Archie Miller Not Optimistic About Health of Armaan Franklin, Race Thompson
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – After losing twice to Rutgers already this season, Indiana coach Archie Miller would love to be at full strength for the third meeting on Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament, but that seems unlikely.
Miller met with the media on Wednesday and said that sophomore guard Armaan Franklin, who has missed three straight games with ankle and foot injuries, probably won't play. "We aren't counting on Armaan being available,'' he said.
The news wasn't much better on redshirt junior forward Race Thompson, either, though Miller did say that, knowing Thompson, he will at least try to play, no matter how banged-up he is.
"Race is probably a little bit more banged up than Armaan right now, and he's recovering with the nose and the face. He turned his ankle in the second half at Purdue, and that has eliminated him from being able to work with us a ton.
"Knowing Race and how he has been all season, particularly these last few weeks when he hasn’t been 100 percent, if he can go, he will go. He will definitely probably give it a try.''
Indiana, the No. 10 seed in this week's tournament, needs all the help it can get against No. 7-seed Rutgers in Thursday's 6:30 p.m. ET game. Rutgers beat Indiana 74-70 in Bloomington earlier this year, then won again in New Jersey, beating the Hoosiers 74-63 in a game that wasn't that close.
"For us, we have a difficult matchup with Rutgers. We've played them twice and haven’t had a whole lot of success,'' Miller said. "In our most recent game, they dominated the back 10 minutes of the first half and in the second half after we got off to a pretty good start.
"For us we are really trying to concentrate on being as good as we can for the third time around, on both ends of the floor. They are a strong and tough-minded group with some veteran guys that have played a lot of games together. I know they are excited to get through the regular season just like everybody is, and getting to this setting. We have to be ready to go on Thursday night.''
Indiana has really struggled shooting the ball from the perimeter during this five-game losing streak that's dropped their record to 12-14. And playing in a dome isn't a cure-all either, because dome settings and backgrounds are unique. Because of COVD protocols for the tournament, Indiana won't be able to practice on the floor in the spacious dome either. The first time they'll see it is during pregame warmups.
"I know we won’t have an opportunity to get on the game floor until our warm-up, but I think this is like every other arena. Most of the arenas we played in this year were empty. This one will be big and empty as well.
"Depth perception when you're playing in domes, sometimes they can make a bigger deal about it than it is when shooting the ball. At the end of the day, when the game starts, it will feel somewhat normal because all of us have played in empty arenas all year.''
