CORAL GABLES – Katie Meier’s practices at Miami all the time finish the identical method. Each participant and coach gathers across the midcourt circle, clasps the hand of the individual subsequent to them and somebody then quietly gives a couple of phrases from the guts.

It is about religion.

This season, Meier’s religion was examined. And rewarded.

For the primary time in additional than 30 years of school basketball – counting her time as a Duke participant, then an assistant coach at UNC Asheville and Tulane, then finally head coach at Charlotte and Miami – Meier is within the Candy 16. Miami (21-12), the No. 9 seed within the Greenville 2 Area, takes on No. 4 Villanova (30-6) on Friday.

“We speak about religion lots,” Meier – Katie to most, Kate to family and friends – mentioned after her Hurricanes stored their season alive by upsetting top-seeded Indiana within the second spherical. “Not religiously. I am speaking about religion, which is simply confidence with lots of persistence, and we wanted it. Your confidence can form of come and go, however religion has some persistence to it.”

Such is the story of Miami’s season.

It began ominously; Meier was suspended by the college for the primary three video games of the season in anticipation of NCAA sanctions associated to her serving to to rearrange impermissible contact between transfers Haley and Hanna Cavinder and a booster. The assembly occurred earlier than the Cavinders signed with the Hurricanes, and the ultimate agreed-upon penalty – primarily a yr of probation – marked the primary time the NCAA had levied sanctions associated to an investigation into identify, picture and likeness offers.

Those that know Meier finest have been livid that she was sanctioned. Religion, certainly, was examined. It was examined once more when Miami discovered itself on the NCAA bubble going into the match. Examined but once more when down by 17 on the half of the first-round sport towards Oklahoma State. Examined but once more when Indiana, on its house ground, has the ball for the final possession and an opportunity to tie or win the sport.

And Miami’s nonetheless standing.

“There’s one phrase that simply stands out to me: Perseverance,” mentioned Mike Lutzenkirchen, Meier’s brother-in-law. “Kate is such a deep thinker. She’s so intellectually sensible in the case of English, writing, and philosophy. I feel that win validates her perseverance and the way she would not coach these women she will get blessed to have on our group — however she will get to lift them by 4 or 5 years of their crucial age of life. It is the perseverance of succeeding by life’s challenges.”

Oh, and there have been many.

Meier by no means met her father; Gerry Meier, who performed for Ray Meyer at DePaul, died in a aircraft crash 4 months earlier than she was born. Meier grew to become a part of what she has typically referred to as “a Brady Bunch household,” one which was fashioned when her mom married a widowed man and every introduced 4 youngsters into the combination.

One other tragedy hit her household 9 years in the past. Meier wears a pin with “43″ on it to each sport – a nod to the jersey variety of her nephew Philip Lutzenkirchen, Mike’s son and a star tight finish at Auburn who died in June 2014 in a automotive crash through which he was not sporting a seat belt. The household shortly began the Lutzie 43 Basis in his reminiscence, attempting to encourage individuals to make higher choices as drivers and pals.

The Brady Bunch days fashioned her. Household, Meier discovered, is not all the time what you are born into, however who you like. Her gamers grow to be household yearly.

“She’s such a task mannequin, somebody you possibly can lean on, it doesn’t matter what,” Miami ahead Karla Erjavec mentioned. “You possibly can are available in, you possibly can cry in her workplace, you possibly can snigger in her workplace, she’s all the time going to be her genuine self.”

Meier did not want a Candy 16 to show something. She’s a previous Related Press nationwide coach of the yr, a previous USA Basketball coach of the yr, a member of the Miami Sports activities Corridor of Fame and the Corridor of Honor at Duke, her alma mater. Her legacy is safe.

However getting her to this stage additionally means lots to her group, particularly after the problem of this season.

“Studying about who she is, the competitor she is, you possibly can see why Miami was so engaging to us,” Hanna Cavinder mentioned.

Meier’s first NCAA Match sport was when she performed for Duke in 1987. She had what was then solely the fourth triple-double within the historical past of the ladies’s match and Duke rolled previous Manhattan. Within the second spherical two nights later, Duke misplaced.

Thus began the sample: The Candy 16, by some means, all the time escaped Meier’s attain.

As an assistant coach, Meier additionally was a part of groups that made the second spherical in 1997 and 2000. As a head coach, Meier had one other second-round likelihood in 2011. And 2012. And 2015. And 2017. And 2019. And 2022. By no means acquired the breakthrough.

Till now.

“We’re right here,” Miami ahead Lola Pendande mentioned. “We’re actually right here.”

Down 17 to Oklahoma State in Spherical 1, Miami pulled off a comeback so good it tied the fifth-biggest in NCAA ladies’s match historical past. It occurred after a halftime the place there have been loads of tears, none of them associated to what was occurring on the scoreboard.

“I am an emotional coach, if you have not seen, however I acquired teary-eyed to remind them when life will get arduous and would not look good, simply bear in mind this second,” Meier mentioned.

That second will not be forgotten. Nor will beating Indiana, on Future Harden’s shot within the remaining seconds. Clemson additionally occurred to win Monday evening, prevailing at house in a Girls’s NIT sport. Amanda Butler, certainly one of Meier’s former assistants and nonetheless somebody near the Miami coach, is coach at Clemson. Butler’s mom referred to as her to have a good time after that win.

“I am pleased with you,” she mentioned, “however I used to be watching Kate’s sport.”

Meier permits herself a postgame deal with solely after wins: Pizza. There was pizza on Saturday. There was pizza on Monday. Pizza on Friday would most likely characterize the most effective couple slices she’s ever had.

Religion can be rewarded, once more.

“For her to lastly get by to the Candy 16, with all of the challenges she had, and it occurs this yr,” Mike Lutzenkirchen mentioned. “Lots of religion went into this.”