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1. ‘This wasn't an upset tonight, at all’

On a night when Miami University showcased its gorgeous offense and silenced any doubts about its place in the NCAA tournament, it was SMU that may not have belonged the 68 team field.

Hold that thought.

Miami’s 89-79 win in the First Four game on Wednesday in Dayton displayed all the reasons why it started the season 31-0. It had lovely ball movement, terrific shooting — it’s one of only 30 teams in NCAA tourney history to hit at least 16 3-pointers in a game — and it took care of the ball, too.

It entered as 6.5-point underdogs and left fully validated.

"The reason people love March Madness is they love to see quote, unquote, upsets," coach Travis Steele said. "This wasn't an upset tonight, at all."

Sure, Miami had overwhelming fan support, whether that was the swim team in their speedos or the raucous crowd that SMU coach Andy Enfield said “felt like 40 or 50,000” people. But they met the moment, too. The RedHawks (32-1) recorded their largest win margin this season while putting together 11-0 and 9-0 runs in the first half, then a 16-3 run early in the second that pushed them to a double-digit lead and the win.

It was SMU (20-14) that looked like it didn’t have enough juice. It played without forward BJ Edwards for the sixth-straight game and clearly missed him. The NCAA Tournament seeding committee said that Edwards’ expected return was one of the factors it considered when awarding the Mustangs one of the last at-large bids.

A MAC team hadn’t earned an at-large berth since 1999 when Wally Szczerbiak and Miami reached the Sweet 16. Next up for Miami is Tennessee on Friday in the Midwest Region Round of 64 in Philadelphia. We’ll see if that magic continues.

Also magical? Your first NCAA Tournament win.

Prairie View A&M topped Lehigh, 67-55, in the other First Four game on Wednesday. It was the first time in program history.

Prairie View got 25 points, seven rebounds and four steals from Dontae Horne, and a dominant performance from its defense, which held Lehigh (18-17) to just 36% from the field and forced 16 turnovers.

Considering the Panthers (19-17) won just five games total last season, this win was even sweeter.

"Losing sucks," coach Byron Smith said. "Everything is better when you win, just life is better. Everybody would like to be Coach [Nick] Saban — seven, eight national championships and be No. 1 preseason and in the final poll every year — but that's just not realistic. When you have seasons like we did the last two years, it really tests you as a coach and how much you really want to be doing this thing."

Per ESPN, it became just the third team to win a tourney game following a season of five wins or fewer. The other two, Iowa and Fairleigh Dickinson, also won multiple tournament games.

2. Louisville won’t have Brown + more news to know

Louisville was already a popular upset pick for the round of 64. Wednesday’s news that point guard Mikel Brown won’t play against South Florida only amplified that.

Or did it?

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