The transfer portal opened April 7, the day after the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, but that was only the official opening date. For coaches, the work started much earlier.
“You had to do your work before the portal opened,” Miami RedHawks coach Travis Steele said, “and you had to be super organized. You had to have all your Zoom calls scheduled and visits as well. You had to be really planned out.”
Steele talked to Cox First Media about what a typical day during portal season was like for his coaches. The conversation took place Monday, April 13, after he spoke to the Dayton Agonis Club at the Presidential Banquet Center in Kettering.
At that point, Steele told members of the club his staff was almost done with recruiting the portal this season. The coaches had secured one commitment from {span}University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee transfer Stevie Elam{/span} and received another the next day from Ball State transfer Preston Copeland.
For weeks leading up to the official opening date of portal season, the coaches heard names of players planning to enter the portal, watched film on those players and analyzed the data related to those players.
Steele said the coaches would look at the options and ask, “Do we have a connection of some sort to his family or his coaches or somebody in the circle?”
At the same time, the coaches were trying to figure out who was staying with the RedHawks for the 2026-27 season.
“You’ve got to figure out who’s in and who’s out and what do you need,” Steele said, “because I think retention is at a premium, and then it happens quickly. Honestly, you’re working 20- or 21-hour days during those couple of weeks.”
That hard work came after the grind of a 34-game season that saw Miami win 32 times. Steele considers it the most important time of the year for his program.
“Some places have GMs, but I’m the head coach and GM,” Steele said. “You go from coaching to playing the GM role. It’s fun, though, I think, in a lot of ways. You get to navigate it a little bit. I enjoy it. I know a lot of coaches don’t.”
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Steele could add speech writer to his coaching and general manager duties. He entertained the Agonis Club, which bills itself as “a club {span}for former athletes and sports enthusiasts,” for close to 50 minutes.{/span}
The club meets weekly and hears from “{span}local and nationally recognized personalities from various sports.” The list of famous speakers is a long one. Bobby Knight,{/span} Red Auerbach and Bob Huggins are among the many prominent names from the basketball side who have spoken to the club, which was founded in 1932.
Steele couldn’t remember if he had spoken to the club three or four times, but this was his first speech after a historic season that saw Miami set a school record for victories.
When he first spoke to the Agonis Club, Steele told members of his vision for Miami basketball, and it was the same plan he laid out for Miami Athletic Director David Sayler.
“I told him, ‘The first two years are gonna be tough, but in Year 3, we’d have a chance to win a championship. In Year 4, we would be better. Year 5 would be better. Year 6 would be better.”
That’s how it has played out so far. Steele’s program has improved its win total each season: from 12-20 to 15-17 to 25-9 to 32-2.
Steele is 84-48 in four seasons at Miami. In his first head coaching job at Xavier, he was 70-50 in four seasons.
“I think the Miami brand is what ultimately landed my family and I at Miami,” Steele said. “We knew how strong it was. It’s just like picking stocks. I love the stock market. We bought low.
“Miami had not been very good for quite some time — men’s basketball-wise. It still was the all-time winningest program in the MAC. It just had not been done in a while.”