And from the opening tip of Friday night’s nationally-televised game against Ball State at Millett Hall, the RedHawks little-used but much-respected graduate guard – who’s been on a basketball odyssey since graduating from Bishop Fenwick High five years ago – said his Miami teammates did everything possible to make that happen:
“They were really looking for me at the start of the game. They wanted me to shoot it.”
And shoot, he did.
Just 14 seconds into the game, he hit a jump shot just outside the paint. A minute and a half later he made his first three-pointer and not long after that he scored on a fastbreak layup off a Cardinals’ turnover.
In less than 3½ minutes, Luers had outscored Ball State 7-0.
He had all Miami’s points at the onset.
With just under 5 minutes left in the half – and Miami leading 30-12 – he had scored 12 points.
He ended the night with 18 points in Miami’s 79-66 victory.
“It was just amazing,” said Dan’s dad, Pat Luers, a University of Dayton grad who runs BrightStar Care, a home health care business in the Dayton area. “It was an absolute story book.”
It was Senior Night and before the game Pat and his wife Kelly, a French teacher at Fenwick who also runs the school’s theater program, accompanied their 6-foot-5 son onto the court to be honored.
He’ll finish his master’s degree in the spring after getting his undergrad degree at Eastern Illinois University, where he played and started much of the past three seasons.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Coming out of high school he said he had no Division I offers and ended up at Defiance College, an NAIA school, where his initial 2020-21 season was limited to just seven games because the first two-thirds of the schedule was cancelled due to COVID precautions.
With a chance to move up to Division I, he transferred to Eastern Illinois in the Ohio Valley Conference and started 53 of 84 games for the Panthers over three seasons.
After last year, he entered the transfer portal and Miami coach Travis Steele – who was the Xavier head coach when Luers won Greater Catholic League second team honors at Fenwick and whose Miami team played Eastern Illinois last season – wanted him to join his team of young players and a few other transfers because he thought he would be a stabilizing presence.
He was that – and much more – in what has been a record-setting season for the 23-8 RedHawks.
The team has several standout players, but Luers’ work was mostly done, not in the spotlight, but in the practice gym and the dressing room and then on the bench during games.
The other players appreciate what he’s done for them. They knew he sacrificed his playing time to mentor them and make their time on the court more productive.
And that’s why they wanted him to have a moment of glory Friday night in a game which included an ESPNU broadcast and a home crowd of 7,893, Millett’s largest of the season.
When he was taken out of the game with 2:08 left, Luers received a standing ovation from the crowd.
He was met at the bench by Steele, who gave him a big hug and he then was embraced by each of his teammates as he walked past them toward the end of the bench.
“When he got in the dressing room, the other players drenched him with water and cheered him,” Pat said. “That shows you how close this team is. It shows you what they’re all about.”
Creating a buzz
Steele said people outside the program might not understand the heartfelt response Luers got from his teammates Friday night:
“From a fan’s perspective or maybe the outside world, he hasn’t played that much so people don’t understand the impact he has had on our program. He’s a big reason we’ve been able to turn our program around this season.”
For the first time in several years there’s a buzz around Miami basketball.
Friday night’s win in the regular season finale gave the RedHawks 23 victories. That tied the program record for most wins in a regular season.
In dispatching Ball State – which never led and trailed by as many as 28 early in the second half – the RedHawks extended their home winning streak to 15 games. That’s the most ever in one season.
The only loss this year came in the home opener to Wright State, 81-68.
Miami’s 2,513 points this season – the RedHawks average 81.1 ppg – is the most in program history. Their 14 -4 record in the Mid-American Conference is the most league wins since 2005.
And their No. 2 seed in the upcoming MAC Tournament in Cleveland is their highest seed since 1997.
The superlatives come because Miami has a deep team with a lot of prolific scorers.
Six different players have scored at least 20 points in a game this season. Kam Craft and Pete Suder both scored 40 or more in a game this season. Kraft led the RedHawks Friday night with 19.
The high-powered offense gave them some cache when it came to national television interest and it’s why folks in Oxford – prompted by Miami President Greg Crawford, who provided anyone in the community with 10 free tickets to Friday’s game – have shown renewed interest in the program, which has had just one winning record (12-11 four seasons ago) in the past 15 years.
“He really cares”
Luers was interested in Miami because he wanted to work on his masters there, liked that he’d be closer to home and because “I liked what the coaches were selling.”
Since taking over three seasons ago, Steele has been upgrading the program.
This season, along with adding three transfers all who are stalwarts in the starting lineup – Craft came from Xavier, Suder from Bellarmine and Antwone Woolfolk from Rutgers – he had a bevy of promising freshman and sophomores.
“I told Dan during the recruiting process that we needed an older voice, someone who had played a lot of college basketball,” Steele said. “And day to day, he’s been a leader for us.”
Steele talked about his toughness, his competitiveness and what “a (expletive) in a good way” he is for them. He said he holds people accountable and makes them better:
“He really cares.”
Just before the start of the season the team chose Luers as one of its three captains. And he’s taken that job seriously.
“You see him put his arm around a freshman like Luke Skaljac or help (redshirt freshman) Brant Byers, ”He’s almost like a coach in a lot of ways.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Steele said the players respect him because they know the sacrifices he’s made.
Before Friday night – when he started and played 27 minutes – he had played in just nine games this season.
He had one other big outing against his old school, Defiance, scoring 20 points in what was a crushing mismatch, 141-58.
The rest of the season he’d scored 24 points and had played sparingly in just four games since the start of MAC play on January 4th.
“The thing is, he’s a good player,” Steele said. “He can play. He showed that tonight. He’s made a ton of sacrifices to make us better.
“I always point to Dan and say, ‘If he can sacrifice, then anyone on the team can sacrifice.’ He’s a great example for the other players.”
Steele believes Luers is going to be successful no matter what he does in life:
“He can be a beach volleyball player, or go be a plumber or a financial advisor. He would be a great coach. He’ll be successful because of what he does on a day-to-day basis.”
That’s why the RedHawks celebrated Luers' success Friday night.
And it’s why, up in the Millett stands, his parents beamed.
“There’s nothing better than this,” Pat said. “I just thank God for the opportunity to be able to watch our son out there tonight. It’s hard to put into words how blessed I feel.
“What happened tonight was really special.”
It was a night the Miami RedHawks paid back one of their own.
It was, as Pat said, “an absolute story book.”
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