From an overall wins and losses/program standards standpoint being a bubble team again should not be acceptable for Indiana basketball.
From the perspective of where our program sits versus our conference peers. I don’t see Archie passing any of the established good coaches like Izzo, Painter, or Gard. One of the reasons I stayed on the Archie train until recently is I thought he and his programs were solid enough to get up on Izzo and Gard’s heels. And to compete well enough with the newer guys to be a top 4-5 conference program year in and year out. That would be good enough I think. But with Howard, Underwood, Paikal, and Holtmans success...I don’t see how Archie lifts us to even top 6-7 anytime soon. And anytime THAT is Indiana’s realistic ceiling forecast for a few years...the coach should be fired. We are still Indiana, if the admin wants to be that is.
From the perspective of basketball philosophies and gameplay issues. His offense is now painfully proven to be mediocre. And worse, now likely turning away the types of recruits any coach will need to compete at the top of the B10. Blue chip perimeter guys saw, or will be told, how his offense largely wasted the talents of Romeo Langford. We have a specific case this past recruiting cycle on how we lost Trey Kaufman, a kid we had very good chances of landing, because of how Archie envisioned using him in his offense. Many blamed it on a comparison with TJD. And I’m sure that’s part of it, but more to the point, it was likely about how TJD is being used at IU, and how that isn’t really appealing to many of today’s top players. And isn’t really helping TJD, or our team, get anywhere nearer their respective goals.
So you have inadequate results versus what should be the expectation...your underperforming many of your direct peers...theirs little prospect for improved performance...and there are fundamental aspects of your program that are broken and don’t appear to being fixed.
Where does that ever equal anything other than termination?
I have extremely high expectations for IU basketball, but the Hoosiers haven't met them for years. Of course, I attended IU from 1972-76. It shocked me when the Hoosiers made it to the final four in 1973, but it didn't surprise me when they won it all in 1976. Of course, I predicted they would go unbeaten and win it all before the season started in my senior year.
When did I predict it? I covered football for the Indiana Daily Student the fall of 1975. The sports editor asked whether I wanted to become sports editor the second semester and I declined it because I wanted to cover IU basketball. In those days, the sports editor did not cover sports because he was too busy editing articles and laying out the pages. When I mentioned I wanted to cover IU basketball, he said I would have IU basketball assigned to me if I wasn't sports editor.
A few weeks later, there was a meeting at the Ernie Pyle Building to announce which two individuals would be covering IU basketball. When they assigned it to two underclassmen instead of another senior and me, I asked why I didn't get to cover IU basketball. I was informed that I was too close to the players and I wouldn't be able to be objective. I asked how objective I would need to be because the Hoosiers would go unbeaten and win it all.
Because I was afraid I was going to deck somebody, I hustled across the street to the HPER Building and lifted weights for about 30 minutes. That probably was a good move on my part because it enabled me to keep my composure.
A couple of weeks later, the two reporters covering IU basketball said they almost missed the plane to the first away game. They weren't wearing suits and ties when they attempted to get on the plane and Bob Knight said they couldn't get on the plane without them. The two of them hustled back to their apartments to get suits and ties and barely made it back in time to get on the plane.
One of the trainers saw me a couple of days later and asked whether I had heard what Knight had done to the two reporters. He said Knight did it to exact revenge because he wanted the other senior and me to cover IU basketball. When I saw Knight later, I asked whether that was why he did it and he confirmed it.
Even though I got screwed out of covering IU basketball, I still love IU basketball. Because the Hoosiers won three NCAA championships between 1976 and 1987, I always assumed they were going to win at least one NCAA title every 10 years. That said, these last 33 or so years have been very disappointing.
At 67 years of age, I have two goals regarding IU basketball. The first one is I want the Hoosiers to win at least one more NCAA championship during my lifetime. The second one is I don't want any other team to go unbeaten and win the NCAA championship in basketball before I die.
Let's all agree that people have different opinions on the state of the program, its coach, and its future and discuss this reasonably and rationally instead of emotionally. I know, too much to ask, but what the hey. 
