Indiana basketball fans don’t get to hear much from head coach Archie Miller during the offseason. It has now been over five months since the 2018-19 season concluded, with only one public appearance during that span.
That changed this week when the third year leader of the IU program met with the media and spoke to a crowd at Evansville Harrison High School.
Miller shared thoughts on the development of each player on the 2019-20 roster, and his expectations for them for the upcoming season.
Seniors Devonte Green and De’Ron Davis face the specter of becoming the first four year players at IU since 1972 to have never played in the NCAA Tournament.
That is a fact that both players are aware of and spoke about with reporters as the 2018-19 season ended.
“I definitely don’t want to be one of the only classes to not make the tournament in four years,” Davis said. “That just starts with us. I’m gonna stress that all year.”
Miller spoke about each of his two seniors and his team as a whole on Tuesday night.
MILLER ON THE 2019-20 TEAM
“We have a group that is going to have to do things in a certain way to be successful. We have to have a group that really maximizes a lot of areas.”
“One is unbelievable togetherness and chemistry, which is a key to every team, but this team in particular has a chance to be really connected if we work hard it.”
“The second thing is obviously from a basketball perspective, we’re going to play a unique style with these guys, a little bit different than what we’ve been able to play here because we have some versatility with a lot of different types of guys. We have a bigger team, which is going to be unique to coach. But we’re going to have to work hard at it here in the fall to put together a plan on both sides.”
MILLER ON SENIOR GUARD DEVONTE GREEN
“Devonte is going to be required to do a lot for us this year.”
“I think in years past we’ve tried to tame him and control him and make him something that at times you want him to be, and at times he can really explode and do some things where everyone is like Wow! He’s going to need to be that guy more than the other guy for us this year.”
“He’s going to have to shoot the ball, score the ball, and make a lot of plays, and I’m sure he’s very disappointed in me saying that publicly right now. When he gets the opportunity to take advantage of the rope, he takes all the rope he can get.”
“But with great responsibility, he’ll have his own challenges to deal with. But we need Devonte to be a very, very focal part of what we’re doing.”
MILLER ON SENIOR FORWARD DE’RON DAVIS
“De’Ron really didn’t get a fair crack at it physically last year. He tears his Achilles basically New Year’s Day of his sophomore year. That is a hard injury for anybody, and let alone a big carrying a lot of weight. He wasn’t even 100 percent all year.”
“As he got into November and December we thought if he can just play a little bit, we felt one year later after the injury maybe in Big Ten play maybe he could give us some more. He was actually ready earlier, and could not find a way to get over that injury bug. His ankle and Achilles both bothered him. He ends up sitting three weeks in January which hurt us, and then once he came back in February he gave us a good look.”
“Now, his challenge is his conditioning level. He’s over the injury, now he’s got to get into the best shape of his life and if he does that he’ll have the best year of his career, which we just talked about to him today. He looks different, he feels better, and I think as we head towards October 1, he needs to be the slimmest he can be, the most agile that he can be in order to get the best from him. So we’re working with him on that.”
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