Archie Miller (basketball)

Archie Miller

Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Indiana
Conference	Big Ten
Record	50–39
Annual salary	$3.3 million
Biographical details
Born	(1978-10-30) October 30, 1978 Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Playing career
1998–2002	NC State
Position(s)	Point guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2003–2004	Western Kentucky (assistant)
2004–2006	NC State (assistant)
2006–2007	Arizona State (assistant)
2007–2009	Ohio State (assistant)
2009–2011	Arizona (assistant)
2011–2017	Dayton
2017–present	Indiana
Head coaching record
Overall	189–102
Tournaments	5–4 (NCAA Division I) 2–2 (NIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
2 Atlantic 10 regular season (2016, 2017)
Awards
Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (2017)

Ryan Joseph "Archie" Miller (born October 30, 1978) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He currently coaches the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team. Miller played point guard for North Carolina State from 1998 to 2002 and ended his career among the school's leaders in free-throw percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and total three-pointers. From 2011 to 2017 he was the head coach for the University of Dayton and won the conference regular season championship in 2016 and 2017. Miller was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2017.

Early years and playing career

Miller was born and raised in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, just northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His given name is "Ryan" but garnered the nickname "Archie" at an early age due to his personality being similar to that of Archie Bunker, the grouchy TV character, from All in the Family.

Miller grew up in a basketball family. Both he and his older brother Sean Miller played for their father, John Miller, a former coach at Blackhawk High School, who went 657–280 in a 35-year coaching career, including 104–29 in the postseason, before retiring in 2005. He won eight Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championships, the second most in history, and four Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association titles. Miller noted how much he learned from his father, saying, "He's really teaching you how to be a coach, and you don't even realize it. He knew what hard work was. He knew what dedication was. He knew what preparation was. He knew how to communicate. It starts to come naturally to you. It's all you do. It's all you're around, and it's all you talk about.”

In addition to his father's connection to the game, Miller's brother, Sean, was a point guard who went on to play the position at Pitt and is currently the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team. Archie views Sean, who is 10 years older, as more of a mentor than a rival. Sean, then an assistant at North Carolina State University, recruited Archie to play as a point guard. Sean later also hired Archie as an assistant at Arizona when he got the job in 2009. “We didn’t grow up in the house together two years apart and the backyard,” Archie said. “... I basically look at him sort of as the role model, the guy whom to be like, the guy who to call when you need something, the one that helped you get to where you wanted to get to." Miller's sister, Lisa, also played Division I basketball at Toledo and Elon.

Following high school, Miller played point guard for North Carolina State from 1998 to 2002. As a senior, he helped lead the Wolfpack to the finals of the ACC championship game and was named to the all-tournament team. He finished his career there with an 84.6% free-throw percentage, a 42.9 three-point field goal percentage, and 218 three-pointers, which were all marks that ranked in the top 10 in school history. He graduated from NC State in 2002 with his bachelor's degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Coaching career

Assistant coaching positions (2003–2011)

Miller spent time at several programs as an assistant coach, spending a season at Western Kentucky (2003–04), two at NC State (2004–2006), one at Arizona State (2006–07) under former coach Herb Sendek, two at Ohio State (2007–09) under Thad Matta, and two at Arizona (2009–11) under his brother Sean. While at Arizona, Miller shined as a top recruiter, helping secure Arizona's top 10 recruiting class for 2011 recruits. He also excelled as a game strategist and designed the Wildcats' upset of eighth-ranked Texas to get them to the Sweet 16.

University of Dayton (2011–2017)

Miller became the head coach of the Dayton Flyers men's basketball team in 2011 and turned around a program that had back-to-back disappointing seasons. His first season with Dayton saw Miller take the school to 20 wins. In his third year, 2014, he had the Flyers in the Elite Eight with 26 wins; to get there, Dayton upset three higher seeded teams. After the Elite Eight run in 2014, Miller faced replacing three starters and four seniors from that team. Despite having a depleted roster featuring just six players who were recruited to Dayton and no active player taller than 6-foot-6, Miller led his Flyers to a 27-9 overall record and to the third round of the 2015 NCAA tournament.

In the following three seasons, Miller averaged over 25 wins and each year coached the team made to the NCAA tournament. The latter two the Flyers also earned regular season Atlantic 10 champion titles. The Flyers' 78 wins in from 2013-16 matched the best three-year period in school history. Due to his coaching abilities, Miller was named a finalist for the 2015 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award. In April, 2015, he joined his father and brother in the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame.

Indiana University (2017–present)

On March 27, 2017, Miller was named the 29th head coach in the history of the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team. Miller's first season involved rebuilding the program and laying the foundation of a pack-line defense and valuing possessions. Early in the season, Miller stated practices were 75% defense and 25% offense. With an early second round loss in the 2018 Big Ten Tournament and no invitation to either the NCAA tournament or NIT, Indiana's first season under their new coach came to a disappointing close with an overall record of 16–15 and 9–9 in the Big Ten. Nevertheless, Miller got off to an impressive recruiting start, including the commitment of five star recruit Romeo Langford, a McDonald's-All American, 2018 Indiana Mr. Basketball, and (according to ESPN) the 6th ranked player in the nation. Despite getting off to a strong start of 12–2, including 3 conference wins, the 2018–2019 Hoosiers struggled down the backstretch of the season. Riddled with injuries and poor shooting, Indiana lost 12 of 13 games before turning things around and finishing the regular season with a 4-game winning streak. Indiana failed to receive a bid to the NCAA tournament but earned a 1-seed in the NIT, where they advanced far before losing in the quarterfinals, ending the season with an overall record of 19–16 and 8–12 in the Big Ten.

Coaching philosophy

Miller employs a boring offense intended to slow down games, create foul trouble for opponents by driving straight to the rim and praying for a foul, and cannot score in transition. His offensive approach has been called the worst in the big ten. He frequently has no idea about spacing with players crowded around each other all above the three point line. He will not modify his personnel and will rigidly play two post players on the floor at once. Often times he will even play three post players at once, in the hopes of scoring off of offensive rebounds because he knows his system cannot create an open shot. If an opponent scores, Miller employs a "walk up the floor offense" to create standing opportunities which flow right into a stagnant offense.

The identity of Miller's teams are rooted in defense. He employs a "pack line defense," which is a variation of man-to-man defense invented by Dick Bennett at Wisconsin and also employed by Tony Bennett at Virginia and Tom Izzo at Michigan State, among others. Instead of the off-ball defenders pressuring their player and denying the pass, everyone except the player guarding the ball must be inside an imaginary line 16 feet from the rim. At all times a defender pressures the player with the basketball, while the other four defenders play in gap/help positions. However, if the offensive player picks up the dribble, all players go out and deny looking for the steal. The pack line defense is intended to discourage penetration, getting inside the paint, and forces opponents to win with a well executed offense and good outside shooting.

Personal

While attending NC State, Miller met Morgan Nicole (née Cruse), who was also a student and athlete for the Wolfpack. Morgan was on the NC State track and field team. The couple dated during college and tied the knot in 2003. In 2004, they had a daughter, Leah Grace. His brother Sean Miller is the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Dayton Flyers (Atlantic 10 Conference) (2011–2017)
2011–12	Dayton	20–13	9–7	5th	NIT First Round
2012–13	Dayton	17–14	7–9	11th
2013–14	Dayton	26–11	10–6	T–5th	NCAA Division I Elite Eight
2014–15	Dayton	27–9	13–5	T–2nd	NCAA Division I Round of 32
2015–16	Dayton	25–8	14–4	T–1st	NCAA Division I Round of 64
2016–17	Dayton	24–8	15–3	1st	NCAA Division I Round of 64
Dayton:		139–63 (.688)	68–34 (.667)
Indiana Hoosiers (Big Ten Conference) (2017–present)
2017–18	Indiana	16–15	9–9	T–6th
2018–19	Indiana	19–16	8–12	9th	NIT Quarterfinals
2019–20	Indiana	18-11	8-10
Indiana:		53–42 (.558)	25–31 (.446)
Total:		192–105 (.646)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

External links

• Indiana profile