We all figured Miami would likely be far away from Coral Gables for the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, but not only will the Hurricanes be on the road, they will be playing a true road game.
The selection committee decided to use Miami to create a potential bracket-busting situation by pitting the No. 7 seed against No. 10 seed Missouri ... in St. Louis.
That seems a little unfair...right?
7-seed Miami going to St. Louis (which is in Missouri, last I checked) to play 10-seed Missouri.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) March 15, 2026
I feel like the analysts who didn't want Miami in the CFP set that one up.
Miami gets no luck by drawing Missouri in St. Louis
Occasionally, the NCAA tournament bracket will throw a bone in terms of location to a double-digit seed, usually a mid-major team. When Richmond beat Syracuse in 1991, becoming the first No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2, they played the game in College Park, Maryland, about two hours from Richmond.
The idea is simple: give the little guy a fighting chance and reward the fans of a smaller school with the assumption the power program will win anyway, and their fans can catch them in the second weekend. But Missouri isn't a little guy. It's a damn SEC program, the conference that sent 10 teams to the tournament.
There is a silver lining here: Miami is a pretty good road team. The Hurricanes have won in some tough environments, like N.C. State and Florida State in February when the Seminoles were starting to gel. They also won at SMU, the last at-large team in the field. And to Jai Lucas' credit, he wants all the smoke.
“For us, it’s business as usual. We’ll play road games, and this is a road game,” Lucas said. “We’ve been in environments before like this, so we’ll just go and do what we do. What we do kind of travels. We play a certain brand of basketball."
Lucas isn't wrong. Miami is big, strong and physical and nothing travels better than hard work in the paint. Still, it would be much nicer if the Hurricanes were playing in Tampa this weekend.