Let's Check In On How The Archie Miller Era Is Going At Indiana
Well that about sums it up. Archie was supposed to be a can't-miss hire when he left Dayton. He had every school after him - I still thought he'd end up where he played at NC State. I even believed he'd figure shit out at Indiana. I mean the dude was winning at Dayton, sent some guys to the pros and made a run to the Elite Eight. He got guys who knew their role and stayed within their role at Dayton and it worked. We're now in year 4 with him at Indiana and there are these tweets and articles about him:
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You get the point. A whole lot of fire Archie Miller tweets out there. I typically would say this is just the loud minority but in this case it's not true. This is very much the Indiana majority. But the real question is - should Indiana fans just accept who they are. They want this return to glory and prove they are a blue blood. But they've had, what, 1-2 successful seasons since the title run? They were a 1 seed under Crean once. They made the Sweet 16 as a 4 seed. They've finished ranked in the top-25 just 4 times since then. That's not a good program. That's a middling program that has no idea the direction it should go. I'm not even saying Archie is the answer, it's just this is the cycle for Indiana fans. They are going to get annoyed every 3-4 years, fire a coach, hire someone, underachieve, rinse and repeat. Only one man can save Indiana
Guess what? He's not coming. Indiana fans scream about bringing someone home - who is it exactly? Stevens isn't coming. Steve Alford? Seems like you missed the boat on him. Dane Fife? Sure, he's a great young coach but has zero high-major head coaching experience. So the cycle is just going to repeat itself. At some point Indiana has to accept who it is. A program that's stuck in the middle and needs a long-term solution to figure it out. I typically say give coaches 3-4 years when they get hired, get their recruits in and see how it goes.
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I think Archie is a decent coach, but it's not going to work out at Indiana. They are firmly on the bubble again. Some have them projected as a last-4 team in, last-4 bye and some have them out. We could very well be looking at the biggest job opening up this offseason again at Indiana. Now if you don't mind me, I gotta say it one time.
YOU HATE TO SEE IT.