Saint Louis and Miami (OH) have become College Basketball's saviors

While some of the most prestigious programs in college basketball battle for the designation of National Championship favorite, a pair of midwestern mid-majors are beginning to steal headlines. #18 Saint Louis has returned one of the sport's great characters back to the forefront, in the bespectacled point center Robbie Avila, who captured hearts in 2024, when he and his coach Josh Schertz nearly led Indiana State to the NCAA Tournament, before a historic crop of bid stealers delivered heartbreak and knocked the Sycamores out of the field.

After a mediocre first season at their new school, Schertz and Avila are joined by some familiar faces to fans of power conferences (Trey Green (formerly at Xavier), Brady Dunlap (St. John's), Dion Brown (Boston College), and Ishan Sharma (Virginia)), to go with a few homegrown stars. The Billikens would be undefeated, save for Stanford's Benny Gealer beating them on one of the most improbable shots of the season.

#23 Miami (Ohio) is indeed undefeated, reaching 25-0 following a blowout of Ohio in a game big enough to get flexed to ESPN. The Redhawks are trying to shake off an absolutely moribund history, one that includes no NCAA Tournament appearances since 2007, and no twenty-win seasons between 2000 and 2024. But things have turned around under coach Travis Steele, who is on a redemption arc of his own after being unceremoniously fired by Xavier in 2022, despite winning the NIT that year. It's a perfectly quirky, yet fantastic mid-major powerhouse, led by a big guard in Peter Suter who possesses an elite power forward's offensive skillset.

Both teams have to be mentioned in the opening sentences of any summary of what has been an utterly fantastic season so far in the college basketball world. From one of the greatest freshman classes of all-time to the elite programs battling at the top of the Big 12 and from the sudden rise of Nebraska to the same old excellence of Duke and UConn, it's the kind of season that reminds plenty of fans why they enjoy this sport to begin with.

In fact, how you feel about this season as a whole is likely to have been determined by why you became a college basketball fan in the first place. That's always somewhat true, but this year especially, core fan values are sometimes the sole driver of state of mind. The way I see it, just about all college basketball fandoms fit into one of three categories.

#1: A desire to watch the best, from the top prospects to the blue bloods to the championship contenders
#2: A passion for your school, whether an alma mater, a family connection or a local team
#3: Wanting to witness the improbable upsets and seasons that can never happen in any other sport

If you are here because of reason #1, then chances are you have been absolutely thrilled throughout this season. Thanks to this legendary group of freshmen (Boozer, Dybantsa, Wilson, Flemings, Wagler, Ament, Okorie, Brown Jr, sometimes Peterson and more that I haven't even gotten to), twelve legitimately elite teams and the deepest talent pool of all time, the top of the sport has never been in a better place. In fact, let's see if one of the most thoughtful journalists in the sport happens to agree.

DeCourcy is absolutely right, if you are looking through that national lens, it is a great time to be a fan of reason #1. And for those brought by reason #2 who happen to support one of the thirty or so best programs in the country, things are going pretty swimmingly.

But this leaves a lot of fans behind, and for those who passionately root for the three hundred plus other teams, consternation bubbles up as often or more often than joy. For those drawn to college basketball for reason #3, they are left to wonder if the days of 2006 George Mason or 2018 UMBC are completely gone, after no teams outside of the power conferences even made it to the Sweet 16 last season.

To make matters worse, there is the never-ending swirl of rumors that the major football schools may just break off and form their own league apart from the NCAA and its hundreds of other members. They dream of a chance to make all sports look like football, which no longer deserves the label of a "college" sport, since it has truly morphed into an exclusive semi-pro league accessible only to those with a power-conference membership and deep pockets.

Thankfully, football did not have to go very far to enter into this world, and the pathway for say, Kentucky, Kansas and Duke, to transition from modern college basketball to a new era semi-pro system is still a treacherous one. That is, as long as impediments stand in their way each March.

Which brings it all back to where I started. Saint Louis and Miami are perfectly positioned to be the impediments that were completely non-existent in 2025. The sporting public is desperate for the fantastic underdog story that has been missing, not just in college basketball, but American sports in totality, since Oakland's one night of fame amidst their upset of Kentucky in 2024.

For Saint Louis, that means putting their hyper-efficient brand of basketball on display for the world for as long as possible. The Billikens not only play an objectively beautiful offense centered on a college basketball Unicorn in Robbie Avila, but they also produce results: they shoot two-pointers closer to the rim than any other team in the country and rank second in the nation in effective field goal percentage. Meanwhile, their unheralded defense is number one in the country in effective field goal percentage.

Saint Louis takes and makes a lot of good shots, and forces their opponents into a lot of bad shots. It's a strategy that can serve them well on the biggest stage. After back-to-back years of Elite 8s filled solely by power conference teams, they have the best chance of anyone to break that streak. Saint Louis doesn't need to go to the Final 4 (or even to the Elite 8 for that matter). An upset victory in Round 2, one that would give the nation a chance to fall in love with the Billikens and the quirky, yet charming, personalities of their coach and star player over a few days (the hypothetical Josh Schertz interview with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter that night would be must-watch) would suffice.

For Miami, they are six games away from becoming the sixth team to finish a regular season undefeated since 1976, when Indiana completed the last fully undefeated season. The other five in between all played in better conferences than the MAC and earned themselves #1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. That won't happen for the Redhawks, thanks to the 312th-ranked schedule in the nation (per Kenpom), a lone signature win over Akron, and a lot of very close victories as of late.

But if they do finish the regular season at 31-0 and join that historic company, none of the caveats matter at that point, since an undefeated season is unassailably great and memorable, regardless of the competition. But truly silencing the haters will be a two-part challenge, as winning a Round 1 NCAA Tournament game would forever end all of the ifs, ands or buts that are currently attached to Miami, and simply etch them into our memories, weird stats and highlight packages forever.

From there, we can sit back, relax and see which powerhouse program eventually comes out on top. But we will be to do so while knowing beyond a doubt that the story of how we got there was a properly illustrative and memorable one.

Each passing year that fails to meet that simple standard threatens to drive this wonderfully diverse sport away from college basketball for all and to become solely an NBA feeder basketball for blue bloods. Sure, the quality of play will still be terrific, but the enjoyment will be pitifully weakened. Saint Louis and Miami's players didn't set out to be heroes for the sport, but with each game they win, they move closer to it. To create the best version of college basketball moving forward, it is essential that 2026 Saint Louis and/or 2026 Miami (Ohio) become a team remembered forever. It is essential for them to be remembered as a crucial part of the story of the 2026 season, to remind the power brokers of the sport that they still very much need their mid-major counterparts.