CLEVELAND -- No. 20 Miami (Ohio) suffered its first defeat with a shocking 87-83 loss to UMass in its first game of the Mid-American Conference tournament Thursday, spoiling the last perfect record in Division I men's basketball.
Daniel Hankins-Sanford made a tiebreaking layup with 29 seconds remaining, and the Minutemen escaped with a victory in a quarterfinal game that had 12 lead changes and 10 ties.
The RedHawks (31-1) were the fifth men's Division I program this century to go undefeated during the regular season. Now, it's the second to get tripped up in its conference tournament. St. Joseph's lost to Xavier in the 2004 Atlantic 10 quarterfinals but was still a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Miami was the first squad since Gonzaga in 2020-21 to not have a loss going into a conference tournament.
Jim Boeheim defended Adrian Autry as "a good coach," saying his dismissal from Syracuse was a result of poor performance by the Orange's best players and lack of NIL funding for the program.
Syracuse fired Autry on Wednesday, ending the former Orange player's three-year tenure as Boeheim's coaching successor. The Orange went 15-17 this season and failed to reach the NCAA tournament under Autry.
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