Meier sets Miami’s all-time basketball wins record — men and women — with win vs. JSU
When the clock finally ran out on the Jackson State Tigers’ upset bid Tuesday and Katie Meier could finally exhale, she and her Miami Hurricanes gathered at midcourt. They formed a circle on the giant “U” at the Watsco Center, and a typical postgame chat turned into a chance for hugs. She didn’t want Miami’s 72-67 win to be all about her, but what choice did she have? The win was her 304th with the Hurricanes — more than any other men’s or women’s basketball coach in school history — and it was time to celebrate her.
Meier walked over to the scorer’s table to talk about the accomplishment and her team stayed on the court while the alma mater played, then turned around and applauded their coach when it ended. She looked up at the big screen where a video played of all Miami’s other coaches congratulating her — “You are simply the best,” Jim Larranaga said in his prerecorded message — and laughed at the pomp and circumstance of it all. Blake James gave her a commemorative trophy and then, finally, her players got to mob her one more time.
“Their off-court chemistry and the way we run our program like a family really showed,” Meier said. “You’ve got first-year players that are jumping up and down like they’ve played for me for four years. That really means a lot.”
In nearly two decades with the Hurricanes, Meier has put together an unparalleled resume in the history of the program. on the first day of her 17th season in Coral Gables, she got the win to prove it, passing Ferne Labati, her predecessor, for the most by any basketball coach in school history and it’s a crown she should hold for a long time. Larranaga, the 72-year-old men’s basketball coach, entered Tuesday with 200 wins at Miami.
“It really is amazing. I’ve said it before, but do the most of anything in history as a coach, then you’ve got the most support,” Meier said. “It means somebody behind the scenes is making big-time decisions to keep you around, to give you what you think you need to sustain a program. Miami’s done that for me.”
The Hurricanes did not, however, make it easy. Miami (1-0) led by as much as 17 in the first, but found itself tied 63-63 with less than 2:30 to go. The Hurricanes took a 63-51 lead with 7:23 remaining before Jackson State (0-1) stormed back with a 12-0 run in a little more than five minutes. Miami had been sloppy and inefficient — the Hurricanes turned the ball over 19 times and shot just 36.5 percent — and needed to fix it in the last 180 seconds.
Mykea Gray was the steadying presence they needed, even though she only scored six points all night. She set up fellow guard Kelsey Marshall for a go-ahead three-pointer from the left wing with 2:03 left, then set up forward Naomi Mbandu for another on her sixth-and-final assist to push the lead to 69-65 with 1:30 left. It was enough to finally push the Tigers out of reach.
Marshall finished with 19 points to lead the Hurricanes and forward Lola Pendade added 12.
Meier even took more than two minutes to address the milestone during her postgame press conference, using her entire opening statement to break down the narrow non-conference win.
The only time during the game she thought about the accomplishment, she said, was when she looked up into the crowd right before tipoff and saw Labati sitting in the stands. For the next few hours, she was locked into a tightly fought contest, trying to make sure her Hurricanes wouldn’t let a season-opening win slip away.
For the rest of the year, she’ll take the same approach, too. With Meier at the helm, the last decade was the best in the history of the program, with seven trips to the NCAA tournament in eight years from 2011-2018, but the Hurricanes haven’t been back since. Miami keeps giving her the chance to build up a program and, more often than not, she has delivered.
“It’s just the longevity of it all, which is not then therefore my honor,” Meier said. “I just give it back to the people who said, Yes, to some of my visions and, Yes, to some of my goals and, Yes, to some of my dreams.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 6:55 PM.
