This season, the Miami University RedHawks men’s basketball team earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007, ending a 19-year drought. A complete overhaul of the program made this possible for the RedHawks. For nearly everyone on staff, this was their first experience with the Big Dance.
For assistant coach Carl Richburg, March Madness was familiar territory.
Richburg was part of the 2006-07 squad that won the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship but later fell to the University of Oregon Ducks in the First Round.
He has an extensive coaching tenure, and previously assisted an NCAA tournament team at two separate schools: Marquette University in 2022 and the University of Missouri in 2018. After graduating from Miami in 2009, he spent time at multiple programs before returning to the RedHawks in 2022 for Travis Steele’s first year at the helm.
Richburg, who played basketball for Mason High School, didn’t receive an offer to Miami at first. However, his introduction to head coach Charlie Coles would earn him a spot with the RedHawks after playing one year at the University of South Indiana.
“My last game in high school was actually at Millett; we lost on a last-second shot,” Richburg said. “I had a really good game in front of coach Coles. I didn’t get a Miami offer out of high school. I was like, ‘Man, I had a great game.’ The team that we lost to went on to win the state championship.”
When he transferred to Miami, Richburg became close with Coles, who acted as his mentor. The coach inspired Richburg to pursue the same profession.
“He knew everything and everybody,” Richburg said. “He had a way of gaining your attention. You talk to him one time, and you feel like you knew him forever. I remember the impact that he had on my life, and I was hoping that one day I can have that type of impact on someone.”
Richburg returned to Mason High School as an assistant basketball coach after graduating from Miami. Within three years, he jumped to the collegiate level as an assistant coach with Thomas More College, and later, Central Methodist University. At the former, he helped the team set a program record with 23 wins in his only year with the team.
After two years with Central Methodist, Richburg took a brief hiatus from coaching and became an assistant academic counselor for student athletes with the University of Michigan. However, Richburg said within a month at the new position, he realized his true calling and simultaneously coached at Washtenaw Community College.
Richburg became a graduate assistant at the University of Missouri, where he coached standout players like Jontay Porter and Michael Porter Jr. He was a member of the 2017-18 team that went 20-13 and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Alabama A&M was his next stop. He spent three years as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs. He returned to the Midwest two years later as the director of recruiting for the Marquette University men’s basketball team. In his one year with the program, he coached at his second March Madness game when Marquette faced the University of North Carolina in the First Round of the 2021-22 tournament.
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In the 12 years since he’d graduated, Richburg coached at seven different universities in multiple different capacities. When Steele arrived as the new head coach in 2022 and began building his coaching staff, Richburg became an automatic addition because of the pair’s prior experience in the Big East when Richburg was at Marquette and Steele at Xavier University.
“I was kind of in limbo a little bit, just trying to see what he was going to say back because there was so much going on,” Richburg said. “But when he officially offered me, it didn’t take me long at all to decide to come. We had discussions about it, but once I got the actual offer, it was a no-brainer for me.”
Richburg started his tenure with Miami as the director of basketball operations. Coming from his role as director of recruiting while at Marquette, Richburg used his talent evaluation skills to help recruit a strong freshman class going into the 2023-24 season.
“He brings great energy,” Steele said. “I think you gravitate towards him with his personality. He’s very engaging, he’s a good listener, and he’s a chameleon: He can speak your language a little bit, so to speak. He has a great understanding of his audience, of who he’s talking to, and that ability to connect, not just talk with people, is the key to communication.”
Richburg moved to an assistant coaching role after one year. The RedHawks trended upward in the first two years of the Steele era until their 2024-25 campaign, where Miami finished 25-9. This season coincided with a new wave of talent coming in. Players like Peter Suder, Antwone Woolfolk and Luke Skaljac all became standout names on the roster.
Miami improved once again in the 2025-26 season, going undefeated in the regular season and earning an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. After defeating SMU in the First Four, Miami was in the Round of 64 for the first time since Richburg played.
“This was the first time I was able to actually advance and win a game in the NCAA tournament,” Richburg said. “I remember all my times going, and the one thing you realize quick is that that specific team is never the same … This year was so special, but even during the year, I was trying to embrace the moment too and notice that we’re doing something historic. I don’t want to get that lost in the whole deal.”
As the calendar flips to the 2026-27 season, Richburg will help continue the RedHawks basketball success through strong recruitment efforts.
“It takes a village to turn around a program, and he’s been a big part of that,” Steele said. “I let all of our coaching staff members do a lot of different things because I think that’s important for their growth… but Carl’s had his hands involved in every single part of our program, and I think that’ll really serve him well moving forward as we continue to build.”
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