Blue Man wrote: ↑2 years ago
Hello All,
As President, CEO, and SVP of the Archie Miller fanclub, we take these inquiries with the utmost sincerity and value providing our dear prospective fans with a detailed view of the impending rebirth of basketball in Kingston, RI.
We are aware of the destructive nature of similar threads on this board, so we ask that all conversation be strictly kept to the love, adoration, praise, of Mr. Miller, the hope of his impending phone number change to a 401 area code, and the conspiracy theory that will support this impending ascent to basketball glory in Kingston.
Ryan Joseph 'Archie' Miller was given a birthright to midwestern basketball royalty in October of 1978. Hailing from a legendary basketball family, with an older brother, they both played point guard for their dad - a legendary high school basketball coach for 35 years in Western PA, who won many championships. (sound familiar?)
Both Miller boys went on to play at high levels of basketball (sound familiar?) - Sean to Pitt and Archie to NC State. Their sister Lisa, also played D1 basketball.
Archie was a career 84% free throw shooter and 42% 3 point shooter for NC State and graduated in 2002.
Having been raised by a coach, looking up to his dad and brother for guidance, he moved up the ranks - an assistant at Western Kentucky, NC State, Arizona State, Ohio State, and then Arizona under his brother.
Archie then took his first rebuilding project on a Dayton. In his first year, he took the program to 20 wins after Brian Gregory left. 2 years later he brought Dayton to their deepest tournament run in 30 years, all with one marginal NBA player on the roster. Won 3 games and made the Elite 8.
The next year, with a roster decimated by injury - 6 scholarship players, none taller than 6'6 were shafted with a NET of 32 into the first four. From there they beat Boise and PC to advance to the "second" round where the lost a close one to Oklahoma.
He then followed the next two seasons with back-to-back NCAA births for 4 in a row in his 6 years at Dayton. The last 2 were a 7 seed. He won 2 A-10 conference titles and was A-10 COY. His teams averaged 25 wins once the program was rebuilt and played one of the toughest schedules in the country. They were the A-10 standard-bearer throughout his tenure.
He was then offered one of the best jobs in college basketball at Indiana.
His first year was a rebuild. His second year was a 1 seed in the NIT. His 3rd year was due to be an NCAA trip but Covid cancelled those plans. In 2021 2/5 starters were out for the stretch run and Indiana faltered. At Indiana, their fans believe it's 1987 and they have expectations that they should be in the final four every year. When internet gets to Bloomington, IN, they will be shocked at what has transpired in the decades since.
Their loss will be our gain.
What we will be getting is a pack-line, aggressive, angry defense. No one will get to the rim against this team. One of the best transition offensive systems in basketball, and a beautiful motion offense out of it. They try to avoid a half-court setup and try to score before the defense gets back. A fast break that would make Frank Keaney blush a bluer shade of blue than he ever blued.
Why this is a big deal? First, Archie is a BIG name in college basketball. His last name and his own accolades are very, very similar to a recent successful coach who roamed these sidelines. He was an assistant coach on team USA's U-19 world championship team with Ed Cooley. He is a constant salesman and will make an impact. He was just paid $10.3M to walk away from IU, after making $2.2M guaranteed a year to get there.
He is big enough, wealthy enough, and good enough to pick whatever job he wants.
This is where URI comes in. This is a program that a good coach can come into, overrecruit for the conference, and win at. Rehab their image. And go get another big job from. The other piece, is that we are a program so historically starved for success - that our standards are lower, our love for winning of any kind is greater, and he would be treated as a GOD once he started winning - not as someone who owed something to the fans.
He could make URI into what he made Dayton.
Why this would be so impactful, is because it would signal that URI intends to be a program. Not just a basketball team that shows up every half decade if they hit on the right "up and coming" coach.
Archie Miller coming here would signal that things in Kingston would be changing. That there would be investments required by a coach who was at one of the best supported programs in the country with the highest expectations.
This would be a hire that would send shockwaves throughout college basketball. Would turn eyes to Kingston for the first time in years. Would put URI in OOC games and tournaments we couldn't get without the brand Hurley built.
This hire puts URI back in the NCAA conversation in 2 years, if not right away with the transfer rules. It would spurn a cavalcade of donations, ticket sales, and excitement that felt like we lost for good. It means that URI would once again have an opportunity to claim the throne as best in the state, and compete for regional excellence with UConn if they can support the program in the way someone like Archie Miller would demand.
Why this is possible?
A) Tom Ryan. He is a great man. A revered man. A wealthy and generous man. A wealthy and generous man who wants our basketball team to be good. IF the David Cox era is truly done at the end of this year, URI will be required to pay a buyout. That buyout would presumably come from the URI Foundation. The URI Foundation's Chairman of the Board is a gentleman by the name of Thomas M. Ryan. If a buyout were to be approved, one would assume that Thomas M. Ryan the chairman of the board, would have a conversation with Thomas M. Ryan the generous benefactor, about who to bring on as the next coach.
Tom Ryan knows and loves basketball. We play it under the roof he built. The roof he so generously wants to see raising banners of basketball glory. He was right about Pitino over Cox. He will be right about the big name here too...Archie.
ENTER THE THUNDER DOME.
B) The Borzello article. URI's situation was mentioned as a throwaway "might come up" this year, with no names put in the hopper. Archie Miller's name is brought up as a potential to jump back in to coaching - obviously, because he's out of it. He wasn't named as a potential link to any of the higher profile names out there. Could be just because his stock may have taken a hit with the ouster at IU. But it's eerily quiet about Miller based on his availability, age, and coaching skill. The man is 43. You would think that would make him THE penultimate coaching candidate that is out of work at the moment.
C) The Borzello tweet. Where there's smoke there's fire. I doubt Jeff Borzello (who is from NY, went to Delaware, and is a national college writer for ESPN) is on this message board, certainly not frequently enough to know that like 4 of us have thrown St. Archibald's name out there as a christmas wish. He responded to the tweet asking that question about names for the URI job IMMEDIATELY. Within a minute. That's off the dome.
If you're a national CBB writer, you have your pulse on everything - and certainly can pull regional up-and-coming coach names off the top of your head to associate for openings. Becker and Skerry are always out there for URI. Even when the job isn't open. It's always a stereotypical starting point for a coaching search. Grasso and Mason are obvious names. Regional, up-and-comers - they'll be in the mix for every opening in the region. But Archie?
There is zero point zero connection to URI for Archie outside of the fact that he coached in the same conference for 6 years. No regional or family ties to the area. No outward snippets about his affinity for calamari, italian food, stuffies, or coffee milk.
But whispers?
WHY JEFF, WHY ARE YOU HEARING WHISPERS!? WHO IS WHISPERING!? WHAT ARE THEY SAYING!? He legitimately had to hear something.
The way that tweet is written. The timing. He didn't hear whispers on anyone else. He pulled those names out of his head and put them in a sandwich around the meat of the tweet that's about Archie.
ARCHIE MILLER WILL BE A RHODE ISLAND RAM. SPEAK IT INTO EXISTANCE.
What can we do?
Panic. My body, stress level, breathing, and general attitude have been in a state of panic for the last 12+ hours since I've started a Charlie Kelly mailroom conspiracy board in my office. My body isn't sure if I'm having a stroke or heart attack, and I legitimately think both ways to kill me are fighting so hard in opposite directions that I should be dead - but my will to see Archie on the sidelines in the Ryan Center is so strong that I am forcing a standard, yet elevated, heart rate to keep my body alive.
That's literally all I can think of right now. It's after midnight and I can't sleep.
But in the meantime, put on your tinfoil hat, join the fanclub, and let's go for a ride.
*but legit if this doesn't happen I will
die.