Know your foe -- Charlie Coles

[DevilGrad]

I'm jumping ahead a little here, but as a dual-loyalist for next week (Miami undergrad and, well, see post name), you are in for a real treat as Charlie Coles visits Cameron. For my money, he is one of the great, underappreciated old-school mid-major coaches out there. Even better from the Crazies' perspective, he loves to banter with the crowd -- even during games. (He is an "honorary member" of Ohio University's O-Zone student section.)

To give you a sense of who this guy is you could read his official bio (link 1). But you may do even better to watch the video attached to the Cincinnati Enquirer article linked below (link 2) or re-read Grant Wahl's profile from SI (link 3), both of which show Charlie in the classroom. As best we can tell, he's the last coach in Division I who also teaches a class. And, for a good laugh, check out his post-game press conference after the Kentucky game last year (link 4).

Under Coach Coles, Miami has played murderous non-conference schedules nearly every year, and his overall winning percentage likely has suffered as a result. But the guy lives and breathes hoops and wouldn't have it any other way.

Enjoy the game. This one will be a lot of fun for me.

Link 1: http://www.muredhawks.com/sports/m-b...charlie00.html
Link 2: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...+Miami+s+coach
Link 3: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...7530/index.htm
Link 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnilJdwyPRs

[DevilGrad]

Miami won its season opener on Friday night over Towson 60-57. That's a very typical score for a RedHawks game. They win about 90% of the time when holding teams to 58 or less and rarely win games played in the 70s or above.

A couple of our newcomers played well, and Charlie appears to be in mid-season fretting form.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...s-Towson-60-57