After a 21-11 regular season and ACC tournament, the Miami Hurricanes are going dancing, having been selected to play in the 2017 NCAA Basketball Tournament.

With several key wins to their credit (UNC, Duke, UVA) and an ACC tournament win over Syracuse, Miami’s status as an NCAA team was set for a couple of weeks. Today, during the NCAA tournament selection show, Miami was announced as the 8th seed in the Midwest Region.

The 8th seed in the Midwest region, Miami will open their tournament run by facing 9th seeded Michigan State Spartans (19-14).

Miami has had several big wins on the year, but some losses as well. The Canes have the potential to make some noise in the NCAA tournament, if they play their A game. I was having a discussion on Twitter the other day about the Canes’ hoops future for this season, and the key will be finding a way to win a game in which they don’t play to their full potential.

With a limited number of available players, Miami will lean on stars like Bruce Brown, Davon Reed, and Ja’Quan Newton — yes, even him — to lead the team to victory.

While you want to be focused on the opponent in front of you, Miami has an interesting “pod” for the first 2 rounds of the tournament. If they beat Michigan State, that would set up a game against #1 seed Kansas (no #1 seed has ever lost an opening NCAA game so yes, I’m putting them into the 2nd round).

Miami’s calling card is their defense, and that is something that will, hopefully, travel with them during the NCAA tournament. If it does, Miami has a chance to advance to the 2nd weekend of the tournament for the 3rd time in the last 5 years.

Stay tuned to SOTU through the course of the week as we’ll break down all the aspects of Miami’s trip to the NCAA tournament. You can see the full NCAA Bracket below:

Go Canes