Indiana Basketball: Six goals for Archie Miller moving forward

Long term: Create a culture

Many of the great college basketball programs have one thing in common, and that is a great culture. Whether it’s Calipari’s NBA prep program at Kentucky, Izzo’s strong-willed and ferocious rebounding teams at Michigan State, or Krzyzewski’s militaristic wisdom at Duke, they all have an identity and their own fundamental way of doing things.

Indiana has lacked a meaningful culture since the days of Bob Knight, and if Archie Miller wants to be the next great coach at Indiana, he needs to establish his culture soon. The good thing is that culture can begin being built any day and can sometimes change overnight. The bad thing is that it hasn’t happened to Indiana after 2 years of Miller as coach.

Of course, anybody that knows anything about Archie Miller knows the foundation of this culture would be defense and hustle, but the current players seem to not have fully embraced that identity.

It is important for this year and for years going forward that players buy into Miller’s philosophies and coaching style to promote this culture, and that starts with Miller not giving them any other choice but to concede to his way of doing things.