Favorite Game, No. 1: Hoosiers Lost in Big Ten Tournament, Archie Miller Booed Out of Town
Just the use of the phrase "Favorite Games'' connotes positive thoughts. As we roared through this list of my 10 favorite Indiana games during the school year, eight of the first nine were victories by Hoosiers teams far and wide.
The only one that wasn't a win was Indiana's football loss at Ohio State, but that had to be on here because of the all-time amazing performance by Hoosiers quarterback Michael Penix Jr. The rest of the games? All wins.
But he we are now, at the top of the list, and I know many of you have been scratching your heads for a day or so. How, you asked, could Indiana's miracle win over Penn State not be No. 1? What could have possibly topped that?
It's been funny that people have guessed what might be No. 1, and most of them were wrong.
But here is my all-time favorite Indiana game of the 2020-21 school year, and it might just surprise you a little bit. Or a lot, really, since I'm not usually that guy who goes all-out ballistic on people.
My favorite?
It was Thursday, March 11, 2021 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indiana. It was Rutgers 61, and Indiana 50 in the Big Ten men's basketball tournament. The brutal, ugly loss – witnessed by fans for the first time all year – ended the Hoosiers' season with a 12-15 record and a six-game losing streak.
It also ended the Indiana coaching career of Archie Miller after four sub-standard seasons. This game, it was the final straw.
He had to go, and a few days later he was, fired by new Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson even though Miller was still owed more than $10 million.
This game sealed his fate. And that makes it my favorite, by far. Good riddance.
Archie Miller was 2-8 against ranked teams during his final season as head coach at Indiana. (USA TODAY Sports)
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We'll get back to Archie Miller in a minute, because there's still so much to say, but let's set the stage first for "Favorite Game'' No. 1, and add a bit of context.
Indiana staggered into the Big Ten Tournament on a five-game losing streak, and they were the No. 10 seed in the event, which had been moved from Chicago to Lucas Oil Stadium because of COVID-19 issues.
Indiana's rabid fan base had grown to detest watching this team play. Most of their anger was directed at Miller, who recruiting these players and devised the offense that they would run – no matter how terrible it was. When Miller was introduced with the starting lineups before the game started, a loud round of boos echoed down from every corner of the arena.
This was an Indiana team that couldn't shoot – which is probably the worst tag a basketball team could ever have in the hoops-loving state of Indiana. They were awful from the free throw line most of the year, and bad from three as well.
And in this final game of the Archie Miller era, they were all of those things. For the 3,000 or so fans who got to see Indiana play in person for the first time, most wish they hadn't.
Because it was that bad.
Indiana made only 6 of 15 free throws in the game, an abysmal 40 percent. Just brutal
Indiana made only 2 of 16 three-point attempts, a measly 12.5 percent. Really, really brutal.
And what made it worse was that Indiana didn't make a single shot from the field in the final 10 minutes of the game. Can you imagine that? Not a single hoop for basically the entire fourth quarter of the game.
Indiana's final basket of the Archie Miller era came with 9:48 to go, when injured sophomore guard Armaan Franklin hit a jump shot to give the Hoosiers a 48-47 lead.
They would then proceed to miss their final 13 shots from the floor as Rutgers started to pull away. That's 0-for-13, folks, bad enough to make your eyes bleed.
Even worse was all the missed free throw attempts down the stretch. In the final 4-plus minutes, Trayce Jackson-Davis was fouled and missed two free throws, Jerome Hunter was fouled and missed both of his attempts, too.
Al Durham made two free throws with 2:35 left to cut the Rutgers lead to 55-50, but those would be Indiana's only points in that long stretch. Indiana guard Rob Phinisee missed the front end of consecutive one-and-one opportunities, and the game was over.
That final stretch was 0-for-13 from the field, with eight points wasted at the free throw line.
That was Indiana basketball last season. It summed it all up perfectly. And that's why something had to change.
And it did. Four days later, on March 15, Archie Miller was fired. This was the final nail in the coffin, and that in itself self is worthy of celebrating.
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Sure, you say, it was the players who missed the shots, but by then you could tell this wasn't working. During the final month of the season, the Hoosiers were blowing late leads left and right, unable to score when they had to in a Miller-designed offense that was horrible.
The players were frustrated with Miller and his staff, and it showed in outbursts on the bench more than once. That was a bad situation, and it needed to be fixed.
After a home loss to Michigan State on Feb. 20, I had called for Miller's firing, because it had become abundantly clear to me that this wasn't going to work. Others saw it too. I said that day that I didn't think Indiana would win another game under Miller – and they didn't. The six-game losing streak to end the season was brutal.
I felt bad for the players, who were put in awful situations. This team was so hard to watch that fans simply tuned them out. It was the first time in my lifetime – and I've been around Indiana basketball for 45 years now – were a sizable portion of the fan base didn't even watch the games any more.
That simply can't work. Not at Indiana.
So, yeah, maybe it's sarcastic of me, but this was my favorite game of the year only because there was no way that Miller could survive it. The "fire Archie'' chants that rang down throughout the final minutes of the game was a clear vote of no confidence.
Indiana fans were done with Miller. And with that game – Rutgers 61, Indiana 50 – we were all done with him for good, too.
Buyout be damned. He was fired. Two weeks later, Indiana legend Mike Woodson was hired, and the stench is now gone.
For that, we can be grateful.
Previous 'Favorite Games' stories
- NUMBER 10: Indiana's football team has struggled at Wisconsin for decades, so it was very sweet to go up there and steal a 14-6 win on Dec. 5, 2020 in quarterback Jack Tuttle's first-ever college start. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 9: Armaan Franklin was having a brutal shooting night against Iowa in Assembly Hall on Feb. 7, 2021, right up until he hit the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds left to go. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 8: Collin Hopkins hits a walk-off home run after a long rain delay to help Indiana beat Illinois 6-4 and end the Hoosiers' five-game winning streak. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 7: Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. has a game for the ages, throwing for 491 yards and five touchdowns in a 42-35 loss to No. 3 Ohio State inside an empty stadium in Columbus. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 6: Indiana's women's basketball team has been soaring to new heights under coach Teri Moren, and this year, the Hoosiers reached the Elite Eight for the first time in program history. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 5: Indiana never takes it for granted in making the College Cup, the NCAA's version of the Final Four for men's soccer. The Hoosiers got there again, and won a thriller over Pittsburgh in the semifinals to get another title shot. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 4: Indiana had beaten Michigan only once in 40 tries, but that all changed in November when the Hoosiers pushed them all over the Memorial Stadium field and won 38-21 for their third straight victory to start the season. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 3: Despite its stars being in foul trouble most of the game, Indiana's men's basketball traveled to Iowa and knocked off the No. 4 Hawkeyes anyway, the best win in the Archie Miller era. CLICK HERE
- NUMBER 2: Michael Penix Jr. soars through the air to score on a two-point conversion, beating No. 8 Penn State in overtime and beating the Nittany Lions for only the second time in school history. CLICK HERE
