Miami University has been playing basketball for more than 120 years. It's never had a season like the one it's having now.
The men's team is on a record-breaking run and is just a few games away from finishing the regular season with a perfect, undefeated record. The Redhawks currently sit at 27-0. That's the longest win streak in the program's history and the longest in the Mid-American Conference's (MAC) history. As it stands now, Miami is the only undefeated team in D-1 men's hoops, and if they can take home the conference title, they'll secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.
Redhawks women's basketball also is on track to have one of its best seasons ever. The team sits atop the MAC standings with a 22-5 overall record and hasn't lost a home game.
This historic season has breathed new life into Millett Hall, which has been home to Miami basketball since its opening in 1968. Fans say attendance has been low in recent years, but lately, games at the decades-old arena are routinely selling out.
"We are showing up for our team," Miami student Andrew Kempe said before the Redhawks beat the Bowling Green Falcons on national television Friday night.
Not only is the team bringing students back to the arena, but alumni and their families, too. Young fan Henry Puthoff was excited to see the Redhawks in action.
"It feels really fun to be here and be a part of this moment," he said.
'If you build it, we will come'
The sudden attention the program is receiving is further complicating a campus battle over whether Miami should spend millions to construct a new basketball arena district.
The university first expressed its desire to build a new arena in 2024, saying that necessary renovations to the old arena would cost the school more than $80 million.
In early 2025, Athletic Director David Saylor presented a recommendation to Miami's Board of Trustees to demolish Millett Hall and build a new arena district at the site of Cook Field, a recreational greenspace used by students. Under the proposal, new turf fields would be installed where Millett once stood. The whole project would cost upwards of $200 million.
Saylor told trustees a new arena would be an investment in the basketball program that would help it grow and compete on a national level, saying that growth would be "impossible" without a new facility. Some fans agree with him.
"If you build it, we will come," Miami student George Kuntz said. "We want to be here, we want to have fun. And we love a team that is fantastic and one of the best in the country."
Calling a foul
However, the push to build a new area at Cook Field has not sat well with some current students, faculty and alumni, who say the project would take away a frequently used greenspace.
Zach Roemer, a 2025 Miami graduate, told WVXU that Cook Field is a space students use and value more than the basketball arena. When he was a student, he didn't attend many games, but the team's success this year brought him back. He says that's because of the winning basketball, not the arena.
"If we can build a solid program and we really make a fan base excited to come, we can really use this space," Roemer said.
A site selection committee formed by university leaders proposed the Cook Field location after surveying around 1,500 people. An independent analysis of the survey's results by the Oxford Free Press found that most respondents preferred building an arena at alternative sites or opposed the project entirely. The university did not put any students on the committee.
Later in the year, an independent research team comprised of current students, faculty and alumni created its own survey, showing similar results.
The new survey had more than 3,000 respondents, 89% of whom said they oppose the new arena project. Only 7% said they support it. Nearly 80% were in favor of keeping Cook Field as a greenspace, with 4% saying they'd prefer to see an arena replace the greenspace.
Bri Fitzgerald, a senior Miami student, was one of the leaders on the independent research team. She says the results are clear, but it remains to be seen whether trustees will take the community's response seriously.
"We have sent physical copies of this report to the Board of Trustees in hopes that they will at least take it into consideration when making their decision," Fitzgerald told WVXU.
The window for people to complete the survey closed Nov. 10, just two games into Miami's win streak. Despite the team's success, members of the research team say they don't think the team's play this year would have dramatically changed the survey's results had it been done more recently.
Trustees are expected to make their decision this Friday.
Read more:
