Indiana basketball: reactions on Archie Miller to the Hoosiers

Archie Miller was recently named the 29th head coach of Indiana basketball. Here is a look at some reactions to this hiring.

I’ve written an article in the past, and the first comment on it was from someone who wrote “late.” I can only assume that they wrote this because it was published the day after the initial news was discussed amongst people on social media. It was “late” because of the order the site published its articles. Nonetheless, that was true.

This article could definitely be deemed “late,” and there is a good reason for it. I needed time to digest the hiring of Archie Miller and to learn what it meant for the Indiana program, to its fans, to the team itself, and for college basketball. After sitting on this for a few days, I know how I finally feel.

College basketball writers and analysts around the country deem this a great hire for Indiana.

One Indianapolis columnist claimed this hire as a home run that will, “break windows all over the Big Ten.”

Is he a home run hire? As an Indiana fan, I sure hope so.

What isn’t extremely surprising to me is the negative remarks made about this hire. I am friends with many IU grads and people who bleed cream and crimson. Aside from them, I have seen all over social media people talking about this hire and what they think about it. Overall, I have heard people say that they are disappointed with the hire.

The reasons for this are rooted in a few specific areas. Many homegrown Hoosiers wanted an “Indiana guy” to — for pop culture relevance purposes — make Indiana basketball great again. I wasn’t a fan of this solely because it’s hard to believe that you should limit your pool right off the bat to such a small group of guys who have yet to do much in the basketball coaching world as of late.

Another reason for the backlash, is that no one watches Dayton basketball. Let me restate that, no Indiana basketball fans watch Dayton basketball.

If you love IU basketball and focus your attention on the Big Ten, why would you ever watch Atlantic 10 basketball? No one knows what Miller’s teams look like or really what they have done.

The third reason is because this isn’t a household name hire. Fans dreamed of names like Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan. As much as we would have loved those names as IU fans, we still need to be realistic.

Why would Stevens leave the Celtics? He’s doing an amazing job there and fighting for the number one seed in the East. Donovan is coaching one of the best players in the world in Russell Westbrook. Why would he want to leave that?

My plea to Indiana fans, is to be excited about this hire. Archie Miller did so much with so much less at Dayton.

I stumbled upon this graphic, and I love it for reasons that may not seem so obvious.

People have used this graphic to say, “so, he did exactly what Indiana did, and we fired that coach.” Not exactly. He did all of this, and it includes his first year as head coach, while Crean was in his fourth year and had future lottery picks like Victor Oladipo, Cody Zeller, and Noah Vonleh. Meanwhile, Miller produced similar numbers, starting from scratch and with lesser top-rated recruits. For these exact reasons, Indiana fans should be excited about this hire.

Archie Miller isn’t the hot coach right now. He isn’t some coach that took a team deep into the tournament this past year and, as a result, is the talk of the sports’ world in recent months.

Archie Miller has been a fantastic coach for Dayton over a long period of time. In a state where Dayton basketball has to compete amongst schools such as Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Xavier, Dayton has been arguably the most consistent program. In the last four seasons, they have won at least 24 games a year, as well as back-to-back Atlantic 10 conference titles, and four NCAA Tournament births.

To the fans saying he doesn’t know how to recruit the state of Indiana, my only question to you is, huh? You don’t need to coach in Indiana to know how to recruit the state. Case and point, the five Indiana players in ESPN’s class of 2017 top-30 rankings of high school basketball players were all poached by out of state schools.

Honestly, what he really needs to know about is recruiting in the Midwest, which he already does. Archie has had experience recruiting the Midwest as the head coach of Dayton, as well as stints as an assistant coach at Ohio State and Western Kentucky. He knows the ways of Indiana basketball and the Midwest recruiting culture as well as any Indiana coach.

To add to the lunacy that he won’t know how to compete in this state for recruits because of how competitive it is, Archie was a former player and assistant at NC State, which is in arguably the most college basketball-crazed state in the country. He knows the pressures of recruiting in competitive areas, having experience recruiting in arguably the three most crazed college basketball states in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Miller is a proven winner and has developed a culture of winning at Dayton. Indiana fans should be ecstatic about that. Is it a home run hire? It is way too early to know that without seeing any results yet, but I truly believe that he is the hire that Indiana needs.

To make my last point I will cite what Archie Miller said in his press conference. He stated, “I want everybody to have that feel as we keep moving forward that someone really respects the way that the state operates, the kids in this state, the high school coaches, the families. They all grow up wanting to be here, and for me, I hope to be able to represent it in a big way.”

In respect to recruiting, Miller went on to say, “the term that we’ll use is called inside-out. We have to start inside this state of Indiana, and we have to start moving outside very slowly because the footprint is there.”

If those two quotes don’t make you believe in Archie Miller, nothing will. It truly feels as though he “gets it.” He knows what Indiana basketball means to people in this state. He knows that it is about playing for the name on the front of the jersey and representing the state by playing “the right way.”

He knows how important this all is and why fans are so desperate for a championship that honestly any hire would have left them yearning for more.

He knows the lofty expectations, and I am willing to bet on him to be the man to turn things around. He understands what Indiana basketball means to people in this state and that in and of itself should make fans excited. It will take time to tell if he can turn this understanding into results, but I am willing to give him that, and so should you.

Next: Way too early top 25

So don’t grab your pitchforks yet, Indiana fans. Archie Miller may very well be the guy to actually bring Indiana basketball back to competing for national titles. For now, let’s celebrate the hire and look optimistically toward the future of Indiana basketball.