Remaining unbeaten college basketball teams in the country.

They're seventeen and oh after Friday night's win at Toledo.

Next up Central Michigan tomorrow night at home, and Malet should be rocking for more on that.

Let's go straight to the source and welcome in head coach Travis Steele.

How are you.

I'm doing great, Lance, Thanks for having me on great catching.

Up with you, Travis.

I think more and more people around the country are like going, holy crap, Miami seventeen and oh are you?

I guess to what extent are Are you surprised you're seventeen?

And oh?

Not really?

You know, I knew when we put this team together we had a chance to be special.

And I think what makes us really good We got great We got really talented basketball players, but we have winners.

We have guys that are very, very process oriented.

They take advantage of every day man, So I'm not surprised with the results that we've gotten.

Friday night, you shot better than fifty percent from the field for the thirteenth time this season.

Travis, I gotta tell you, in watching you guys, you're like an instructional video of passing to get to the good shot time and time again.

It's uncanny to watch.

Yeah, it's a it's a fun way to play, right.

Our guys pass up good shots to get great shots, and we have very very high i qs out there.

We have great spacing and cutting and movement.

We play fast, so we're hard to prepare for.

You know, we've got seven guys score over twenty points in a game this year, and just the balance itself makes us, I think, very difficult to defend.

A couple of games ago, you shoot thirty you're number one shooting team in the country, fifty three percent from the field.

A couple of games ago you shoot thirty eight percent, but win at Akron.

Did that show you something about your team?

It did?

You know, we didn't have our a great night offensively, and give Accron credit, you know, like they defended us well, but we also missed a lot of open looks.

And you know, for us to be able to win our conference tournament in Cleveland in March, odds are one of the three games we're not going to shoot well and can you win that game?

I thought the grit to fight, the toughness that our guys showed against Akron to beat them a week and a half ago.

Man, it's going to really serve us well.

Moving forward, Travis, with all the public attention that continues to grow and head the way of your guys to talk to me about how big it is from their their maturity and their focus standpoint as a group.

Well, I think you know player, I said this before to you, Lance, but I think player led teams are way way better than coach led teams.

And you know, Suitor Ipsorrow and Ian Elmer are three captains voted by their teammates, do a great job of helping us lead this team.

And we're really focused.

It's like we use the we have a picture that kind of stays around our program of a guy driving a car and looking out the front windshield.

There's a reason why the rearview mirror is so small because everything that's already happened or seventeen, you know, that's in the past.

We're going to look forward for the obstacles that are in front of us, because there's several of them.

And starting with Central Michigan.

Obviously, tomorrow night you.

Mentioned Evan Ipsorrow.

You lost him, your point guard, your guy five games ago.

Explain to listeners what he meant to this team, and how you've gone about replacing all that he offered your team.

Yeah, Evan is I love him, you know, number one, I just heard fro him as a human being.

You know, any time a guy goes down with an injury, it stinks.

And he was having a breakout year.

I thought he was one of the best mid major point guards in the entire country.

He's our heart and soul in a lot of ways.

So when we lost them, we knew it was going to be a big adjustment, you know.

And we still have a lot of really really good players on our team, so we knew again it wasn't no no one player was going to replace Evan, But we just look a little different.

You know.

We rebound the ball a little bit better.

We're turning it over a little bit more.

That's offset, and the rebounds is offset and that, and we're figuring it out.

It's kind of by committee the point guard position.

And Luke Skaaljack's really done a nice job as a sophomore, you know, kind of leading our play making duties.

I follow Pete Suitter closely.

He's a Carmel height school guy like me, So I got to follow him.

And last year he led you guys in scoring.

He had a forty two point game.

Now he's I think third on the team in scoring, maybe not shooting quite as much.

But here's what jumps out to me, Travis.

His field goal percentage, he's up eight percent from last year.

His three point is up twelve percent last year.

And his as sister up tell me about his change or continued development from last year to this year.

Ultimate winner's Pete, you know, coming from a Carmel program.

I know, lady, you said you just went there many Carmel wins.

It everything.

I feel like, you know, Pete's won his whole life.

And he understands sacrifice and he's at the very top of the scouting report for every game.

You know so, and he just does what the game tells him to do.

As simple as that.

He doesn't care about scoring, he doesn't care about shots.

He is playing to win.

And when your best player does that, it permeates throughout the rest of the team.

You mentioned the scouting report, and earlier you mentioned and this is where it's going back to.

Seven different guys have scored at least twenty points in a game this year.

I wouldn't want to prepare a scouting report for against you guys, because I wouldn't know where to begin.

Yeah, it makes us hard reguard, you know, just our space, our pace that we play with.

We don't run a lot of set plays like at Toledo Lance.

You'll laugh, I called.

I only called set plays on baseline out of bounds and sideline out of bounds plays.

You know, because our group knows how to play the playoff of one another, the red react.

It makes it super, super difficult to scout because again we have to play teams three times sometimes in a year in order to win our league in the conference tournament, and we got to be hard to play in that third.

Game, Travis, from that standpoint of play calling and backing off that have you have you always been that way or have you evolved into that?

I've evolved into it.

You know.

I used to want to control a lot and again everything's different, you know.

But again we've recruited very, very high to skilled guys, guys that I really trust, you know.

I use practice as a way, like listen, I teach them how to play, and then during the game, I trust them, I let them, do you know I want them to play with a free mind, a ton of confidence, and just do what the game tells them to do.

You know, I'm so glad you said that because there and I'm not mentioning specifics here, but there are times I watch coaches who will stand and bark almost one pass to the next passive year pass it there, or do this, do that, And I can't imagine playing Listen to all that.

Your guys must love the freedom that you give them.

Yeah, and that freedom's earned right every single day with just their process and practice and their work habits.

But it's a fun way to play.

Man.

What happens is, in my opinion, because defense and offense are super connected, so different than football, is that if you're connected on the offensive end, and you're moving and you're cutting and you're touching the ball, you'll give even a better effort on defense, in my opinion, because of your offensive.

Then you feel like you're a part of it all right, When you've won seventeen in a row, are you?

Are you by nature superstitious in any way?

Do you do you wear the same socks?

Is there anything going on that you'd like to publicly admit to From a superstition standpoint.

You know, so I do.

I have this blue shirt that I've been wearing underneath my quarter zip, and my wife last year's like, why are you wearing this?

It's not our color.

I said, listen, it's been work and we can't change it up now.

We got to keep it going.

I love that.

I love that last thought.

And you are.

You're not in the top twenty five today, you're close twenty nine.

I don't know why you're not.

But is that a does that bug you?

Is that a talking point?

Is it motivation?

Or is it just the rankings and they'll work themselves out?

You know, I think we use it as motivation.

Our guys have a chip on their shoulder.

There's no doubt in their mind that started from last year how the last year ended.

In the Mac Tournament Championship game, we've used the hashtag unfinished business a lot.

We've got a lot to proof, we get a lot to prove.

We want the whole world to see it.

Tomorrow night, Central Michigan at Mallette Place should be jumping.

Hey.

I know you're busy, and man, we're twenty four hours from game time.

I really appreciate you making time and always enjoy our conversations.

Hope we can do it again soon.

Absolutely, thanks for having me on.

Thanks Travis, There you go, Travis steel Head, coach seventeen in o Miami RedHawks, one of five remaining unbeatens in the country.

You know, it's not just a throw away line.

They're a good shooting team.

They're the best shooting team in the country.

Let me give you some numbers.

I like numbers.

They're shooting fifty three percent.

I think there's only I looked it up this morning.

I think there's only twenty five teams out of three hundred and fifty Division one that are at the fifty percent mark shooting from the field.

Miami is at fifty three percent on two point shots.

That means the percentage of shots taken inside of the three point line.

They are number two in the country.

On three point shots, they are number one in the country, and when standing at the free throw line, they are number eight in the country.

So recapping the best shooting team in the country second best from two, first best from three, best from three, and eighth at the free throw line and watching them, as I said, it is uncanny watching them pass to a from a good shot to a better shot, seemingly every single possession.

I know it's not everyone, it feels that way, and as he said, it showed a lot when they weren't shooting their their night.

They were off from shooting at thirty eight percent against Akron, and yet found a way to win the game Central Michigan Tomorrow night, twenty ninth Today, as mentioned in the AP Top twenty five