This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
31-0: That was the headline-grabbing regular season record of the 2025-26 Miami RedHawks NCAA Division I basketball team. We’re talking about the first Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, and founded in 1809. Not Miami of Florida, a college launched in 1925
A large chunk of credit for the RedHawks’ remarkable run belongs to Head Coach Travis Steele and how he optimizes performance with the mental approach he trains. Steele was the much-deserved recipient of the 2026 John McLendon National Coach-of-the-Year Award, honoring the top head coach across all levels of collegiate basketball.
“I find this stuff (the mental game) fascinating,” Steele shared in a recent interview conducted for this post. “If you can get guys to play at their peak level, man, you’re going to be really good. I’ve seen talented guys that don’t believe in themselves, and they stink. I’ve seen average players that have a high level of belief in themselves, and they’re really good.”
The difference stems from their mental approach to practice, performance, and competition.
“We [coaches] all talk about the X’s and O’s, and I could talk basketball all day long,” Steele continued. “But then you go back to the ‘why?’ piece. ‘Why can this guy have the belief, and the other guy doesn’t?’ Maybe they don’t embrace the process. Maybe they don’t handle adversity. And then how can we help them in an area, like the mental toughness piece, to overcome adversity?
“That, to me, is coaching,” Steele summarized.
The Miami Mindset
Bo Schembechler, Ara Parseghian, Woody Hayes, Paul Brown, Sean McVay, Weeb Ewbank, Carmen Cozza, John Harbaugh, Walter Alston, John Pont, and Paul Dietzel: Legendary, Hall-of-Fame sports coaches, all with the common denominator of Miami University, regarded in the sports world as the “Cradle of Coaches.”
Deriving from those coaching greats is the Miami Mindset, a set of four core values, fine-tuned by Steele, that defines the RedHawk basketball mental approach. Here’s a list of those Miami Mindset core values:
- Compete at every moment.
- Carry your brother.
- Embody undeniable confidence.
- Strive for magis (Latin for “more”).
“We try to basically make our core values come to life rather than just being words on a wall,” Steele explained. “If we embody our four core values, that’s what we call the Miami Mindset.”
A Two-Part Exploration
Effectively reviewing Steele’s version of the Miami Mindset would be too exhaustive for this one post. A follow-up post will delve into a detailed examination of the Miami Mindset’s four core values and how Steele trains and instills them in his players.
Stay tuned for a deep dive into the Miami Mindset with Coach Steele.
