NCAA Tournament - The U isn't just football - Miami men's and women's basketball are in the Elite 8 March Madness

Jim Larranaga and Katie Meier have each been at Miami for over a decade, the clear, recognizable faces of programs that always find a way to delight and surprise, and yes, establish the Hurricanes as a basketball school.

They have provided not only stability but also a clear identity for their respective teams born out of the same mindset and mentality: toughness, grit and relentless determination, no matter the odds.

While their teams' runs to the Elite Eight might feel improbable considering where they were seeded headed into the tournament (the men at No. 5, the women at No. 9), Larranaga and Meier have worked hard to earn this moment at a school that does not get nearly the same attention as others within the ACC.

Larranaga has been here before, of course, taking the men to the Elite Eight a season ago — a first in program history. Now this year, Meier has led the women to their first Elite Eight in program history. That they are here together is worth celebrating and embracing, despite being some 900 miles apart at their respective tournament sites in Greenville, South Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri.

The men's team watched the women beat Villanova on Friday to advance to the Elite Eight, hours before tipoff of their own game against Houston. Then the Miami women watched the men close out the top-seeded Cougars to join them in the next round.

«I think it's a really, really big deal,» Meier said Saturday. «The two programs have a lot in common. We're very competitive, like a big brother/little sister or big sister/little brother, depending on who won that week. We get that way with each other, and I love it. Any opportunity you have to have somebody push you, whether you're on the training table next to somebody,