Charlie Coles is a former high school coach, so when the NCAA gave him a chance to have a scrimmage, instead of an exhibition game, he jumped at it.

        Miami and Butler will scrimmage today at Millett Hall. The session will be behind closed doors. The em phasis will be on learning, not dunks.

        “You can get more done this way,” Coles said. “I did these when I coached high school. We can do anything we want. If they're doing something on offense we can't stop, we can say keep running that.

        “In an exhibition, you're going to win. Those (foreign) teams aren't tight. You can't teach. There will be no clowning (today).”

        Coles' decision was easy, because Miami doesn't make money from an exhibition.

        “I'm surprised everyone doesn't do it,” he said.

        Butler is coming off a 23-8 season. The Bulldogs lost to Florida 69-68 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in overtime. Florida went on to play in the NCAA title game. Butler has made the NCAAs three of the past four years.

        “The only player they lost is Mike Marshall,” Coles said. “They're a legitimate top-35 team.”

        Coles was able to get Butler to come to Millett because Butler's new coach, Chad Matta, was an assistant under Coles at MU.

        The teams will run drills and plays against each other from noon to 2 p.m., then they'll scrimmage from 5 to 7 p.m.

        “That will be more like a game,” Coles said. “This will be good for our team because we're so young. The guys will learn a lot. The bad thing is (Butler's) style is nothing like Xavier's.”

        The RedHawks open their season Nov.18 against Xavier at the Cintas Center.

Sports Stories

Complete prep football coverage Enquirer.com/prepfootball SULLIVAN: Tour better keep Tiger happy UCLA drops Kentucky to 0-2 Coles: Miami can learn more from scrimmage NKU opens with victory Miami catches Marshall at good time Ohio St. hopes to run to win Turpin boys win state soccer title MND goes for state volleyball three-peat Colerain 35, St. Xavier 30 Piqua 28, Loveland 17 Vandalia Butler 31, Edgewood 14 Wyoming 20, Blanchester 12 Elder, Fairfield expect tight game Bellevue 36, Nicholas Co. 9 Delta 28, East Central 14 Harrison Co. 42, Holmes 28 Highlands 49, Covington Catholic 27 Louisville Trinity 35, Ryle 3 Newport Central Catholic 17, Beechwood 14 Cyclones 4, Chicago 2 Lowell 5, Mighty Ducks 4

Losing keeps free agents away
'Cowboys' motivation enough
Dallas still 'America's Team'
Dugans falls off depth chart
UC needs to get past roadblock to bowl
Bearcats put focus on rebounding
Xavier's West not your average soph