When new Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson was introduced during a teleconference Wednesday morning, he expressed his confidence in Indiana head coach Archie Miller.
When Indiana athletic director Fred Glass announced his intent to retire after the 2019-20 academic year, the concern, as is with any change in athletic director, was how the emphasis on basketball would be carried over and how that would affect head coach Archie Miller, who had just entered Big Ten play of his third year with COVID-19 and a shortened season still among the unknown of the future.
Those concerns finally received answers from new athletic director Scott Dolson, who is anticipating taking over the position in the beginning of July. When asked about Miller and the basketball program, Dolson expressed a responsibility to set the course for the men’s basketball program to reach its high expectations.
“I want to be the athletic director that has the responsibility of getting the basketball program back to where we want it to be,” Dolson said during his introductory press conference Wednesday morning. “I'm excited about it.”
Miller, who famously hasn’t received the most positive feedback from fans as he’s built the program throughout the last three years, was seemingly on his way to his first NCAA Tournament bid after avoiding a loss to Nebraska in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament and had a semi-favorable path through the conference tournament before it was canceled.
Miller has seen steady improvement in various basketball metrics year-by-year as well, ending his first year 104th in adjusted defense via KenPom.com and ending this season 26th and jumping from 52nd overall to 34th nationally. He’s also recruited the top in-stat prospects to Indiana, from 2018-2021, if Khristian Lander were to not reclassify – though it appears he will.
He has a plan – a “master plan” – and he’s sticking to it, Dolson said Wednesday, and he has since the first interview conducted between Glass and Miller, with Dolson present. Dolson compared Miller to a CEO with the way he runs the program behind the scenes and that his leadership in that fashion has impressed him as well as anything he’s done elsewhere.
One of the major entry points to what a tenure under Dolson might look like for Indiana fans is his direct connection to the era of Bob Knight and being part of a team that won the 1987 national championship, the last national championship. And when asked how he would define success in Indiana Basketball, Dolson said it begins with having a plan.
“I've been impressed with Archie with that because he doesn't get too high, he doesn't get too low. He really sticks to his plan. I think if you want to really be a consistent program, have consistent success, you need to have a consistent vision and work that plan,” Dolson said. “We want to do it all. Winning is really important. We're not afraid to say that. That's a key thing. At the same time, we're here to develop leaders, develop the complete package for our student-athletes. Archie believes in that, too.”
Dolson wants to win as badly as anyone, he said. He grew up in Michigan City, where he was eight years old when undefeated Indiana was defeated in the Elite Eight and nine years old when it finished 1976 undefeated. He was high school best friends with 1984 Indiana Mr. Basketball award-winner Delray Brooks, who then played for Indiana for two years before transferring to Providence.
“When I did get the call this week, I immediately thought back to (the day Brooks committed) because when Delray committed, he said, ‘Hey, you really need to think about becoming a manager because you love IU more than anybody I know. It was just really good. If it weren't for him, I would never have had that opportunity, and here I am today.” said Dolson, who was an Indiana Basketball manager for four years before being head manager in 1988.
As someone who has already worked with Glass and Miller over the course of the past three years, Dolson would have as good of perspective as anyone into how the program is currently being run, and he described that perspective as “confident.”
“I'm optimistic and I feel confident in the way Archie and I work together and behind the scenes particularly,” Dolson said. “The way he works gives me confidence. It's hard to explain unless you're there. I feel really, really good about the future.”
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