The last fleeting hope that Archie Miller’s time in Indiana could lead to greatness vanished into thin air on Wednesday night. Piscataway is a horrible place to watch a basketball team hit rock bottom, but that’s exactly what happened when Rutgers kicked the unfortunate Hoosiers off the ground in defeat. Four years later, Miller’s time in Bloomington was a long-lost opportunity and the school simply cannot be justified any longer for keeping him at the top of his esteemed basketball program.
Indiana opened Wednesday night’s competition in good shape, racing to a 23-8 lead at RAC in the middle of the first half. The Hoosiers were quick, decisive, hit some big shots and their defensive spins were hit. Then things got worse faster than a Kendall Roy cocaine spree. The lead disappeared as quickly as it arrived, with Rutgers making a straight 27-8 and leading 35-31 at halftime. This type of implosion has become very common under Miller’s supervision. The second half was somewhat worse, with Rutgers increasing his lead to 20 points with an 11-0 run in the middle of the second half. When the dust settled, the Hoosiers were returning home after losing three of their four games at a critical time of the season.
During Miller’s four seasons at work, Indiana didn’t show up when needed. He never did the NCAA tournament – even though the Hoosiers were last year – and it would be a miracle to do it in 2021. Going into the season, I said this was Miller’s “test” season, and the Hoosiers are currently 12 -11 and 7-9 in the Big Ten. His team is 4-5 at home at the conference this year. Losing in Assembly Hall used to be an unforgivable sin, now it happens weekly. All Miller has proven this season is that everything he is doing is not working in Indiana.
Miller was the obvious hire in 2017. He was the next young midfielder ready to step forward after a brilliant six-year season at Dayton. The hiring was widely praised because Indiana finally got the right guy after years of mistakes after the tumultuous end of the Bob Knight Era. In four seasons in Indiana, Miller is 67-54 and dismal 33-41 on the Big Ten. This is simply not good enough and it is increasingly clear that hiring him was another misstep for a university whose brand is directly linked to the success of its basketball program.
This season, Miller finally had a squad filled with his own players. With an All-American striker caliber at Trayce Jackson-Davis and three full recruiting classes on his resume, things were looking up. Play a three-year holder at the point guard at Rob Phinisee and a four-year-old senior captain in the system at Al Durham, and the Hoosiers looked set to burst. Instead, they limped throughout the season with absolutely no perimeter consistency and no help for the brilliant Jackson-Davis in the countryside.
Miller was supposed to bring defensive resistance and a smart offensive scheme. The Hoosiers are currently ninth in the Big Ten in defensive efficiency and eighth on the offensive side of the ball. Miller was adamant that he wanted the team to play with more pace and go up and down in the transition this season, but Indiana is 283rd in pace nationwide. Each game is a slow and never ending job with long periods when the team seems to have no idea what their identity is. The offensive is constantly pushed into last-minute situations and regularly has to launch bad shots before the bell. Indiana fans have been watching the same show for four years with an occasional and unsatisfactory turn of events and absolutely no character development.
In an era that values efficiency and values a 3-point stroke, the Miller system is laser-focused on the pole feed and is a mix of dribbling, lazily sliding screens and long standing. It is a crime straight out of 1984 – the year, not romance, although I often feel like Winston Smith watching this team play and knowing that something is not right. It’s a slow, old-fashioned basketball that, for some reason, Miller hasn’t changed after it hasn’t worked in the past three seasons.
Perhaps most maddening is Miller’s inability to find players who can consistently kick the ball. Indiana is hitting 35 percent of its 3-point shots as a team this season, but is making just 6.3 per game, which is ranked 266th in the country. Indiana also occupies the 285th national position in percentage of free throws (66.5). Somehow, recruiting outside of Indiana – where the perfect form of shooting is a prerequisite for high school graduation – Miller failed to prepare for snipers. In fact, in a number of high-profile recruiting decisions, he stepped away from the snipers and was tough on guys who defend first. Now he’s stuck with a list of pitching players like Carlton Banks.
What is alarming is that the shooting has been bad for each of Miller’s four years on campus. And in all seasons he claimed that his squad had guys who could shoot, but they just weren’t getting in. This is a good excuse for a bad game, but if your team has not been able to shoot consistently for four years, then it is a problem. Instead of changing anything or hiring a shooting expert to help make things better, Miller simply tampered with his system, which apparently couldn’t be the real problem.
Some high-level recruitment shortages – including several in the 2021 class – and a failure to bring impact transfers in recent years have created problems that are likely to extend into the next season. With Jackson-Davis almost certain to the next level, there is little chance that the Hoosiers will suddenly improve without importing an impact player.
Miller is a smart basketball guy. When discussing Xs and Os, he knows what he is talking about. He is brilliant and at 42 he has forgotten more about the game than many will ever learn. He comes from a deep family of coaches and is highly respected by his colleagues, but something is not working in Indiana. Maybe it’s his stubbornness, inability to adjust to his squad and a failure to recognize how much basketball has changed. Whatever the problem, he is not fixing it and does not seem very interested in evolving.
Although some things can be attributed to the poor construction of the squad and certain musicians do not live up to expectations, in the end Miller is the conductor of the orchestra. If you have been working with a cellist for three years and he still can’t consistently play a medium C, the fourth year drummer can’t set the time, the entire woodwind section cannot open 3s and the award winning flutist cannot keep an eye on the dribbling, whose fault is it? Look, I don’t know anything about orchestras and that metaphor escaped me a little bit, but I think you understand.
Miller arrived in Bloomington as the best-placed coach to really make a comeback on the Indiana basketball program. Four years later, we are still waiting for an advance that is unlikely to materialize. With the resources available to him, it is inexcusable for Miller to have a team inside or outside the bubble each season. In Indiana, a season that ends like this qualifies as a major failure.
I’m not aware of Indiana’s finances and I know Miller has a heavy takeover, but how can sports director Scott Dolson justify the status quo? Unless there is a miraculous turnaround in the next two weeks, Indiana simply has to leave Archie Miller. There are no more excuses. His term was a disaster, given expectations.
Indiana’s name, colors and jurisdiction used to scare opponents. Nobody wanted to see the Hoosiers arriving on the schedule. Over the past two decades, that aura of invincibility has slowly dissipated, culminating in an embarrassing loss in New Jersey on Wednesday night. Something needs to be done to rescue the University’s brand and soul.
Moving on from Miller would be the first step.