Author Archives: Kent Sterling

IU Basketball – for 1st time in a generation, IU seems to have right guy in Archie Miller

Not with Bob Knight late, nor with Mike Davis, Kelvin Sampson and Tom Crean, but with Archie Miller the fit between coach and Indiana’s program finally feels right.

As each Indiana University basketball coach has been hired over the past 16 1/2 years, I had a visceral response of “Oh no!” as I either learned they were hired or listened to them speak for the first time.  Usually both.

When I heard Archie Miller was going to be hired as the next coach, I was ambivalent.  Everyone who follows college hoops knows he has done a very nice job building an A-10 winner, but his personality has remained under the radar.

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Listening to him speak at the introduction ceremony at Simon-Skjodt Assembly Hall, I was impressed by his manner as much as his words.  There was no rah-rah crap, no salesmanship.  He seemed to be a coach – just a coach.

As a guest on my radio show yesterday, I asked him all kinds of questions – few about basketball.  I wanted to know about his leadership philosophies, and to get to know him a little bit better.

Miller’s answers revealed a likable guy who has no compulsion to be liked, a leader who believes authenticity is the key to unlocking potential, and a coach who enjoys coaching more than anything.

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It’s way too early to know what kind of basketball product Miller will lead onto the floor at Assembly Hall in seven months, but for the first time in a generation I feel like Indiana Basketball is in the right hands.  That feeling gets stronger every time I hear him interviewed.

Give the interview from yesterday’s show a listen, and share your thoughts:

https://soundcloud.com/sports1430/archie_miller-on-his-plans-as-ius-basketball-coach-what-has-shaped-his-basketball-life-iubb

Indiana Basketball – Archie Miller is a basketball coach, not a brand

Archie Miller remains a great unknown a coaching because he is a coach – not a brand.

The thing I like best about Archie Miller being named basketball coach at Indiana University is that I know nothing about him.

I had no response to the news a day ago that IU athletic director Fred Glass had tabbed Miller – I mean none.  Not a whoop, smile, frown, or grimace.  The news had no impact upon me whatsoever.

Miller has spent the last six years coaching basketball at the University of Dayton – less than two hours from my house – and I have no opinion about him as a person whatsoever.

I am prone to the quick development of opinions.  I feel something about almost everything, and somehow this coach leading the best program in the Atlantic 10 never made an impact on me one way or another.

We all know the things – the resume’ – that put Miller on the list of candidates Indiana considered.  Dayton has won the A10 the last two years, earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament at the end of each of the last four seasons, and went to the Elite Eight in 2014. Continue reading →

Indiana Basketball – Fred Glass goes logical, hires Dayton’s Archie Miller

Archie Miller will be the next basketball coach at Indiana.

Archie Miller might be the perfect guy to lead Indiana basketball to its next era of hanging banners.

His ability to lead may be second only to George Patton.  Those five banners might welcome a sixth and seventh to the rafters at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall because of his rare genius.

What Miller is definitively not is the sexy choice.

Billy Donovan energized the conversation yesterday as erroneous and hilarious reports swirled that he and his wife visited Bloomington for a round of house hunting.

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Steve Alford was a popular candidate among the traditionalists who yearned for a bridge to IU’s last joyful championship celebration.

Brad Stevens was a pipe dream, but hope in the improbable was made rational by the empty office formerly occupied by Tom Crean.

Even Dane Fife would have brought a youthful and ultra-competitive exuberance as well as a link to the past to Bloomington.

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Miller?  Logical, competent, and clearly the best coach in the Atlantic 10.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-7p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

IU AD Fred Glass is going to hire the right guy – to him if for no one else

In less than two weeks, IU AD Fred Glass will announce his choice as Indiana’s next basketball coach, and some IU fans will be pissed.

“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself,” Rick Nelson, Garden Party.

Indiana University athletic director Fred Glass has a decision to make – assuming it hasn’t already been made – and the only person worth pleasing is Fred Glass.

Consensus building is unnecessary in the hiring of a basketball coach – even at a university where basketball is as important as it is in Indiana.

The downside can be losing games, NCAA violations, or shame brought by behaviorally challenged students.  The upside?  Championships, compliance, and pride in young men doing the right thing as they evolve into functional adults.

At risk is not quite the fate of the free world.

Continue reading →

Tom Crean showed multiple weaknesses by failing to show for his own firing

Tom Crean didn’t show for his own firing as basketball coach at Indiana University.

Tom Crean could have won his last game as basketball coach at Indiana University.

He chose to not play.

In the most interesting and revealing paragraph in Pete Thamel’s post on si.com featuring the first comments from Tom Cream about his firing as basketball coach at Indiana University, Thamel reported what he was told by Crean,

The next morning, Crean got a text message from athletic director Fred Glass to meet with him, which Crean inferred was to receive news of his dismissal. He declined. “At this point, I knew what was coming,” he said, “and wasn’t going to do that.”

Being fired sucks, but it’s part of life – especially in coaching.  Coaches can do a superb job and still get gassed if the results don’t reflect the level of work.  If fans aren’t engaged by the product, great coaching can be irrationally blamed.  That’s not what happened at Indiana, but Crean certainly could choose to look at his tenure as coach as a success while still acknowledging his time at IU needed to end. Continue reading →

IU Basketball – Al Durham & Clifton Moore ask for release as search for coach continues

Former Indiana signee Clifton Moore has decided to pursue other programs, and that isn’t all bad for IU.

A three-player recruiting class so uninspired it syphoned hope from a fanbase already running on empty lost two of its members yesterday.

Clifton Moore is ranked the 143rd best player in the class of 2017 and Al DSurham #239.  Both asked for their release yesterday because the guy who recruited them to Indiana has been fired.  Ironically, Tom Crean was fired at least in part because they were the best he could get.

Nothing against Moore, who is from Pennsylvania, and Durham, from Georgia, but the value of their scholarships might be greater than their value as basketball players.

Depending upon who the new coach of the Hoosiers will be, there is a very good chance that those two scholarships will be better invested in two players better able to provide immediate help for a program in dire need. Continue reading →

The victimization of Tom Crean begins with a Harbaugh op-ed piece on si.com

I’m guessing Jim and John Harbaugh will not be wearing these shirts again any time soon, nor did any Tom Crean led IU team justify their being printed.

Tom Crean had two options in leaving Indiana – admit his flaws led to uneven results, or point fingers at IU’s administration as those who caused his program to belch and sputter during three of the last four seasons.

Clearly, Crean and his family have chosen the latter, but his brothers-in-law are playing attack dog so Crean can appear to be above the fray.

I understand a brother-in-law getting pissed off about his sister’s husband getting axed from a high-profile job, but John and Jim Harbaugh’s whining about Crean’s ouster at IU is as absurd as it is factually bereft.

The Harbaughs made their case in a post on si.com by Michael Rosenberg, who spoke to the Harbaugh’s at nauseating length, but explains away the one-sidedness by saying he left an unreturned message for IU athletic director Fred Glass.  I guess in today’s journalism putting up a one-sided post beats waiting for a legitimate and circumspect look at a coaching change. Continue reading →

Tom Crean is going to be fine – save your sympathy for someone else

This is what Tom and Joani Crean are doing today. Life could be worse, and it is for many Hoosiers.

Let’s not waste our empathy on Tom Crean.

Yeah, he was fired yesterday, and that’s never pleasant for a person.  I’m sure hearing the news for Crean was an unpleasant and emotional moment, but is it really a worth an outpouring of sympathy from fans and pundits?

People making $28,000 a year are downsized every day in the Hoosier state, and we spend no time mourning their loss when the end of their road might end in homelessness.

Crean is not going to be homeless – ever.  Not if he lives to be 550 years old.

To walk out the door, Crean is guaranteed to receive $4,000,000 over the next three years.  That number will almost certainly be offset by future income, but it’s a nice safety net.  While the coach at Indiana, Crean was paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $28,000,000.  That’s a lot of jack for coaching hoops. Continue reading →

IU Basketball – Tom Crean fired at Indiana

It’s been a long nine years since this scene at Assembly Hall – ups, downs, and a lot of in between. It was the in-between that cost Tom Crean his job.

There really wasn’t much doubt this was coming.

Uneven results driven by scattershot recruiting and poor fundamental basketball left little reason for hope moving forward if Tom Crean remained as coach.

No amount of cheerleading or politicking could change the results of the last four years.  Indiana’s Big 10 record of 38-34 ranked eighth among conference foes.  That’s not Indiana.

Sure, there were the two Big 10 championships, but surrounding them were miserable seasons where the Hoosiers had trouble.

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Indiana could not afford to slip further into the abyss of mediocrity, regardless of the style of play they embraced, but Indiana’s style was so widely divergent from the historic Indiana brand that many fans refused to continue to indulge their Hoosier love.

That apathy was cited in the decision to forego the opportunity to play an opening round NIT game at Assembly Hall.

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And so Crean goes, and the speculation of who will be the next man to inherit the throne begins.

Kent Sterling hosts the fastest growing sportstalk show in Indianapolis on CBS Sports 1430 every weekday from 3p-7p, and writes about Indiana sports at kentsterling.com.

Indiana Basketball – Hoosiers are what they are – middle dwellers in the Big 10

There is a mythology about Indiana Basketball that the 2016-2017 season was an aberration caused by injury, inexperience, and a unique lack of leadership.

No question the injuries to Collin Hartman and O.G. Anunoby diminished the Hoosiers ability to successfully compete, but so did irresponsible recruiting and complex schemes.

As Indiana fans and administrators evaluate the state of the Indiana program under Tom Crean, a look at a four-year swath of Big 10 records should give us a broader view of Indiana’s place in the conference.   Continue reading →