In its 2022-23 season opener, Miami Men's Basketball started a post player who averaged all of 1.5 points per game last year with Cleveland State University. Anderson Mirambeaux, a 6-foot-8, 305-pound senior, had never played more than 15 minutes in a Division I basketball game before transferring to join the RedHawks.
 
And in his debut wearing the Red and White against Evansville on November 7, Mirambeaux dominated.
 
He played 31 minutes.
 
He pulled down eight rebounds.
 
He made 8-of-10 free throws.
 
He dished out highlight-reel assists.
 
He showed off a wide variety of post moves.
 
And he scored 22 points…in the second half alone.
 
Mirambeaux's career night might have come as a shock to nearly every person in Millett Hall that evening, but associate head coach Rob Summers wasn't surprised at all by the 27-point outburst. Summers, who had worked with Mirambeaux at CSU last season before joining Travis Steele's new staff in Oxford, understood what the big man was capable of.
 
"I knew that once he got the minutes, he would be able to produce," Summers said. "I had watched him every day in practice, and that's what I told Coach. I've watched him compete and score the basketball and rebound it and just be an all-around really solid player, so I definitely knew."
 
Mirambeaux came to Miami simply looking for an opportunity to show what he could do on the floor.
 
"When Coach Summers got a job here, I was like, 'Man, I've got a chance,'" said Mirambeaux. "I wanted minutes. I wanted to play."
 
Steele offered exactly that, but with one giant disclaimer.
 
"When I talked with Coach Steele for the first time, he was really clear what he wanted," Mirambeaux remembered. "He said, 'If you come here, you have to lose weight.'
 
"He was very clear from day one and I really appreciate that. It's one of the things that made me want to come here. Some other schools tell you what you want to hear…he told me this is how it is and this is how it's going to be.
 
"It was really hard…it was worth it, though. It's paying off."
 
Steele, who had gotten a firsthand look at Mirambeaux in a Xavier-Cleveland State game last March, challenged the former Viking to slim down and be effective at both ends of the court.
 
"I told him before he committed, 'Just so you know, I'm going to make you really uncomfortable. I'm going to ask you to do things you've never done before,'" said Steele. "I think he just wanted an opportunity to play and showcase who he can be.
 
"He's a talented young man, and when he's on the floor we're a better team. He's worked hard at it. He would get up with [graduate assistant] Elijah Pennington and he'd swim. He'd be doing extra stuff on the treadmills. Watching his diet. Just trying to teach him how to be disciplined and form really good habits…
 
"He's a big dude naturally, but if we can get him down to 285-290, he could be the best big in our league."
 
- - -
 
Mirambeaux grew up in the Dominican Republic, where the natural sport of choice was baseball, not basketball. "When you're born there, they give you a bat," he laughed.
 
But as the up-and-coming catcher grew, he eventually traded the ballfield for the hardwood. "When I was 12, I was growing too much," Mirambeaux said. (Apparently a catcher's crouch isn't the most comfortable position for a youngster who was already over six feet tall?)
 
"I used to come home from baseball practice and have a basketball court close to my house, just one block down. I'd go straight from practice down there and play with my friends.
 
"I was like, 'I love basketball and this is what I want to do.'"
 
Mirambeaux got involved with the D.R. youth national team's program, beginning at the under-14 level. That led to an opportunity to move to the United States and play high school basketball, first in New York and eventually in West Virginia.
 
It was a difficult adjustment for the young athlete, leaving his home country to come to America and live at a boarding school or later with a host family. Especially because Mirambeaux didn't speak any English at the time.
 
"That was the hardest part," he said. "Just to learn to get adjusted [to the language], and also missing my family."
 
He caught college coaches' attention early on. "I remember watching him in high school, and I was like, 'Man, this kid's skilled,'" said Summers. "He was spinning and handling the basketball in the full court and had phenomenal touch."
 
Mirambeaux spent his first two years out of high school (2019-2021) playing at Trinity Valley Community College, where he averaged 13.4 points per game. From there, Summers landed his commitment to attend Cleveland State.
 
"You don't really know kids just from looking at a picture or seeing them play on the court," Summers said. "But during the recruiting process, just seeing what a good person he was, how easy he was to talk to - being on Zoom with him, seeing him smiling: All those things just really attracted me to the idea of him being a player that I want to be around and a guy I want to recruit.
 
"He plays physical on the court, but when you get off the court and get to know him, he's the type of guy you want to have around your kids or around your family. You want to have him over just to hang out."
 
Mirambeaux's potential and personality were both key factors in the first-year RedHawk being voted a team captain once he arrived in Oxford. Along with upperclassmen Mekhi Lairy and Morgan Safford, Mirambeaux has helped lead a program that includes eight new players from a season ago.

"His teammates respect his play," Steele said. "They think he's a really good player, but they've also seen him sacrifice. He's a good teammate – a jovial human being. He's a guy that loves life and always has a smile on his face.
 
"He's easy to like."
 
- - -
 
As Miami tries to climb into the top eight of the conference standings to qualify for the MAC postseason tournament, Mirambeaux has been a focal point of the RedHawks' offense ever since his debut.
 
The transfer forward led Miami with 22 points in a win over Western Michigan Tuesday and has put up 17 double-figure scoring nights through 24 games. He ranks third on the team in points per game (13.5) and second in rebounding (5.7), while also draining 79.2% of his free throws (including a 10-11 showing at the line Tuesday vs. WMU). That's an eye-popping statistical leap for a player who made 47.4% of his foul shots a year ago.

Perhaps most notably, Mirambeaux is second on the team in assists with 62. He dished out a career-high seven in the RedHawks' non-conference victory over Jackson State, to go along with 12 points and seven rebounds in just 21 minutes of action.
 
"My favorite player to watch is Nikola Jokic," Mirambeaux explained. "He loves to pass, and I feel like I'm a great passer. It comes naturally.
 
"When I get the ball, I just want to create something that's going to help us."
 
Steele compared Mirambeaux's vision to that of Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow. "The reason [Burrow] is so good is because he sees things a second before they happen. That's Anderson with basketball," said Steele.
 
"The game plays really slow to Anderson, and he makes it really, really easy for everybody else on the floor…We're going to play through him because he's so unique. He allows us to play the way we're playing."
 
"He's our quarterback," Summers said. "You don't see too many big guys pass like that. We talk about playing inside-out, and he can score, so the more teams double him, the more he's going to get guys open…
 
"He makes our offense very potent."
 
With one more year of eligibility still remaining, Mirambeaux hopes to leave a lasting imprint on Miami Basketball as the program builds toward adding to its 21 all-time MAC championships. "I feel like we have so much potential," Mirambeaux said. "We just have to stick with it and it will come.

"Last year at Cleveland State, we were winning, but I wasn't a big part of it, because I didn't have a big role there. Here, I'm on the court a lot and I'm producing for the team…
 
"I just want to be remembered as a winner and a guy that always has fun."
 
Mirambeaux and the RedHawks are back in action Saturday, Feb. 11 at Millett Hall as part of a Love.Honor.Care afternoon doubleheader presented by Western & Southern. Complimentary tickets are available; click here to request your seats today!
 
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