9-seed Miami knocks off Villanova to reach first Elite Eight

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Miami coach Katie Meier was so excited to celebrate a historic win, she accidentally forgot to shake hands with Villanova coach Denise Dillon after the Hurricanes' 70-65 win on Friday put them in the Elite Eight for the first time in school history.

Meier made sure to find Dillon in the hallway after the teams cleared the floor to apologize. She then tried to put into words just how much it means to not only her, but her players, to make it as far as they have — as a No. 9 seed.

First, Miami needed a 17-point second-half comeback to knock off Oklahoma State in the opening round. Then the Hurricanes pulled off a stunner two days later, beating No. 1 seed Indiana 70-68.

Then against Villanova, Miami blew a 21-point lead, only to get it back again in the closing minute to close out a third straight win. The Hurricanes are the fifth team seeded No. 9 or lower to make it to the Elite Eight. And their combined margin of victory in three games is eight points, the smallest margin of victory through the first three games in NCAA tournament history.

«I can't believe it,» Meier said. «I'm not going to act cool. This is awesome. Somebody asked me was that Indiana win the biggest of your career and I just wouldn't answer that question because I just thought no.… We still had another big win ahead of us and so this is — I'm not going to say this is the biggest win in our career, either.

»I'm just not, right? We're going to keep pushing. We're going to keep plugging. We're going to keep preparing to win."

What has transformed Miami over the last three weeks seems hard to believe, considering where the Hurricanes were after a disappointing 68-42 loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament March 3. Since then, they