UMASS DEFEATS PREVIOUSLY-UNDEFEATED #20 MIAMI (OH) IN THE QUARTERFINALS OF THE MAC TOURNAMENT

“UMass will upset Miami (OH).”

A concise set of words I tweeted out on March 7, 2026 at 2:40 a.m. The radical prediction published in the wee hours was a direct response to a post from the Mid-American Conference’s (MAC) official page. The conference’s channel uploaded and featured an image of the bracket for the MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament, and after a brief scan of the matchups, I made a passionate assumption. As luck would have it, this middle-of-the-night declaration wound up revealing itself as a flashing prophecy.

Some background information before diving into the specifics of the game and explaining what this magical moment meant for the program. I graduated from UMass in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Over the course of my senior year, along with attending class, hitting the gym, and pulling for the school’s major sports teams, I began blogging about sports through an internship provided by the university. This opportunity came about after I popped into their Career Development and Professional Connections Hub and sat down with an advisor to express my interest in doing something I was passionate about in my final chapter as an undergrad. To make a long story short, throughout my last year on campus, I ended up writing 100+ articles centered around MLB, NBA, NFL, and NCAAF/NCAAB, leveraged this portfolio as fuel for a job offer at ESPN, worked in television, created content for various shows like The Paul Finebaum Show and SEC NOW, saw/heard my ideas in ESPN’s coverage of the 2019 NBA Draft and coverage of the 2019 College World Series in Omaha, and chopped it up with Penny Hardaway before a college basketball game where he was the coach of one of the teams, and I was the researcher for ESPN’s production, among other awesome moments.

I then took this experience with me and published my first book, Trust The Grind, a self-help sports book for young athletes that includes interviews with world-class competitors from my childhood (Chipper Jones, Jason Kidd, Mike Modano, Georges St-Pierre, to name a few). By good fortune, I was able to sell thousands of copies, connect with readers, speak at various schools, and see my project on numerous summer reading lists across America.

All this to say, without UMass, I’m not so sure what the opening scene of my professional life would have looked like. Yet, I’m certain the details wouldn’t have been as sunny and eventful as they appeared in reality. My experience in Amherst, MA was the launching pad for some pretty sweet happenings, and because of that, I’ll always possess unwavering gratitude for the university.

Due to my unique story, late last year, the school interviewed me (See Here), to talk about how my accredited internship played a role in the above occurrences and how important it is for students to pursue their passions with tangible production. The chance to collaborate with my prestigious alma mater heightened my love for all things UMass, which played a role in my dead-of-night proclamation surrounding their current basketball team.

So I published my assertion on March 7. Two days later, on March 9, my phone began to cast the sound I had set for when I receive notifications through various social media applications (X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). The second I snatched my mobile device, I saw “UMass Alumni” hovering over the glossy screen. By sheer serendipity, on the week of the MAC Basketball Tournament, the school opted to promote my interview on all of their social platforms.

Once I received this unexpected acknowledgement, I knew there was no chance that UMass would lose to Miami (OH), who, entering the game, was a perfect 31-0, residing as the only D-1 team to enter conference tournament play undefeated. Why? No reason. Just a strong feeling. An inner conviction cultivated due to a perceived coincidence. A UMass sports lover, who loves conference tournaments/brackets/upsets/all things March Madness, was highlighted by the school the same week that the UMass Men’s Basketball team had been granted an opportunity to do something special. To me, it was a surefire lock, even though it made zero sense to feel this way.

I brushed off the fact that the league ran through the #1 seed RedHawks, and the fact that UMass fell to them twice in the regular season, and the fact that UMass snuck in the backdoor as the 8th and final seed in the tournament during the tail end of the season. I refused to recognize that the Minutemen hadn’t beaten a ranked opponent since Nov. 22, 2013 when they took down #19 New Mexico, and here they were, massive underdogs against #20 Miami (OH).

Yesterday’s results go by the wayside when you have a powerful feeling in the present moment. Today’s senses trump all prior occurrences, and this matter was a case study on that very affirmation.

While the game wasn’t pretty, as they were down 11 with 8:32 to play, Coach Frank Martin and the UMass Minutemen refused to give up. They ended up going on a 13-2 run to tie the game, and with 29 seconds to go, Daniel Hankins-Sanford gave UMass the lead on a layup. FINAL SCORE: UMass 87, Miami (OH) 83.

Aside from UMass earning their first ranked win since I had been a part of the family (Again, I enrolled in 2014, but they hadn’t beat a ranked opponent since the year prior), there was some great history behind it. Miami (OH) became the first team since 2003-04 St. Joseph’s, who were led by NBA veteran Jameer Nelson, to lose in their conference tournament after entering undefeated.

As seen above, due to the circumstances, UMass was number 1 on the most popular trends in America during the day of the astonishing win. Sure, they ended up losing in the next round of the tournament to Toledo, but my Super Bowl was already won. I finally saw them defeat a ranked opponent, and they did so in EPIC fashion.

Even though it was a rocky first year in the MAC, it was a fun one. It was like a movie that disappoints you in the first and second act, but does something so spectacular in the final act, you end up loving the production so much that you decide to purchase products attached to it. Maybe a bad analogy, but that’s what I ended up doing after UMass took down #19 Miami (OH). I love UMass. I love college basketball. I love the MAC, I love brackets, I love March Madness, and now I love this UMass x MAC Tournament crewneck.