Miami (Ohio) head coach Travis Steele says he hasn’t been superstitious during the RedHawks’ 22-0 run, a streak that has them sitting alongside No. 1 Arizona as the final two unbeaten teams of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season.

When pressed, though, he acknowledged he wears lucky shirts to every game, at the request of his 3-year-old daughter.

“She loves my shirts that I wear underneath my quarter zip,” Steele said. “I’ve got a Skyline Chili shirt and I’ve got an Ultimate Warrior T-shirt. She likes that.”

His players? Well, they make no such claim.

Senior guard Peter Suder, an All-Mid-American selection last season, is particular about what he puts on his feet every night.

“They’re washed, but I wear the same game socks every single time, regardless,” he said.

Brant Byers, reigning MAC Freshman of the Year, can’t play a game until he scarfs down a bunch of candy before tipoff. Jolly Rancher, Life Savers, anything sweet.

“A bag, a midsized bag that you can get at the gas station,” he said. “Usually, I’ll eat the whole bag.”

Junior guard Eian Elmer‘s superstition is more costly. The James Harden Volume 9 Adidas shoes he wears during games retail for nearly $200 online. Elmer started the season with eight pairs; now he’s down to six. Why? Because if he has a bad game, he refuses to play in those shoes again, choosing to give them away instead. During his worst effort of the season — he finished 0-for-4 shooting against Central Michigan on Jan. 13 — Elmer (11.6 points per game) even ditched an orange pair at halftime.

“I had two bad games in them,” he said. “It was time to give them up.”

For Miami this season, even a bad game has resulted in a victory.

A year after the RedHawks lost to Akron — and to Steele’s half-brother, Zips head coach John Groce — in the MAC tournament championship game, they’re chasing an unblemished season and the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007.

At No. 23 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, Miami leads the nation in scoring (93.7 PPG) and field goal percentage (53.4%). The RedHawks are also top 25 in 3-point (37.9%) and 2-point (62.6%) shooting. They hold the longest winning streak in MAC history thanks to the chemistry of a roster that returned its best players from last season and the players’ ability to quickly turn the page after each victory.

Up next (6:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday, ESPN+) is a Buffalo team that nearly ended the perfect season in overtime two weeks ago (a 105-102 Miami win) — and one loss could spoil any shot the RedHawks have at an earning at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, instead requiring a conference tournament title to secure a berth on Selection Sunday.

Twenty-two games in, though, the campus in Oxford, Ohio, is abuzz about basketball.

Tickets to Miami’s 2024-25 season opener against Wright State sold for $13. Attendance for that game at Millett Hall, the RedHawks’ home arena, was reported at just north of 2,000 — about 20% of the building’s capacity. As of this writing, a ticket for the team’s next home game against rival Ohio on Feb. 13 can’t be found for less than $100. (One of the few remaining courtside seats would cost you $514 on StubHub.) And an attendance record of 10,640 was set at last Saturday’s win over Northern Illinois.

“To have the crowd that we had last game is something that we’re not even used to really, but it adds another element to the games and makes them even more fun than what they had been in the past,” said Byers, whose 15.4 points per game lead the team. “I know there were a few games last year where we were probably pushing a thousand fans.

“It’s really wild to go from a completely quiet gym to a packed, loud gym.”

After leading for most of last season’s MAC tournament title game, Miami saw Akron come back from an 18-point deficit, losing on a shot by former Zips star Nate Johnson with 2.3 seconds to play. Some returning players watched that film a dozen times. Others stayed off social media so they wouldn’t have to see it. But they all agreed on one thing: They wanted another shot.

“I know we’d just gone through probably the worst thing a team could go through basically, but we still felt the connectivity with us,” Suder said. “I think I was the first one to talk to [Steele] within a week and I told him within 10 seconds of our [individual] meeting that I don’t want to leave, I want to come back. And then I told him to tell all of the players in their meetings.”

That decision created a domino effect, and other top players agreed to return, giving Miami continuity few teams in America can match — the sixth-most returning minutes (62%), per KenPom. The RedHawks understand and trust one another. They know one another’s tendencies on the court.

That’s how they are in position to chase a dream.

“I’m really proud and happy for [Steele],” said Wally Szczerbiak, a second-team All-American selection who led the school to the Sweet 16 in 1999. “They have done it the right way through player development and hard work. The team is connected and very close off the court, which shows up in pressure, clutch situations on the court. Miami is a special place with special people walking around on that campus and it’s great to see them going to games to enjoy the ride.”

Amid the newfound hype, Steele has preached keeping focus on the road ahead instead of the rearview mirror. The RedHawks have used that mentality to navigate close games, three of which have been decided by five points or fewer, including two in overtime.

The players point to their connectedness for allowing them to stay honest with one another and play through adversity. Over the summer, they had heated on-court battles in pickup games — which Byers characterized as “probably too intense at times” — after their MAC tournament loss. The RedHawks knew how close they were to their goals. But Steele doesn’t want them to get caught up in the possibility of perfection, or the potential consequences of failing to achieve it.

“My biggest thing for us is that we can always control our own destiny,” Steele said. “I know this: If we win three games in three days in Cleveland [at the MAC tournament], we’ll get the automatic bid regardless of what happens.

“That’s where my mind keeps on going back to and it’s like, ‘How can we peak at the right time? How can we get our team to play the best that it can possibly play in March?’ I’m not as consumed with our record.”