Archie Miller is the Right Man for the Job at Indiana

Archie Miller was hired as the head basketball coach Saturday by Indiana University. This will be another attempt by Fred Glass and the Indiana University administration to bring the Hoosiers back to National Prominence. After numerous failed hires, the Hoosier administration has finally gotten the right man for the job.

The Hoosiers Basketball program since the firing of legendary coach Bob Knight has gone from one of the best programs in the country to being a second rate program in their own state. The top team in the state over the last decade has been believe it or not the Butler Bulldogs. The Hoosiers have a proud history of success from Branch McCraken to Bob Knight, which includes five National Championships and the entire state expects nothing less, but since the beginning of this century, the Hoosiers have fallen well short of this goal.

Hoosier Hysteria as it was known died in the late 90’s as the Hoosiers under Knight continually lost in the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament and also the end of the legendary High School single class basketball tournament that Indiana was famous for which ended in the late 90’s.

The biggest problem that came with the firing of Knight and the hiring of Mike Davis and then Kelvin Sampson was the fact that under Coach Knight the Hoosiers didn’t just win, they won the right way. What does that mean? It means that players were held to a higher standard and were, in fact, student-athletes. Indiana graduated its players, and they won games, what more could you ask for from a College program?

Now to rectify the situation in stepd Archie Miller is a man who has done it the right way at Dayton, even leading Dayton to an elite eight a few years ago. He has grown up in a family of excellent coaches, from his Father who was a legendary High School coach in Pennsylvania to his brother Sean who is the current coach at Arizona.

If you want an honorable man running your program just look at Archie Miller’s history when it comes to disciplining players. Dayton dismissed junior forwards Devon Scott and Jalen Robinson in 2014. The decision was related to a series of thefts from residence halls on campus, according to the Dayton Daily News. The players were key figures in Dayton reaching the Elite Eight the previous season, but the Flyers went 25-8 without them. Miller stood for his principals instead of worrying about his won-loss record. Another incident occurred last season when Dayton suspended star Dyshawn Pierre for a semester during the season after a hearing board had determined he violated the university’s policy on unwanted sexual contact.

Now can he recruit the state of Indiana? I think there can be little doubt that Miller can recruit this state and he is an excellent coach just look at what he did in Dayton?

Now can I.U. fans get off his back and let him turn this around? That may be the biggest question there is; Miller will get it done in Indiana. If you are a fan  I feel your pain, this entire century has been painful and trying as a Hoosier. But, the man is now on campus that can bring back the glory days of the Hoosiers, now if we could just get the state high school basketball tournament back to the way it was?