FAIRBORN — Charlie Coles knew the area where Wright State stands before it was even a school.

Both of Coles’ parents worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and Coles himself spent a summer working at the base nearby the current WSU campus. The route the family took from its Springfield home to Dayton went past the then-rural area.

“I know that area well,” said Coles, the Miami University basketball coach. “It’s amazing what they’ve done with it, with the school and the (basketball) program.”

In the previous four years, since current Wright State coach Billy Donlon arrived as an assistant with former coach Brad Brownell, Coles has come to know tight games between WSU and his RedHawks. Three of the four games with Donlon on the WSU staff have been decided by one point, and the teams will renew that close-call series tonight when Miami (5-5) visits Wright State (6-5) at the Nutter Center.

Miami leads the overall series between the schools at 17-8, but it stands 2-2 in the past four years. That stretch began with the 2006-07 season opener when former WSU star DaShaun Wood scored on a drive with less than a second left to give the Raiders a 57-56 win and their first victory at Miami’s Millett Hall since 1981.

Since, Wright State won 58-57 at the Nutter Center in 2007 and lost 56-55 at Millett Hall last season.

“As an assistant when I was with Coach Brownell, I always loved the Miami game,” Donlon said. “They do a great job of preparing their kids to play and finding each and every weakness in your style. That’s a great challenge for us.”