KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Taking all things into consideration (the coach, their name/pedigree, state of the program, state of A10, state of college basketball, etc) who would you think the bigger hire is, Dan or Archie?

As I'm making this poll, I still can't decide.

Discuss!

Undoubtedly Archie Miller. I don't think it's close. When they hired Hurley it was cool because of who his father and brother are but he came from Wagner and had never been to the NCAA tournament. Miller's been a coach in the Big 10 and has been to the Elite 8 with another A10 school.

While this isn't on the level of Harrick certainly I think it's closer to Harrick than Hurley.

Definitely Archie. Not a knock on Hurley. At the time he was just an up and coming coach. Archie is already name brand and more impressive achievement. Now it will be up for debate on which coach actually has a better career. That is still up in the air.

For me DH, first time in long while, the 10ish years we reached into the upper tier of coaching, back then it was “could we”…….this time it was “will we”…….go Rhody

Recency Bias is showing

Correct answer is it's a tie

...and I'm pumped for both

I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

Archie is the bigger hire mostly because he's coming here as an established big time coach, where Hurley was a coach on the rise. It's a much bigger feather in the cap for the program to get Archie, because an established top coach chose us instead of us catching a coach on the rise

Similar to in the 90s, Skinner was a coach on the way up and was a big name by the time he left, Harrick was a big name before he came here.

TruePoint wrote: ↑2 years ago I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

Really great point though. Archie doesn't happen if Dan didn't happen first.

TruePoint wrote: ↑2 years ago I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

Yeah I feel the same. You gotta think we're not here without Hurls. That being said I am so excited I have literally not gotten a thing done in the past 2+ hours so already Archie is basically stealing from my employer. That's pretty impressive.

TruePoint wrote: ↑2 years ago I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

Fair point.

I came at it as at the time of the press conference who was the bigger get. Tough to bring in what was accomplished here by Dan simply because Archie hasn't had a game yet (tough to separate it too)

Def Miller from a perspective of HC experience and success. Hurley had the name already but he was still cutting his teeth as a HC, Miller's got the name and the HC success. This is a major move by Thorr! Kudos to him, to me and all of Rhody Nation!

Two other questions contrasting Hurley and Miller:
1. Who inherited the bigger mess in his first year?
2. Who makes the bigger and quicker impact going forward?

Miller doesn't happen without Hurley showing it's possible.

Obadiah wrote: ↑2 years ago Two other questions contrasting Hurley and Miller:
1. Who inherited the bigger mess in his first year?

Easily Hurley. Rhode Island had talent this year. They just weren't well coached. I'd expect some of the guys to return. And remember the transfer rules are more lenient now so Miller can literally bring in 4-5 guys to help immediately. Hurley couldn't do that.

Obadiah wrote: ↑2 years ago Two other questions contrasting Hurley and Miller:
1. Who inherited the bigger mess in his first year?
2. Who makes the bigger and quicker impact going forward?

1. Dan. The roster was a mess and the academic problems were difficult to navigate.
2. Archie. Despite the past two years, success was still relatively recent and URI’s commitment to the program is much further along. Plus the transfer portal will make it easier to find quality players.

TruePoint wrote: ↑2 years ago I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

I tried to use the criteria listed in the first poll to answer this, but I did tend to answer based on splash of hire:

Coach: Edge Archie, bigger name coming in
Name/Pedigree: Before coaching I'd give Hurley the edge here, because his father and brother had bigger names, but once their coaching careers started Archie ends up taking this as well
State of program: You listed all the reasons why this category goes to Hurley big

I think a big thing is just the reaction to the hire. With the Hurley hire, people that knew basketball knew it was a good hire. With this hire, the casual fan is like "URI got a coach that coached at Indiana and went to the Elite 8? That's big for them."

For all the reasons you listed, it was more important we got the hire right back when we hired Hurley, and all credit to him he delivered and than some. But biggest splash/most newsworthy? That's Archie

Went with Dan. Our program may have never recovered by now after Baron’s dismissal had Hurley not been hired.

No coach like Archie would Ever consider RI had Hurley not quickly restored it and demonstrated it can win the league two years in succession. You CAN have sustained success here and National attention. Now we have Archie because of that.

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑2 years ago Went with Dan. Our program may have never recovered by now after Baron’s dismissal had Hurley not been hired.

No coach like Archie would Ever consider RI had Hurley not quickly restored it and demonstrated it can win the league two years in succession. You CAN have sustained success here and National attention. Now we have Archie because of that.

I was going to abstain/go the tie route before reading this - this is an excellent point. Without the DH hire or similar are we available to hire a Miller type? DH proved he could be a player here as an up and comer, so that helped lead to one who has been here wanting to take the job. So it's an interesting though exercise. Going to chew on this some more.

I'm going with Archie because of what his hiring signifies for the University's plans to invest in the program...Though I do agree with those that say if no Hurley there would be no Archie.

Hurley was an awesome coach, but I don't know if we knew how good he was at the time of hiring, nor did we set his initial expectations to be where they were when he left. I think Archie is a huge hire and comes with large expectations. Theyre built off of hurley's success, but at the time of hire Archie wins this for me.

Because of what it represents from a commitment standpoint and our overall perspective of our men’s hoop program it’s Archie IMO. And I’m one of the bigger Dan Stans on here. But more than Archie the fact we went out to reaffirm our commitment to being great at basketball by hiring one of the best coaches in the market makes this hire bigger.

Now you don’t even have a situation to entice Archie to if Dan doesn’t do what he did and we had continued to be irrelevant for another decade.

The key part of this for me is "at the time." There was buzz over the Hurley hire, "at the time," but nothing like with Archie

I voted Arch but would have voted tie if there was an option

Great arguments to be made for both

Archie. And I think everyone knows where I stand on Dan. I will still go to Gampel or the XL center because I love him and what he did here.

No one could've done what Dan did. No one. But Dan was the "this is the best "up and coming" coach, and the "typical" URI hire. We were still underfunded. Nowhere near a practice facility. He was offered an "up and coming" contract, and the drive to get program enhancements going wasn't put on paper.

Dan was an "understandable" but very good hire. He was the best hire we could've made at the time. It was a "wow, URI identified a great young coach and is on the rise" type hire.

This? Archie?

Dan would've been a "not ready for the big time" hire if he had gone to any other program. Archie is a splash for ANY program. Literally - Louisville, Florida, Maryland, any opening right now would've made a splash by hiring him.

This is a departure from how things are usually done. We went and got THE best available coach on the market. No strings attached. No impending investigations. Big time experience. Big time winning.

The contract offer alone should indicate that. A top level D-1 assistant coaches pool. Everything else.

This is the biggest hire URI has ever made. Welcome to the big time.

I think Archie, because Hurley was hired into a program that was essentially dead. He built the program back up. Archie right now is at a point where the program isn't too far removed from once of its historical peaks. It is a pivotal moment where the program could either go back to the situation as it was pre Dan or correct the direction and take that next leap just as easily. The stakes are higher right now than they were when Dan was hired.

TruePoint wrote: ↑2 years ago I guess it depends on how you interpret "bigger" - it seems like people are answering based on the size of the splash at the time of the hire. I guess I was thinking of bigger in terms of more critical to the program trajectory, something you'd really need to measure over time. I have very high hopes for the Archie era, but it is hard for me to imagine many other coaches being able to drag us out of the mud the way Dan did. I think it is easy now to minimize the degree to which the program was effectively dead when he got here - barren roster, a full generation since our last successful season, facing APR jail, no resources, no support, demoralized fanbase, on and on. If we hadn't hired Dan, not only is hiring Archie impossible but we could be in the Colonial conference now. So I picked Dan.

These are my thoughts as well. Without Dan being here, there is no Archie. I am very excited that Archie Miller will be our next coach, it is a tremendous hire for the program and for Thor, and vitally needed. And I fully hope that he does a great job here, I think he will.

But for me, where we were at the end of the Baron era, to where Hurley had the program where it was when he left, it was a tremendous job of program building that he did. And his forceful personality is exactly what was needed. So I voted Hurley and people forget, many people back then did not think URI would be able to land him. Remember Kevin McNamara saying it was a pipe dream. Was he as an accomplished coach at the time of hire as Archie? No he was not, but to get him back then, and have Bobby as an assistant coach even if only for a year or two, and his father in attendance at the press conference was really cool and I had every confidence that he would do a great job at Rhode Island which he did. I voted Hurley but this is like choosing which is your favorite child. There is no wrong answer here.

Really good discussion everyone! Great thread.

ATPTourFan wrote: ↑2 years ago Really good discussion everyone! Great thread.

I'm glad I didn't get yelled at for making it!

(Probably my first and last thread/post that'll happen, but hey I'll take it).

Bigger is a fair question. Biggest was Kraft or Harrick.