He can still be frustrated with his team while also acknowledging that his team still has the resume to get invited to the tournament. The tone of Doyel's question in my opinion was to get Archie to say something along the lines of "my team doesn't deserve to make it". Archie clearly feels differently.
I think we're talking past each other here.
Once again, I think Archie should've avoided Doyel's question entirely. There are lots of ways to do that. Generally speaking, I think coaches would always be well-served, in any circumstance, to demur on responding to things pundits write. And besides, it really doesn't matter whether Archie Miller or Joe Lunardi think Indiana belongs in the tournament. That decision is in other peoples' hands and the opinions of Miller, Doyel, and Lunardi are of no consequence.
What Archie should be addressing -- publicly, Geez -- is the fact that his team has not met expectations, why he thinks that is, and what he intends to do about it to fix it. You're right that I don't know what he says to his team behind closed doors. But I can see with my own two eyes that whatever it is hasn't improved what they bring to the court. A lot of people have a lot invested in Indiana basketball -- and, yes, I absolutely do think he owes us way more than what he's given us in the way of acknowledgement of the poor results and some indication that he realizes they aren't satisfactory and is up to the task of fixing it.
After all, he doesn't seem to have a problem cashing the checks.