Miami basketball student section rebranded as "The Eye," and it's seeing a lot of wins so far this season

Sophomore guard Bensley Joseph snuck away from his teammates for a brief moment after Miami’s heart-pounding win earlier in the season over Rutgers. He swooped his head low and crept below some leather wire into a sea of screaming students.

Joseph grabbed a Hurricane Warning flag and started waving it back and forth. University of Miami students reached for their pockets and started taking videos alongside Joseph, who was quickly called off by his teammates down the tunnel.

That brief moment, that connection between student fan and student athlete, has been slowly building over the last two seasons at Miami.

There’s one organization revolutionizing Hurricanes basketball. It’s transformed the Watsco Center with behind-the-basket smoke machines, flooded the arena with noise, and ignited a true home-court atmosphere for Miami.

Category5’s basketball student section has been completely rebranded after Miami’s no capacity crowds in the 2020-21 season. It used to be known as Storm Surge, a pun based on the waves that rise during the events of a Hurricane.

It now goes by a new nickname: “The Eye”.

Its goal? To bring student’s creative ideas to life.

“We wanted to brand everything as The Eye, because, as always we [at Category 5] say, there’s a storm brewing,” basketball chair Zander Samarasinghe said. “We wanted to be that presence, starting last year, into this year.”

Samarasinghe joined Category 5 as a committee member last Fall and quickly worked his way to one of the two heads for basketball, a program that had seen student attendance dwindle since 2018.

He had his eyes glued to college basketball for a long time, such as Duke’s Cameron Indoor or North Carolina’s Dean Smith Center.

Now, the sophomore at Miami is now relentlessly working to craft the taste of these intimidating atmospheres into Coral Gables.

“You have Duke, you have Kansas, you have other big schools,” Samarasinghe said. “Now, we have The Eye. We’re going to make that big presence this year.”

The organization has worked together with Miami basketball team officials to establish a connection between the student body and the student-athletes. It started as a hit-and-hope idea but has blossomed to a truly beautiful project.

Miami invited Category 5 chair members to an open practice, where the players introduced themselves and got to know the members personally. Later on, the team actually gave out some food.

“We met with Category 5 before the season… and had chicken wings and pizza afterwards for them,” head coach Jim Larrañaga said. “We value their presence at the games and their support for what we do. We want them to know, we want to support their efforts. That’s what school spirit is.”

“Really, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Derek Hart, a junior in Category 5. “I felt like basketball never really had its share in the spotlight because they were shadowed by Duke, North Carolina, Virginia to name a few.”

The players have appreciated the atmosphere as well. Miami has had several come-from-behind wins at home this season, including power five victories against Rutgers and North Carolina State.

“We’re down one with ten minutes to go and the crowd’s going wild, y’all know we’re about to win, just because of the atmosphere,” fourth-year guard Harlond Beverly said. “It feels really good to have the crowd behind us, it’s really a big push.”

Coach Larrañaga has raved about the support that the student section has provided this season. Miami broke their student attendance record in their opening night win over Lafayette, and support for the Hurricanes has grown as the season has progressed.

“We need the students to be involved and feel connected with the players,” Larrañaga said.

Larrañaga is a huge fan of the student-made fatheads of the players, and loves the connection that Category 5 has produced between student athletes and student body. Now, with Spring Semester underway, expect The Eye to produce some ruckus atmospheres during ACC play.

“Pun intended, it’s a perfect storm coming together,” Hart said.