As Archie Miller's vision for the Indiana Basketball program begins to take hold, he hopes for better chemistry and communication between the players that are beginning to represent what an Archie Miller-led team will contain.
Last season, Juwan Morgan and Romeo Langford represented much of the pulse that translated into the public perception of the program, as Morgan continued his strong play and Langford traversed through his lone season as an in-state five-star prospect.
Now, they’re both gone, and the only players remaining on the roster that played during the Tom Crean Era are Devonte Green and De’Ron Davis.
Throughout the first two seasons under Archie Miller, there was a youth bubbling to the surface – in Damezi Anderson, Rob Phinesee, Jerome Hunter and Race Thompson. Now it’s here, as those players will be leaned on to contribute, as Miller hopes to have as many contributors in 2019 as possible.
But first, he’s hoping to build chemistry that can glue the team together in a productive way.
“That's a good thing that everybody has a chance to contribute and help. How much is up to them,” Miller said Wednesday at Indiana media day. “Right now, we're on the ground zero. We're building our team. There are some older people who have been with us for a couple years. Those guys hopefully are our strength, inside the locker room more so than on the court.”
By older guys, Miller means the players who have been in his program for a couple years, not simply the seniors. That dates back to his first season in 2017, when players like Collin Hartman, Robert Johnson, Josh Newkirk and Freddie McSwain Jr. said they felt like freshmen in Archie Miller’s newly introduced system in Bloomington.
Finally, that system is beginning to take hold in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, after the last of Crean’s contributions filters its way out of the roster. It shows in the way Miller has spoken about his offense and how he can use his positionless players to drive a conceptual offense and how he’s spoken about Devonte Green’s development as a player and what he expects from the senior guard in 2019.
It also shows in the number of players leaving the program. Coming off a 2017-18 season when five seniors graduated, Miller and his staff introduced six new players into the program for 2018-19. This season, there were only three new additions – Trayce Jackson-Davison, Armaan Franklin and Joey Brunk. Miller made note of that Wednesday.
But for his system to work, it requires chemistry between the players, as they each carve out their roles on the floor.
“Our team understands, from a staff perspective, there is a lot of pressure on us as a group of people to really come together,” Miller said. “To do that, I think definitely more talking, more communicating, and more situations where we're forcing them to be sort of the driving force behind that. . .I think familiarity with each other, getting a little bit older with your younger guys, and then having some influx of some new energy. A guy like Joey can really help the cause as well.”
Brunk has been advertised as a transfer that has brought energy and an unabashed presence into the locker room that has sparked communication among a group of players that are “naturally quiet-natured,” Miller said.
The head coach has also forced his payers into situations where they are communicating verbally, which he said has needed foundational work since they reached Bloomington. After all, communication is not only a driving force on defense, where Indiana produced well in 2018, but on offense as well, where Miller is hoping to improve this season.
“Each season is a unique challenge. Each season is different. Each team is different,” Miller said. “Regardless if you return a ton or bring back a bunch of new guys. It's starting over. You have 10, 12, 13 brains that need to be reset and focused on the mission that we have as a group.”
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