketball team.

As far as the women’s team is concerned, it has never been a good team under Cleve Wright’s tutelage and Wright hasn’t done much of anything for the program outside of bringing Baleigh Reid to Oxford. Maybe David Sayler is finally regretting firing Maria Fantanarosa and bringing in Wright since those two decisions have directly led to the decline of the program following a number of seasons where the team was at least competitive.

Even though both programs are in shambles right now, don’t expect any moves to be made before the end of this season.

Miami just doesn’t have the resources to eat buyouts and it’s not like it’ll be able to get a lot of financial support for basketball right now, so we’ll have to wait and see if the administration is committed to improving the basketball product like it has been committed to improving the football program or if it’ll continue to let the programs continue on their downward spiral like they have been doing for the past five years.

At least baseball (and the defending MAC champion softball team) are around the corner.