It ain't the coach folks....
- Thread starter SouthBendJim
- Start date
Outside of the Kentucky's of the world, most successful teams have good upperclassmen. We do not have that. Davis is a walking mummy and you never know what your getting with Green.
Again, I tend to believe someone like Don Fischer when he says that Archie seems to be "handcuffed" with this team. Again, his words, not mine.
No, it's quite logical. The "Administration" i.e. Michael McRobbie does not care about sports. He basically told Fred that he didn't want to hear about any sports issues any more. I think this was after the Devin Davis incident.
I think this is exactly what the administration wants. A team and players that stays out of the news, causes no problems, goes to class, and graduates. Winning games? Nice but not necessary.
I think the handcuffing he references is that certain players aren’t willing to change for the benefit of the team, and that’s what is hampering Miller’s efforts. He grew up around basketball and was a multi year, P5 starter. He knows that program culture, along with talent, is everything. And if you don’t have the right culture, the talent will never take you that far. See Purdue for a textbook example of what culture can do, and IU for what a team looks like when the culture is bad.
There’s no accountability. To the coach. To each other. Miller said he felt bad for the players. That’s not accountability, that’s coddling and reinforcing negative behavior. And it will never produce a winner. If things don’t turn quickly, recruiting will slide even more, and then the bottom will fall out.
While overstated, there is some truth to this. I don't know Dr McRobbie personally, but listening to him in small group social conversation at the bowl game, he doesn't seem plugged in very deeply.
So, if he didn't have the right players from the get go, how is he to change the culture than? Again, he couldn't just start cutting kids because of the APR is so bad.
I would contest that while he didn't have to bring Smith and Durham on the team, who would he have signed then? Basketball recruiting isn't like football when kids flip all the time. I went back and looked, damn near every big 10 school had there class locked up before Archie was hired.
So if we don't bring in Smith and Durham, than were in really bad shape at this point. Again, he could have told them to kick rocks, but he would have been behind the 8 ball even more in my opinion and didn't have much of a choice.
Archie had two NBA players on the team last year and didn't make the dance. I don't disagree about the talent level, but the coach isn't getting it done.
They were in bad shape regardless, so why not bring in and keep kids who would help build the culture, rather than a few who would inhibit it’s growth? Pretending Miller didn’t have options, especially when Glass characterized IU as a rebuild, was a wasted opportunity. Now, nearly three years later, the work and choices not done then still needs to be done, but now it must occur under the burden of disappointment over unrealized expectations. It’s also got to be done under a tightening recruiting scenario wherein kids, their parents and coaches all know that Miller is moving closer to lame duck status every day.
IU, and Miller, had a chance to bite the bullet a few years ago and build a team with kids who were all in, and they kicked the can down the road. It’s still there but now it’s rusty, and the work of crafting a winning culture still hasn’t been done.
Again, he couldn't cut kids, so that wasn't a option. Who was he gonna bring in then? All the good recruits had all ready committed. He wasn't getting a Kevin Knox type commit. So does he not take the chance on the kids that Crean was bringing in? Smith and Moore at the time were 150 kids and Durham was thought to be a Archie type recruit, kid that does the dirty work. If we cut bait with them, would you have saved those scholarships or tried and brought in some other kids knowing they probably weren't gonna be as good, remembering the season starts in 6 months. He almost had to take them, just to keep classes even, in my opinion.
He was put in a bad situation, like you said and I don't think he thought it would be this difficult to get out of it. Like it or not, the name Indiana doesn't have the pull like a lot of our fans thinks it does, and Archie is finding that out the hard way.
Yes, it was an option, just as it was an option to not bring in certain kids. IU was in a rebuild and the culture needed to be fixed. He’s failed to do that, and the failure started three years ago. Making excuses for why he couldn’t make the changes he needed to is a symptom of the problem, just as relying on Rivals rankings to justify poor decisions is.
On your last point, my cousin coached Cooper at Olney. He told me he could flat out shoot and is a great teammate and great to have in the locker room. I would give him a chance. We need shooters and players TGAF.
This team isn't having fun. They don't cut sharply. They seem to lack a sense of urgency and when they can change their fortunes with additional effort. They play at one speed. I've said it before. They play like nobody is keeping score..
Archie isn't getting results. The season isn't over, but we saw this last year. Things need r change now/
I was using the rankings as a guideline. I could care less about rankings as my post history can attest to. I'm always about who has offered.
Again, if Archie doesn't bring in that 2017 class, who is he bringing in then? We're not getting anyone good that late in the cycle, putting him that much more behind the 8 ball.
You keep saying it's excuses, but haven't come up with any other ways around the problem. It's easy to say now what he should have done, but at the time, he's gotta get talent in here to win games. There wasn't a lot available.
Now, where i do fault him is i was saying he needed to bring in a point guard. I've been saying that for a year now. I saw that once Rob went down last year, we were in trouble and that's exactly what's happened this year. If he sits, we go on slides. Al just isn't a point. I think he has finally realized that.
Looking back now and saying we wouldn’t have gotten anyone else isn’t the point, it’s that we didn’t get anyone good with whom we brought in. Archie was in a rebuild and had a new coach window to build the roster with his kind of kids. He whiffed. He failed to bring in talented kids. That’s not really up for debate. Who would he have gotten instead? That’s his challenge in accepting a new job, isn’t it? And saying that no one else was available is just an excuse for not doing the job he was hired to do.
That's where the BOT should be stepping in to force his hand. Particularly now that he is a lame duck. F--- McRobbie, when it comes to a decision on the athletic programs, he should have zero say at this point.
McRobbie is indifferent to athletics. And the BOT did intervene when Glass wanted to keep Crean. But there’s too much transition right now for anything to happen to Miller in the near term.
Would you have traded Durham for McKinley Wright who was committed to Miller at Dayton but ended up going to Colorado when Miller got the Indiana job? Or Moore for Wright?
There is one guy who would have filled a need for us.
The BOT has been involved from time to time.
Glass was blocked from removing Crean a season earlier than he did...and then one well-known BOT member stepped in and helped him make it happen when he did. I got this directly from two BOT members I met with in a fundraising planning meeting.
I don't mind keeping Smith and Durham. I do mind that they are starting and IU is depending on them to be consistent. They just aren't consistent players that can be depended upon to win. Archie should have brought in better players by now.
I have heard that Buckner helped force the issue. I have also heard that Shoulders is on his last run, him leaving will be a net positive as well.
Buckner, with support from other Trustees, did force the issue, since Glass did not want to push Crean out. He (Glass) was so sure he would prevail that he assured Crean he was staying, as Crean had specifically asked for clarity in front of a planned family vacation. Then QB and the BOT intervened and helped Glass do what he absolutely did not want to do.
You got the name right. It was Quinn that helped Glass get it done when other BOT members were against him.
Then we would be hearing,”Why did he not take those recruits?” He was late to the recruiting game as a lot of new coaches are. He had to take them.
Similar threads
