No one was expecting Indiana to compete for a national title in Archie Miller’s first season as head coach of the Hoosiers. They also weren’t expecting his Assembly Hall debut to end in a 90-69 loss to Indiana State in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score would indicate.
Indiana State embarrasses Indiana in Archie Miller’s debut
The new era of Indiana basketball did not get off to a rousing start Friday night.
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
That’s exactly what went down in Bloomington Friday night, and according to some reports, it didn’t take the home crowd long to turn on the highly touted new head coach.
Indiana State went just 11-20 last season and last month was picked to finish eighth in the 10-team Missouri Valley Conference.
Last March, Indiana fired head coach Tom Crean despite Crean being just one season removed from his second Big Ten regular season title with the Hoosiers. A week later they signed Miller, who had taken Dayton to the NCAA tournament in four consecutive seasons and subsequently become one of the most coveted young coaches in the country. At Indiana, he would be inheriting a depleted roster that was losing three of its top four scorers.
Still, nobody could have predicted what happened Friday night.
The Hoosiers led for just 14 seconds and were run off the court in a game they had been favored to win by 13.5 points. Jordan Barnes led the upset effort by scoring 18 points and dishing out four assists.
Friday night’s final margin of victory marked the third-largest in the history of the series between Indiana and Indiana State, which dates back to 1902. The only bigger beatdowns in the series came in 1991 when the Hoosiers defeated the Sycamores 94-44, and in 1960 when IU won by 27.
Though Indiana owns a decisive advantage in the series with Indiana State, this was actually the Sycamores’ fourth win in their last six tries against the Hoosier State’s most well-known powerhouse. The two teams were playing for the first time since 2006.
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