Badgers Beat Hoosiers: Where’s Dan Dakich when you need him?

Once again the Indiana Hoosiers played well until it was time to win and when that time came, it was the team with the more competent coach who took over. In the Big Ten is there a worse coach than Archie Miller? Against Wisconsin, they had a hard time even fouling down the stretch. As always Miller looked lost on the sideline and then in his post-game press conference he looked like a fool singling out Joe Lunardi because he doesn’t think as highly of the eleventh place Hoosiers as I guess Archie thinks he should. Here is the clip of Archie verbally going after Lunardi who before the game had Indiana playing in the First Four in Dayton as one of the last teams in the bracket.

Now remember Lunardi’s job is to guess where he thinks a team will fall in the March Madness brackets and he has no direct impact on whether the Hoosiers get in or not. My big question is why Archie even cares what Lunardi thinks? Is it because the excuses are running dry? Is his seat getting a little hot? It should be as the Hoosiers brought Miller in to get the Hoosiers back to relevancy and he has failed big time to do that.

I hear fans all the time say it takes a while to get it done. That would be a fine answer if it were true, but the proof would say it’s not. After Archie left Dayton the Flyers hired a head coach in Anthony Grant and in this his third year the Flyers are a Final Four contender. Chris Mack went to Louisville and with a team picked to not get anywhere near the NCAA Tournament he got them there in year one. Mick Cronin went to a mess at UCLA and in his first go-round he looks headed for the tournament. For every Coach K at Duke that took 3 or 4 years to get it done there are 10 guys who got it done within 4 years.

Now we hear that the classes he has coming in will turn it around. Is that right? If you remember last year everybody was excited because he got Romeo Langford and how did that turn out? The Hoosiers are a mentally weak team that folds when the fire is at its hottest at the end of the game and a team is usually a direct reflection of its head coach. Watch Archie constantly lose his composure at important times and you will see why his team does, they follow his lead.

Don’t get me wrong the Hoosiers are not an overly talented team but you do not have to be to win. You can win by being tough and playing smart and these are things Archie obviously has not instilled in his team. After losing to Wisconsin he wants to go after a reporter? Really?

Archie’s team is soft because they are not demanded to be tough. The Hoosier basketball program is no longer relevant on a national stage since 2000 because of it. I know some blame the administration and say they hamstring Archie, but my response is he took the job and probably knew what the rules were, so he has to figure it out.

The only coach in the last 20 years that expected accountability from his players was the short interim coaching job done by former Hoosier player Dan Dakich and I sure wish he was the guy they would have let coach this program! I know a lot of people do not like Dakich but let me ask you this: Did you like Davis, Sampson, Crean or Miller? I don’t care if I like the Hoosiers coach, I care if when I watch the Hoosiers play they represent the name on the front of the shirt, and for the most part they have not. Indiana Basketball is not what it used to be and a lot of that falls on Indiana’s Administration and Head Coach Archie Miller. So, Archie go ahead and rip Joe Lunardi but remember this Lunardi was doing his job to the best of his ability, are you?