Miami Basketball Is Back. So Is the Hype.

For the first month of Hype & Honor, basketball has mostly been waiting patiently while football created enough drama for an entire year.

That patience ends now.

Miami completed its first practice on September 21 and held an open practice and Red and White Scrimmage during Homecoming weekend. The full schedule is out. The roster is together. Antwone Woolfolk is officially returning for a fifth season, and one of the best mid-major programs in the country has begun preparing for its encore.

My family may have assumed basketball season would provide a short break from hearing about Miami athletics. Unfortunately for them, one of my Miami group-chat friends has already requested the full season preview.

The hype has officially crossed over.

The Expectations Are Different Now

Miami is not entering this season as an interesting team that might surprise the MAC.

The RedHawks are coming off a 32-win season, an undefeated regular season, a MAC regular-season championship and an NCAA Tournament victory over SMU. They climbed into the national rankings, filled Millett Hall and turned a promising rebuild into one of the best seasons in program history.

Repeating all of that will be difficult. Peter Suder, Brant Byers and Eian Elmer are gone, and last season established a standard that would be unfair to treat as normal.

But Miami is not starting over.

Travis Steele signed an extension through the 2033-34 season. Several important pieces of last year’s team remain, Evan Ipsaro is back after missing the final 22 games of the season and Miami added multiple players with proven college production.

This team will look different. It should still expect to win.

Five Reasons the Hype Is Already Back

• Antwone Woolfolk is returning. Miami announced that Woolfolk will use his fifth season of eligibility after averaging 9.8 points and 5.3 rebounds and earning Honorable Mention All-MAC recognition. He has started all 67 games he has played for the RedHawks.
• Evan Ipsaro gets another chance. Before his injury, Ipsaro averaged 13.9 points, 3.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. Miami then went on its historic run without him. His return gives Steele another experienced creator and scorer.
• Luke Skaljac gets the controls. Skaljac led Miami with 4.7 assists per game, earned Third-Team All-MAC honors and finished 64th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio. With Suder gone, he has the opportunity to become the face of the program.
• The reinforcements have already produced. Milwaukee transfer Stevie Elam averaged 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds as a freshman. Rich Rolf started 30 games for Youngstown State and averaged 9.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Miami is adding experience, not merely filling roster spots.
• Miami is no longer sneaking up on anyone. Mid-Major Madness recently said Miami “looks poised to run the table yet again,” citing Skaljac and Woolfolk as returning key pieces and Ipsaro getting another shot at a healthy season. That does not guarantee anything, but it confirms how dramatically the perception of this program has changed.

The Full Preview Is Coming

This is not the full season preview.

That will come once we have the official MAC preseason poll, more practice insight and a clearer picture of how Steele plans to build the rotation. We still need to examine the newcomers, the losses from last season, the schedule, Miami’s biggest conference threats and whether this roster can carry historic expectations without being crushed by them.

That article will involve actual predictions and an honest attempt at reasonable analysis.

This article does not.

Basketball practice has started. Woolfolk is back. Miami’s first-practice coverage features Ipsaro. Skaljac is ready for a larger role, and the RedHawks will open the season carrying expectations that would have sounded irrational only a few years ago.

The first basketball-only article in Hype & Honor history was never going to be reasonable.