Indiana basketball: Worst head coach hires in program history

For as bad as Mike Davis was following Bobby Knight and as much as Lou Watson struggled in the ‘60s, Archie Miller is clearly the worst. Miller managed to miss the NCAA Tournament every year of his four-year tenure. The last Indiana head coach to fail to make the tournament once was Harry Good in the 1940s (except for Jerry Oliver who only took over for one season in 1969-70 while Lou Watson recovered from surgery).

Indiana was likely headed for a tournament bid in 2020 before it was canceled due to Covid-19, but still, a record of 67-58 at Indiana is incredibly disappointing. Miller did recruit and produce a few NBA talents in Trayce Jackson-Davis and Romeo Langford, but that’s the most notable accomplishment of his tenure. 

Miller never had a winning record in Big Ten play and in 2020-21 went 12-15, ending on a six-game losing streak. When you’re a struggling head coach, it helps to beat your rivals, but Miller went 0-7 against Purdue and was fired after the 2021 season.