Archie Miller

Photo: IndianaHQ

Archie Miller Biography

Archie Miller is a basketball coach and former collegiate basketball player originally from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Miller was Indiana’s 29th head coach of the men’s basketball program. Born into a basketball family, Miller played under his father, a legendary high school in Pennsylvania, John Miller. Archie’s brother Sean has also been a successful NCAA college coach known for his time at Xavier and Arizona. Miller played for Herb Sendek at North Carolina State and he was named the Atlantic 10’s coach of the year in 2017 during his head coaching run at the University of Dayton.

  • Name: Ryan “Archie” Miller
  • Position: Point Guard
  • Nationality: USA
  • Age: 45 years old
  • Birthday: October 30, 1978
  • Hometown: Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
  • High School: Blackhawk High School (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania)
  • Height: 6’0″ (175 cm)
  • Weight: 150 lb (68 kg)
  • Seasons at NC State: 5 (1997-1998, 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2001-2002)
  • Coaching Career
    • 2003-2004 Western Kentucky (Assistant)
    • 2004-2006 NC State (Assistant)
    • 2006-2007 Arizona State (Assistant)
    • 2007-2009 Ohio State (Assistant)
    • 2009-2011 Arizona (Assistant)
    • 2011-2017 Dayton (Head Coach)
    • 2017-2021 Indiana (Head Coach)
  • Player Jersey: #11
  • Annual Salary: $3.3 million (2020-2021)
  • Education: Degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism

Awards and Accolades

  • 2016 Atlantic 10 Regular Season Champions
  • 2017 Atlantic 10 Regular Season Champions
  • 2017 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year
  • Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame (Inducted: 2005)

Archie Miller Early Years

Miller was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh in a town called Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He and his brother Sean Miller grew up playing basketball under the coaching of their father John Miller.

Photo: Post-Gazette

How did Archie Miller get his name?

Despite being born with the birth name “Ryan,” he was given the nickname “Archie” at a very young age. The name Archie is in reference to a grumpy television character known as Archie Bunker.

Archie Miller High School Career

Archie Miller at Blackhawk High School (Photo: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Blackhawk High School Head Coach John Miller

Archie, playing for his father John at Blackhawk High School, had the opportunity to play under one of the most legendary high school coaches in the area. John Miller had a career record of 657-280 in 35 seasons at Blackhawk. He had 104 playoff wins and 29 playoff losses. He won eight Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) championships, the second most in history, and four Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) titles.

Archie Miller in High School

Archie Miller was a four-year player at Blackhawk High School and he led the cougars to a WPIAL title, as well as back-to-back PIAA State Champions. Archie Miller recognized as being All-State.

Archie did not start when he was a freshman on his father’s team. In fact, during the District Championship game, the starting point guard for Blackhawk fouled out so Archie Miller came in. Archie dribbled the ball off his foot, which resulted in a turnover that the opposing team grabbed and scored a game-winning bucket.

Being the son of a coach, Archie Miller was consistently involved in basketball growing up and he had first hand experience to learn what it’s like to become a coach.

Archie Miller’s Playing Career at NC State

Archie Miller was a four-year letter winner at North Carolina State where he played between 1997 and 2002. Despite not being named as the starter, Miller still managed to play in 32 games and averaged 7.4 points per game.

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During Archie’s sophomore year, Archie Miller missed the majority of the season due to a season-ending back injury, which required surgical repair. Miller only ended up playing three games total that season. The NCAA later recognized that season as a medical red-shirt season for Miller and gave him an additional year of eligibility.

Upon his return, Miller did not quite see the same success on the court immediately. While he still played all 34 games of the Wolfpack season, Miller saw a decline in most of his statistical categories across the board during his redshirt sophomore season.

Photo: NC State Athletics

As a fifth-year senior, Miller started in 31 of 34 games. Miller eventually helped to lead the Wolfpack to the ACC championship game and was named to the all-tournament team.

Archie Miller’s Coaching Career

As a coach, Archie has been part of 20-plus win seasons at NC State (2005-06), Ohio State (2008-09), Arizona (2010-11), and Dayton (2013-14). Archie and Sean Miller are one of just four Division I head coaching brother combinations and are the first brothers to coach different teams in both the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight in the same season (2014).

Archie Miller bounces around as an assistant

Miller started off his coaching career at his alma mater North Carolina State. There, he served as a coaching “intern” under then head coach Herb Sendek between 2002 and 2003.

For his first stint as a full time assistant, Archie Miller spent another season at Western Kentucky as a full-time assistant coach in 2003, before returning back to NC State once again as a Director of Basketball Operations and then later as a full-time assistant coach in 2005 and 2006.

His next tour of duty would take him to Columbus, Ohio where he coached in the Big Ten at Ohio State. He served as an assistant to Thad Matta for two seasons.

Archie would join his brother Sean after his two years in the Big Ten. He served as the Associate Head Coach (the leading assistant position) under Sean Miller at Arizona. That season, he helped the Arizona Wildcats accomplish a 30-win season that ended in the Elite Eight.

Archie Miller’s assistant coaching positions

  • 2003-2004 Western Kentucky (Assistant)
  • 2004-2006 NC State (Assistant)
  • 2006-2007 Arizona State (Assistant)
  • 2007-2009 Ohio State (Assistant)
  • 2009-2011 Arizona (Assistant)

Archie Miller as the University of Dayton’s head coach

In 2011, Archie Miller got the call for his first head coaching gig with the University of Dayton men’s basketball program. Up until this point, Miller was a relatively quiet coach in the national spotlight. That changed in 2014 when he led the Flyers to a historic Elite Eight post-season run. That post-season appearance was Dayton’s first Elite Eight in 30 seasons.

Dayton made an NIT appearance in each of Archie’s first three years as the Flyers’ Head Coach. After the Elite Eight run, Archie Miller made it to the NCAA tournament each year with the Flyers and was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2017. Miller finished with an overall record of 68-34.

Pack-line defense and transition offense

Miller’s coaching philosophy evolved around concepts that he had inherited from both his father John Miller, his brother Sean Miller, and the influences of head coaches that he has played or worked under, including Herb Sendek.

The pack-line defense is a type of defensive scheme that focuses on “packing” the interior of the paint, which forces opposing offenses to utilize three-point shooting as the primary way to attack the defense. The scheme encourages perimeter players to “sag” and play off of all opposing players except the ball carrier.

On offense, Archie Miller is known to speed up the offense and leverage the transition as a way to attack the basket. Given his defense-first mentality, a transition offense works off of turnovers or poor shots taken from the opposing team. Miller’s players, based on where they are located on the floor when the possession changes, run with full speed on certain lanes to be in the best position for a transition scoring opportunity.

Archie Miller as Indiana University’s head coach

On March 25, 2017, Archie Miller was named as the 29th head coach of the Indiana Men’s Basketball program. Named to the position by Indiana University Vice President and Director of Athletics Fred Glass, Miller replaced Tom Crean who was fired from the position due to inconsistencies in team performance.

Notably Archie Miller wanted to build the program from a recruiting standpoint and a core tenant was the “inside-out” approach. The “inside” focused on recruiting with the state of Indiana for basketball talent as the number one emphasis. Those players would be complemented by key pieces from the “outside,” which were out-of-state players.

Archie Miller was successful recruiting within the state of Indiana. His most impressive recruiting accomplishment was the successful recruiting of New Albany, Indiana star Romeo Langford who was the 2018 Indiana Mr. Basketball and a top-five recruit at the time. He eventually became an NBA-lottery pick. Miller followed up that recruitment with 2019’s Indiana Mr. Basketball Trayce Jackson-Davis. He is in line to potentially set the Indiana record with a third consecutive Mr. Basketball winner in 2020.

Despite improvement in recruiting, Miller has struggled to reach the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons as Indiana’s head coach. In 2017-2018, the team finished with a final record of 16-15, missing the playoffs entirely. In 2018-2019, the Hoosiers finished with an overall record of 19-16, which included a run to the NIT quarterfinals without star freshman Romeo Langford.

After another two disappointing seasons that were marred by the COVID-19 pandemic preventing the Hoosiers from a likely bid to the 2020 NCAA Tournament, and taking a step back in the 2021 season, Archie Miller was fired on March 15, 2021. He was awarded an approximately $10 million buyout in this change in coaching. He was replaced by Mike Woodson on March 28, 2021 as the 30th head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Archie Miller Personal

Archie Miller is married to the former Morgan Nicole Cruse, who he met at NC State. Together, they have a daughter, Leah.

Photo: IU Athletics

Archie Miller Videos

Contributor: Rob Jiang