According to the University itself, Archie Miller is now the new head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. IU has officially found their Tom Crean replacement. The former Dayton Head Coach burst into the national radar in 2014 when he led the Flyers to the Elite 8. Since then, he had been considered the new Shaka Smart of sorts, but his then current school rewarded him with a new lucrative contract extension.
Miller has been the guy in high demand every March when high major programs make regime changes and hunt for replacements.
A new era of Indiana Basketball begins now.
Welcome @Archie_Miller!!! #iubb ?????? pic.twitter.com/Gf2UDEbZDr
— Indiana Basketball (@IndianaMBB) March 25, 2017
Following Dayton’s first round exit to Wichita State, Archie Miller was asked by a reporter about his being linked to both the Illinois and Indiana jobs. He refused to comment, and the reporter was widely panned for his actions, and the timing of his question.
Like that reporter, Morgan Miller, the wife of Archie Miller, recently took a lot of heat over something “said” in public.
Right after Dayton lost to Northwestern at the United Center in mid-December, she made this ALL CAPS tweet absolutely shredding the Wildcats and their program. It has since been deleted, but now the Millers move to the B1G, where they’ll get to face NU at least once, often twice, and maybe even three times a season on rare occasions.
Thus, you already have a built-in rivalry for those games. There had been talk IU was considering the idea of poaching Steve Alford, a member of the Hoosiers’ National Championship team of 1987 as a player, away from UCLA.
That would have been disastrous for many reasons, with the off-the-court problems greatly overshadowing the Alford’s inability to ever reach the Elite 8 or beyond in his 22 years of coaching.
The Hoosiers went the right way with this call, and most people seem to agree with this decision. Illinois hired Brad Underwood, a turnaround artist who brings a fun to watch, high scoring brand of basketball to the table. With his addition, and now Archie Miller as well, the B1G will be much better next season, as two of the bigger brand names, who can boast of tradition and history, have now gotten much better.
Both U of I and IU had fallen on hard times lately, but 2017-18 begins the rebirth for both storied programs. Welcome to the B1G Archie Miller.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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