The Goat Pen

Indiana fires men's basketball coach Archie Miller after four seasons

ByJEFF RABJOHNS 82 minutes ago
Share
24 Comments

Archie Miller. (Photo: Aaron Doster, USA TODAY Sports)


Indiana has parted ways with men’s basketball coach Archie Miller after a 12-15 record this year and four seasons with no NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Hoosiers, who have five national titles, haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2016 and have been past the Sweet Sixteen just one time since 1993.


Indiana finished the season 12-15 overall and went 7-12 in the Big Ten. Miller was 67-58 at Indiana with no NCAA Tournaments. This year, nine of the 14 Big Ten teams made the NCAA Tournament.

Miller is 206-121 overall as a head coach, including NCAA Tournaments his final four seasons at Dayton.

In Miller’s four seasons, IU has gone 16-15, 19-16, 20-12 and 12-15. The 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID. IU was widely projected to make the field as a 10th seed.

To be fair, this season was the most difficult schedule in 121 years of IU basketball per sports-reference.com. Miller’s tenure has included the first (2020-21) and 14th (2019-20) most difficult schedules in IU history.

In general terms, IU owes Miller $10.3 million over the final three years of his seven-year contract, offset dollar for dollar by any future earnings during those three years. Miller made an average of $3.35 million a year at IU.

IU has finished 9-9, 8-12, 9-11 and 7-12 in the Big Ten the past four seasons.

IU is 0-for-7 against Purdue under Miller.

IU has been nationally ranked in only one season in Miller’s four years, spending six weeks in the top 25 in 2018-19, with a high of No. 21.

Over the past two seasons, 12 of the 14 Big Ten teams have been in the AP Top 25. The two that haven’t: Indiana and Nebraska.

At the conclusion of the Rutgers loss, IU ranked 53rd in the Bart Torvik rankings.

Fan frustration with the program has been growing since Miller’s second season when the Hoosiers started 12-2 then lost 12 of 13 despite having freshman Rome Langford, a future NBA lottery pick, and senior Juwan Morgan, who has started in the NBA.

Indiana’s 2020-21 season ended on Thursday night in Lucas Oil Stadium with a 61-50 loss to Rutgers. The Hoosiers, as has been their wont for much of the season, suffered a lengthy scoring drought and, after leading by as many as 10 points, lost by 11 points.

Indiana lost all three games against Rutgers this season, viewed by some as another sign of the depths to which one of college basketball’s most storied programs has fallen.

During the final eight minutes or so, chants of “Fire Archie, fire Archie,” were quite audible. IU athletic director Scott Dolson was in the front row baseline for the game.

“I didn't hear the fans saying anything,” Miller said after the game. “If they were chanting my name, that’s up to them. But during the game there’s not a whole lot you pay attention to.”

IU’s lack of 3-point shooting was an obvious issue during Miller’s tenure.

The Hoosiers ranked 302nd (2017-18), 325th (2018-19), 326th (2019-20) and 307th (2020-21) in percentage of points from the arc in Miller’s four seasons, per KenPom.

Miller did recruit the state of Indiana very well — bringing in three consecutive Mr. Basketball winners for the first time in school history — but has struggled mightily to land impact players from outside the state in recent seasons with a long list of recruiting misses among nationally ranked players from beyond the Indiana border.

Sophomore All-American forward Trayce Jackson-Davis said after the Rutgers game he will take a few weeks to decide if he’s going pro or will return to college. Starting shooting guard Al Durham, IU’s third-leading scorer, is the only scholarship player who went through Senior Day.

Senior center Joey Brunk, who started last season, didn’t play this season due to back issues. He is leaving the door open for a possible return, which is allowed under a COVID-related rule that makes 2020-21 a redshirt season for all college basketball players.

IU has two new players for next season at this juncture. UT-Martin transfer shooting guard Parker Stewart, who is already enrolled, and 6-foot-9 Cincinnati Moeller center Logan Duncomb, the No. 63 ranked player in the nation in the 2021 class. Stewart picked IU in no small part due to his connection with IU assistant coach Kenya Hunter.

One of the marquee name brands in all of college sports, Indiana basketball has been attempting to regain consistent national status for the better part of two decades.

24
COMMENTS
The Hoosiers are looking for their sixth counting Bob Knight's final season in 2000.

The Hoosiers went to the national title game in 2002 under Mike Davis and assistant John Treloar and went to a pair of Sweet Sixteens and won two Big Ten regular-season titles under Tom Crean.

alot of people thought it would happen

Not really fair he got screwed because of Covid, but I guess they felt the program wasn't going to grow.

Looking back, the Hoosiers should’ve just taken their slap on the wrist and kept Sampson. He’s the best coach they’ve had since Knight.

yea, they were in a different frame of mind back then

If they want to win, they should get Pitino

If they can't stomach Pitino, I'd get Greg Marshall

Marshall will never be able to recruit elite players, and Pitino would flop. Pitino would be the basketball equivalent of Howard Schnellenberger at OU.

I am keeping my eye on Bama's coach. That fucker can coach. If he can recruit, show he can build a program long-term and keep it between the lines, he will be making $6m+ soon enough.

Carolina's problem is that Roy has spoiled us. Roy is happy making $3m-$4m annually, and he has given several million back to the school. Cunningham and the Rams Club are going to have to open their wallets like never before if they want a big name coach after Roy.

Heck, the same goes for football too because Mack is coaching for relatively cheap since he and Sally wanted to move back to Chapel Hill.

Folks on IC -- and supposedly elsewhere around the program -- long clamored for Shaka Smart, but that died off with his struggles at Texas. However, if he can keep up the success he has had this year, we would lose in a bidding war with moneybags Texas.

I was told by folks fairly connected with the university and athletic department that the next coach will not be Hubert Davis, and thank God for that.

My money is on Wes Miller, but he needs to get some major conference experience and have some tournament success first, imho.

Stackhouse -- sadly -- seems to be floundering at Vandy. That was a horrible move on his part.

Pitino has Iona in the tournament.

Look at all the coaches at home watching his team play.

I'm not certain anyone can recruit great players to IU, at least not the level IU fans think they deserve. So it has to be made up in coaching. You need a guy that can coach. Whatever faults they have, Marshall and Pitino can coach. Pitino would give you 5 good years, Marshall could be a decade guy.

Oates is a coach that has embraced the NBA style offense into college, however he did inherit a veteran team with a good scorer and a 4 years solid PG. Oates is going to have to show he can sustain that level of coaching while recruiting at Bama and rebuilding.

I like Stackhouse, he should be doing better at Vandy. The SEC was down this year and Vandy still sucked , while having one of the conferences most prolific players. I hope he turns it around there but he'd never be UNC material as a coach within the next decade.

Another guy to keep an eye out for - not at UK/UNC level coaching but next level below that is Mark Pope. He's putting in a pretty solid performance at BYU

Marshall can coach, but I can’t see IU pursuing him with the rumors flying about his assholishness to the players (worse than Doherty). And then, there’s his psycho wife in the stands...

DookSucks — Hubert is a huge disappointment. He just sits there with that blank stare — NO FUCKING WAY I want him as Roy’s successor. We need to get out of this “family only” edict. Hire the best coach we can get.

eCat — If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the SEC Storied documentary on the 1978 Kentucky team. That old footage brought back lots of childhood memories of 1970s college hoops.

Of course, my favorite footage was the 1977 East Regionals vs the Heels (heh).

The Anti k* wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:30 pm Marshall can coach, but I can’t see IU pursuing him with the rumors flying about his assholishness to the players (worse than Doherty). And then, there’s his psycho wife in the stands...

DookSucks — Hubert is a huge disappointment. He just sits there with that blank stare — NO FUCKING WAY I want him as Roy’s successor. We need to get out of this “family only” edict. Hire the best coach we can get.

I’m told Wes Miller would get consideration but outside of that, it will be an open search — as in outside “the family” — which would be the schools’s since 1952...

Bubba has made one hire: Larry Fedora. Just like Butch Davis with Dickie Baddour, Mack was foisted upon Bubba by the heavy hitters (many of those guys had kept up with Mack on a personal level with a group that would go out to Texas each year to visit him while also welcoming Mack whenever Mack visited his mountain home, family or friends). I wasn’t sold on the hire at first and thought it was another case of the family / “good old boy” tendencies biting us in the ass, but as of now, I’m on cloud nine. Maybe those guys are hanging out with Wes’ dad down at Wrightsville and lining Wes up...

It’s going to be a wild ride, but in the end, we will be disappointed or cautiously optimistic but not over the top excited. A few things will kill the ability to hire a big time coach:
1) Faculty Senate will raise hell with some professors getting airtime on WRAL and N&O coverage decrying the emphasis on athletics in the face of whatever financial issue has befallen the university at that time (and those issues are coming at us fast);
2) Tim Moore and Phil Berger’s lackies on the BOG and BOT — along with State’s growing sway on the BOG — will get involved and politicize the process in some way (admittedly, this is more likely to happen due to Berger’s appointees and lackies if I had to guess) or gum up the works by slow playing contract approval and thus cause us to lose a fish on the line;
3) The school will make mountains out of mole hills during the background search / due diligence phase and eliminate everyone of note;
4) This ties in with 1 to some degree, but the school, AD and RC will be relatively broke and unable to pay $5m+ for a basketball coach. This is going to happen around the same time as Mack’s retirement in 3-5 years, and with the current economics of football, I think football wins out in terms of who gets the ability to spend more for a head coach.

Also, IU has the in state talent to sustain a core group, and if the coach can grab the occasional kid from Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and/or Michigan, that program will be back. They need to hire someone who runs that God awful Bennett-family crap. It’s tailor-made for the corn fed, crew cut, Midwesterners who vacillate between tears and sexual arousal when watching Hoosiers...

Also, TAK, you never gave Hedge and I the link to your new board.

"I hear people struggling to find the vaccine"

The MIF works at the local health department, she said they gave out over 2200 vaccines in one day when they did in the parking lot of the high school, and they've done that a couple of times. She said they give out 500 a day on a normal day at the regular spot. Not bad for a town of 50K (and county of 80K)...

My perfect choice - Brad Stevens

The guy I want if I can't have Brad - Dane Fife (took IPFW from nothing and improved every year and has been an assistant to the best Big 10-4 coach in Izzo for sometime now, former player, knows the culture of IU, former Knight guy, and young enough to relate to players and still have a toughness about him)

My next choices - Chris Beard, Thad Motta, and Slick Rick

Pass on Scott Drew or the next Archie Miller type

Beard would be a good choice.

But he's probably top 5 in coaching hires right now. Indiana would have to throw at least $6m a year at him

Yes, Marshall is an asshole but I'm sure he's been humbled quite a bit. His wife needs to go to AA - but Indiana loves that kind of intensity in their coach. I really think he'd be a good fit there, he can be had for next to nothing and he'd work his ass off trying to rebuild the program and his reputation

Its a real life Hoosiers situation.

College basketball is better for everyone if Indiana returns to being a regular tournament team.

The Anti k* wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 11:34 pm eCat — If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the SEC Storied documentary on the 1978 Kentucky team. That old footage brought back lots of childhood memories of 1970s college hoops.

Of course, my favorite footage was the 1977 East Regionals vs the Heels (heh).

yea, I need to watch it. But I'm sure it doesn't show the fans in a great light given it was called the season without joy by the staff and players.

Mid 70's college basketball was great - IU going undefeated, then UK beating them, Notre Dame knocking off UCLA, I was a little too young to fully soak it in, but basketball was solid back then.

IMO, Indiana scoffing at Scott Drew is a huge mistake, and this is from someone who 10-15 years ago was not very impressed with him.

He will land them on probation like Sampson did.

I find that doubtful, since he doesnt seem to even play the game anymore. His roster is all international and transfers. And even when he was more of an “ace recruiter” he did it mainly through shitty negative recruiting other schools and churchy type shit that rubbed people the wrong way rather than cheating.

Part of the reason I would be high on him is that he clearly has learned and improved a lot and succeeded while changing his style a couple times now. Something that I think is a really positive trait especially since hea not particularly old yet either.

Agree on Drew...though I was admittedly somewhat glad when Memphis passed on him...

DS — Apologies for mentioning the other board, as the members sealed it off to anyone else awhile back, due to one asshat. If that changes, I’d certainly let you know.

eCat — The documentary doesn’t blame the UK fans for the ‘Win or Else’ environment. To me, it was self inflicted pressure by the coaches and players. I think you’ll enjoy the look back, as I was 10 years old that season and had fun remembering the 70s.

"Mid 70's college basketball was great - IU going undefeated, then UK beating them, Notre Dame knocking off UCLA, I was a little too young to fully soak it in, but basketball was solid back then."

Don't forget David Thompson and the hated NCState knocking off UCLA for the NC in '74...