Q & A: Archie Miller on the task he

faces in restoring the luster at Indiana

By Brian Hamilton 4 hours ago

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Archie Miller is not generally a big watch-
the-film guy in the immediate aftermath of a game. But when your
Hoosiers just had a 9 p.m. ET tipoff against Duke and youre waiting for
a great rush of adrenaline to peter out and you have another tilt in two
days well, you have to pass the time somehow. Which explains the
4:30 a.m. bedtime and the red Starbucks coffee cup resting atop his desk.
What are you gonna do at 2:30 in the morning when you cant sleep?
the Indiana coach says, sitting in his office mere hours later. You might
as well watch the game.
Its the last day of November and Miller is still processing dueling
emotions about that video, about what transpired the previous evening at
Assembly Hall. On the one hand, hes ticked the Hoosiers let slip a
chance to upset the No. 1 team in the country because they couldnt
muster a couple of defensive stops or make a couple more free throws.
On the other hand, he saw a team that for the first time looked confident
in the system. Like it truly believed in what Miller and his staff are
selling.
Miller hadnt seen that during a mercurial first month on the job. Not to
that level. And the seemingly conflicting perspectives appreciation of
the effort and utter dissatisfaction with the result is pretty much
emblematic of the entire paradigm here. Everyone has to appreciate
evidence of progress, even if the payoff comes much later. Its hard,
man, Miller says. It eats at you. Not used to losing a ton. You want to
make sure your team understands that, you know, its not O.K. And we
gotta get better. But at the same time, we are improving.
Over its next five days, Indiana would endure more pendulum swings,
losing by 14 at Michigan before beating Iowa by 13 at home. Now a
Saturday date at Louisville awaits. Before all that, Miller spoke with The
Fieldhouse about the ups and downs in the early stages of Year 1,
managing a new life in the limelight and why he believes his team still
has the capacity to make a statement this season.
FH: Does anything prepare you for adversity at a place like this?
AM: You dive into your own unique experiences. Adversity at Indiana
is adversity anywhere. Dont make it any bigger than it is. Weve dealt
with our fair share. At Dayton, we dealt with our fair share of adversity,
at a proud basketball town and place. Understanding how to react with
your team is the most important thing, and understanding how to
approach the staff is an important thing. The rest is irrelevant, because
you cant control it.
So you have to deal with the task at hand. And to me, we dealt with a lot
of that in our time, whether it be suspensions or injuries or a guy passing
away, unfortunately. Youve seen it all, in many ways. Losing a game,
or at least in the beginning stages as were teaching and retooling and
trying to work at it understand you probably pretty much did the
same thing, youre just a little bit more in the limelight right now and it's
probably a little bit more exposed. And theres a lot more hype around
every move you make. You just have to stay in the moment, be yourself.
Thats the big key.
FH: You all right with the limelight? I guess you have to be if you
take this job.
AM: Yeah, you have to be. You get used to it. Whether its negative or
positive, you cant really read into it, because the biggest thing you have
to do is become better at what you do. Its not like Im a finished
product myself. As a player, if you have a bad game I always relate
everything back to playing. If youre a player, and you have a bad game
or youre going through a rut, what do you do? Well, you have to give
yourself confidence by working at it and trying to improve yourself. Its
no different as a coach. How do you get better as a coach, through
adversity or not playing well? Dive into it. What can I do better? How
can I be better for them? How can we as a staff be a little better for
them? Just staying out of the mix of the emotional roller-coaster and just
focusing on improvement is huge.
FH: Whose voices do you hear as youre going through ups and
downs?
AM: Number one, when youre going through it, the only thing you
have at your disposal is your staff. And we have an excellent staff here.
We have a lot of experience. We have former head coaches. We have
guys who have been to Final Fours. We have guys who have been with
me for six straight years. Relying on that communication and taking
information in and processing it in many ways, assistant coaches
have a great pulse on whats going on. One, you deal with your staff
every day. You have to take to heart that maybe in some ways we can do
things differently. Maybe what has worked in the past is not working
now.
The other thing is, deal with your players every day. Dont act as if, hey,
were off to a rocky start or, hey, everyone told you you werent going
to be good this year. Uh-uh. Just deal singularly with your players.
Every conversation you have with them has to be real. Every time you
have a guy you can impact in a positive way and help the team is an
assist. So spending time with them individually, although it takes time,
is what it's about.
Outside influences and all that, you know, you can listen to your dad on
the phone after a game, you can listen to your brother when you have
that opportunity. But at the end of the day, youre in it. And if youre in
it, you have to rely on the people who are with you here. Our
administration is top-notch. The fans have been top-notch. Everyone
understands, lets watch this team grow up a little bit. Lets see if they
can put something together.
FH: I wondered if there was something you reach back to, whether
its words from your dad or your brother, Sean, or whatever.
AM: You know what I reach back to? [He pounds a binder on his desk,
one of 18 he has in his office.] These things right here. Every season
book that Ive been part of as a coach, head coach or assistant. You rely
on last years time I wonder what we were doing on Dec. 3 last
year. You always jot your notes on practice plans. I can go back and
look at the same practice plan on the same date and have the same
comment with a team you felt was an A-10 regular-season champ, and
you said the same thing: Were not playing hard. Were disconnected.
The coaching staff has to do better. You look back and say, Well,
shoot, were kind of doing the same thing right now. Now were
probably not as good at what we were doing there. But its the same.
Every team goes through the same grind, regardless of circumstances.
Whether you have a lot of returning guys or a lot of new guys. you have
to fight through it and go with the flow.
FH: Whats the balance for you right now between pushing and
understanding?
AM: I think thats a good question. You dont want to browbeat, and
you dont want to use all of your bullets. You only have so many times
you can be negative, or hard. But when weve had that time to be serious
with them and understand it, weve gotten results. Ive also taken a lot
more pride in myself and really understanding, what are we doing in
practice that can help us in the game, that we need to teach better? If we
do that a little better, then maybe we can get some little details that help
us in a big way. Teaching is everything. Understanding that were a long
way from the end of the season and everyone has been a part of teams at
the beginning who are sort of figuring it out, and everybody has been
part of teams that, at some point, did figure it out, and the next thing you
knew, something special happened. I think something special can
happen this year with this team. I really do. With what we have in
Assembly Hall, on any given night its possible. As we get a little more
connected and we get better, the competition level is going to teach us
how we have to play. But Im optimistic that if we just keep sticking
with it and finding a way, well have some good moments.

Johnson is averaging 12.7 points, but he has only one more assist (21) than turnovers. (Photo by
Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

FH: Your guys are all new to you, but who has been the most
reliable extension of your voice?
AM: Its probably [senior forward] Collin Hartmann. The tough thing is,
Collin hasnt had the ability to be with us every day in the grind of
practice and in the games. Youre starting to see how he can impact us.
He is a big-game player. He is completely entrenched and understands
that this is his last shot. He is also a terrific assistant coach. He just is. If
hes around, if hes engaged with the locker room, thats a huge deal.
Getting him to hopefully help us throughout the course of the season is a
big, big asset.
I think [guard] Rob Johnson, quietly, has really stuck with it. Hes been
a real tough-minded guy for us. And hes a senior. When you have
seniors trying their butts off to do the right thing, instead of
[thinking], This isnt going to be good in my last go-around; woe is me,
you can do it. Because guys will follow them. Were seeing our young
guys kind of grow up. DeRon [Davis, a sophomore forward] played
maybe 10 to 12 minutes a game last year. Hes in a much different role
this year. Hes learning to play long stretches. And all the way around
I dont want to not name anybody, but if you just started and stopped
and said, Hey, what are those seniors going to do for you? theyre
above and beyond the call of duty right now.
FH: Is Johnson affecting winning in the ways you want him to?
AM: His turnovers are a little better, his shot selection is good the
one thing weve really [emphasized] to Rob is, you gotta be a tough
dude for us, man. Youre going to be our rock. Youre going to play 30-
something minutes, youre guarding Grayson Allen [of Duke], youre
guarding Desi Rodriguez [of Seton Hall], it is what it is. Tell you what,
hes battling, man. Hes hanging tough. Hes not satisfied with losing.
Its not O.K. with him. Watching him in practice use his voice, watching
him in practice verbally, physically get after people thats a great sign
here in the last 10 days. What hes realizing is, its going to come down
to me getting these other guys to come with me. Thats a big part of this
thing having everybody motivated like him.
FH: Last year DeRon Davis shot 75.6 percent from the line. This
year hes shooting 45.2 percent.
AM: Weird flip. Hes a better free-throw shooter than he is [showing].
When he steps up there, theres a gasp. You can feel it. Make the first
one, hes probably all right. But hes a better free-throw shooter than
that, and as we get through the season, hell improve his percentage. He
knows how important its going to be. Hes got to stay some extra; hes
got to work at it. Even when were doing our stuff in practice or our
drills, hes got to have some pride in himself to be even more
concentrated in that area, because its big. But hes giving us a presence.
When hes on the floor for long stretches, hes really hard to deal with.
Gotta keep him from silly fouling.
FH: Like you said last night, he hits free throws, it changes
everything.
AM: You may not win the game. But you have a hard time containing
that team if you cant keep scoring. Thats the one thing about Duke a
lot of people are going to figure out they have a guy on their team,
regardless of the circumstances on a given night, they can ride for about
five minutes, in [Marvin] Bagley, [Wendell] Carter, Allen. And if you
have a five-minute lull, like they can put you in when they start to turn it
up and use their length and quickness, you have to assume theyre going
to keep scoring. And thats a big thing with Duke why have they been
able to rally? Well, theyve been able to rally a lot because they
consistently can score in a lot of ways. Boom, boom, boom. And when
you cant knock two [free throws] down and keep it at a one-possession
game or go 1 for 2 when you go 0 for 2, its deflating when they
score. A simple three-point play goes to a six-point game, and thats
insurmountable sometimes against them. For us, last night was about
continuing to score and being able to run good offense. Take that into
moving down the line, execution at the end of the game how can we
as a staff be better, quicker, and get the ball where we need to get it, to
the right people? Well make some corrections there.
FH: Youre 219th in defensive efficiency. [After its first two Big Ten
games, Indiana rose to 179th nationally.] What do you need to be
better at there?
AM: Everything. Everything. If youd have told me wed be 219th on
defense, I wouldve laughed and said, Ill give you a million dollars.
Were teaching defense the same way weve always taught defense.
Now it is a process. Were going through some growing pains. I dont
lack effort in the game. I lack discipline. I think we lack some size. Just
in general, we have to be more sound in what were doing. Well get
better. Theres a quest on that. [Duke] is a great offensive team, so you
have to give that to them. To hold them down you have to be really deep
and really big and disciplined. But for us, that 219, that has to keep
going down and down and down. Because were not the 219th-best
defensive team. Were just from an efficiency standpoint getting killed
on the 3-point line, youre getting killed putting teams on the foul line,
and those are correctable with some things that if we keep teaching
them, well get better at them.
FH: So life outside of basketball here in a little more of the fishbowl
are you enjoying the life of being Indianas head coach?
AM: Im not that guy whos into going out to a restaurant and having
everybody kind of stare at you. Thats not my thing. But it was like that
at the last place. This place is a college town. Its smaller, so everywhere
you go, everything you do, you kind of know youre going to be a focal
point. The good thing for me is, Im not really into the social aspect of,
Im everywhere. If Im not here, Im usually with my family. But I like
Bloomington. The college life here is fun to be around. But my family is
pretty contained. To me, the life in the fishbowl isnt as big a deal,
because Im not trying to be out in the fishbowl a whole lot.
(Top photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)