Calls for Archie Miller’s job are beyond silly – fans need to relax and let his plan play out

Indiana Basketball struggled in last night’s loss at Rutgers in the same ways it has for the past two-plus years, and fans went wild on social media with calls for change.

Tweets from outraged fans responded to last night’s disappointing 59-50 loss at Rutgers with calls for outgoing AD Fred Glass to bow out as athletic director with a final act of accommodation for their ill-temper – “FIRE ARCHIE MILLER!”

Glass is as unlikely to fire Miller as he is to streak through the Union before slapping his bare ass on a booth at Nick’s to eat lunch and play Sink the Biz at a table of Delta Gammas.  He’ll stay the course with Miller because Glass is smart enough to not overreact to every bit of negativity that comes from petulant IU fans.

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Sane people can argue over whether Miller was the right hire in 2017 after Tom Crean was fired.  Maybe Glass should have brought in a coach from the Bob Knight coaching tree.  Maybe he should have cracked open the piggy bank to lure an unquestioned coaching great to IU.  Those conversations are reasonable.

What is not reasonable is any chat about IU Basketball that begins with “Archie Miller needs to be fired!”

I get it.  Fans are angry, and they want change.  They want accountability.  They don’t want to hear calls for patience as Miller rebuilds by recruiting to a culture rather than the measurables and raw talent Crean craved.

Fans see poor shooting, sloppy ball handling, and players lost on the defensive end, and they want improvement right away.  They hear Miller talk about how his team’s shooting stats are poor because of shot selection.  They hear Miller explain how difficult it is to win on the road. Their blood pressure explodes with every excuse.

Wisdom calls for patience, and so do pragmatic concerns.  Here’s what happens if Glass acts upon the counsel of crimson-faced fans:

• Potential candidates would shun IU as a school serious about winning the right way.
• Another coach with another system comes in to rebuild through recruiting.  That resets the clock from the middle of year three back to year one in a rebuild.
• Indiana has to pay 100% of its remaining obligation to Miller, whose contact runs four additional years after this one.
• Miller could still be the right guy for the job, and firing him would be regretted for generations if that’s the case.

There are another dozen downsides to turning Miller loose.  The upside?  Crazy fans feel good for 15 minutes before realizing a dire mistake has been made.

So let’s dial back the rancor and see Indiana Basketball for what it is – a program in the midst of a battle among two different factions; Crean recruits and Miller recruits.  Nothing against either of these groups.  They are just built differently as basketball players.

As a result, there is discombobulation – an obvious disharmony that corrupts IU’s ability to be a cohesive unit.  The seniors were Crean guys, and they can’t lead the Miller guys who understand success has to wait for them to cycle out.  Everyone tries, but in their own specific ways.  It’s miserable to watch, and likely worse to participate in.

Miller’s decision to try to retain the Crean guys was made to help IU win as many games as possible while the cultural change occurred over a four-year period has resulted in mediocrity.  That isn’t as bad as it could have been.

No one wanted to go through another season like 2008-2009, right?

The news isn’t all bad for IU.  Indiana high school kids actually want to play at IU for the first time in almost a decade, and that has led to Mr. Basketballs pledging IU in consecutive years for the first time since Pat Graham and Damon Bailey won the award in 1989 and 1990.  IU might land a third if Bloomington South’s Anthony Leal wins.

I’m not saying IU will definitively turn the corner in 2021-2022, but the odds of that happening with Miller as the head coach are much better than we Glass goes nuts and listens to the impatient rantings of angry Hoosier fans.

A new coach would bring a new era with the same old problem.  Take a deep breath and watch with hope for the present and the future.  That hope is better invested in Miller than any near-term alternative.