Miami (Ohio) Falls to UMass in 2026 MAC Tournament, Ending Perfect Season
Miami (Ohio) entered the 2026 MAC Tournament as the conference’s top seed, the last unbeaten team in Division I men’s basketball and a rising name in the NCAA men’s basketball conversation. By Thursday afternoon in Cleveland, that changed.
The RedHawks fell 87-83 to eighth-seeded UMass in the opening game of the MAC men’s basketball tournament at Rocket Arena, ending Miami’s perfect run at 31-1 and sending the regular-season champion into a far less certain wait for Selection Sunday. UMass, now 17-15, moved on to Friday’s MAC semifinal at 5 p.m. ET.
For a team that had spent weeks building national attention, the loss instantly became one of the biggest results of Champ Week.
UMass Flipped the Game in the Second Half
Miami led 39-37 at halftime and looked positioned to keep its season moving, but UMass was better after the break and closed with the sharper offensive stretch. The Minutemen outscored the RedHawks 50-44 in the second half and delivered the first MAC Tournament win in program history.
Leonardo Bettiol led UMass with 25 points, while Marcus Banks added 18 and Jayden Ndjigue scored 16. The Minutemen found enough scoring balance to survive against a Miami team that had gone unbeaten through both nonconference play and an 18-0 league record.
The result was especially notable because Miami had already beaten UMass twice during the regular season. The RedHawks won 86-84 in Oxford on Jan. 27 and followed that with an 86-77 road win in Amherst on Feb. 17. Thursday, though, the third meeting turned into a different story, and it came in the one setting that mattered most.
Miami’s 31-1 Record No Longer Guarantees Peace of Mind
The immediate question after the loss is no longer whether Miami can finish undefeated. It is whether the RedHawks did enough before the MAC Tournament to secure an at-large NCAA bid if they do not hold the league’s automatic qualifier.
That is where Thursday’s upset carries real national weight. Miami still owns a 31-1 record, a No. 20 ranking and one of the cleanest win-loss marks in the country. But the MAC is not a league that routinely sends multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament, and teams from outside the power conferences often get judged more harshly when they fail to win their conference tournament.
That puts the RedHawks in a tense position. A 31-win season is difficult for any committee to dismiss, but Thursday’s defeat removed Miami’s clearest path and replaced it with uncertainty.
The RedHawks Still Showed Why They Became a March Story
Even in defeat, Miami’s season remains one of the country’s most unusual and compelling résumés. The RedHawks swept the MAC regular season at 18-0 and entered the conference tournament after an overtime win at Ohio pushed them to 31-0.
Thursday’s loss does not erase the broader turnaround under Travis Steele, nor does it erase how consistently Miami handled league play. The team’s offensive balance was on display again against UMass, with Brant Byers leading five RedHawks in double figures with 17 points. Eian Elmer added 16, Antwone Woolfolk had 14, and Luke Skaljac scored 10.
That balance had been one of Miami’s defining strengths all season. It helped the RedHawks survive tight league games, including both earlier wins over UMass, and it helped turn a strong season into a national talking point. The problem Thursday was not that Miami looked outclassed. It was that the RedHawks could not finish the game once the pressure rose.
What the 2026 MAC Tournament Bracket Looks Like Now
Miami entered the 2026 MAC Tournament bracket as the No. 1 seed and UMass came in at No. 8, making Thursday’s quarterfinal result the bracket’s headline upset. With the win, the Minutemen advanced to face the winner of the Bowling Green-Toledo game in Friday’s semifinal.
For the rest of the bracket, Miami’s exit changes the entire event. The tournament favorite is gone, the automatic bid is now fully in play for the remaining teams, and the MAC suddenly has a more complicated national profile than it did when the day began.
That is the ripple effect of March basketball. One upset not only changes who advances, but also reshapes the NCAA picture for a conference that had appeared headed toward a straightforward finish.
What Comes Next for Miami (Ohio)
Miami now has no game left to play before the NCAA bracket is revealed Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. The RedHawks’ case will rest on the full body of work: a 31-1 overall record, an undefeated MAC regular season, a conference title and two regular-season wins over the same UMass team that just knocked them out.
Whether that proves enough remains the central question.
For now, the final image of Miami basketball is not of a team completing a perfect season or cutting down nets in Cleveland. It is of a 31-win group forced to watch the rest of the MAC Tournament from the sideline, hoping that one bad afternoon against UMass does not become the result that defines its March.
