While University of Miami football and baseball are widely mentioned along with the nation's powerhouses, the basketball program barely registered a blip on the national radar screen until Hamilton's recent run of success. And a few good seasons, he soberly points out, does not a basketball program make. Kentucky, Connecticut, North Carolina, to name a few. Programs such as these are successful year in and year out. They are driven by tradition.
Success breeds success.
The top programs can woo the top prospects by showing off their collection of championship banners and alumni who've made it to the professional ranks. In their debut season, coach Art Webb's team finished with a record of 7-1, averaging 44 points per game, while surrendering just over 21. Hurricane basketball first cracked the ranks of the nation's elite in the late 1950s, earning its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1960. But in 1971, the program was disbanded. After years of lobbying by alumni and community leaders, it was revived in 1985.