BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Archie Miller and Al Durham met with the media today as the Indiana Hoosiers prepare to begin the 2019-2020 campaign tomorrow against the Western Illinois Leathernecks. Here are tidbits from the availability.

Watch the full press conference from Archie Miller and Al Durham

Archie Miller on the opening game

Archie Miller says that the everyone from the team and the staff are excited and anxious to take the floor again. They have a lot of information from the first exhibition and they have worked hard as a group to clean up some of those learnings. The last 3 to 4 workouts have been particularly good with this group.

On the depth and chemistry of the team

One of the key characteristics for this group to be successful is to be deep according to Miller. “There’s a good bounce about our guys, there’s a good togetherness right now, which is good to see.”

On the health of the backcourt

“Back court health has been the biggest concern in the month of October.”

“Robert and Devonte have not been a part of what we’re doing. Although Rob got an opportunity to play a little bit the other day, I think it was widely described as his real first opportunity to play, you know, five-on-five. Post-game, we evaluated him again. He’s taken some time and our medical team has done some other things to try and make him more comfortable. I think he’s as comfortable as he’s been. And as we enter today, he’s part of our plan in terms of practice, which is good to see.”

“Devonte is still out. Time to be determined. With that hamstring, he’s going to take it day-by-day. There’s no rush and the biggest thing with him is to make sure that when he does come back, he’s able to fully engage and we don’t have any setbacks. It’s definitely been a challenge, you know the back court not being together. Our chemistry, you know… reality is our most experience group of players and they haven’t been a part of it, so that’s been a challenge. But it has given Armaan, it’s given Damezi, and it’s given Jerome, and Justin to some extent on the perimeter a lot more opportunities and repetitions.”

“Al coming back. He’s now back engaged in practice after he had to sit last week with a, you know, ten-day period of time where we rested his knee contusion, bruise, whatever it may have been. Getting Al back has been a really, really nice surprise. I think Al plays a pivotal role for us in November, in us getting started.”

“Me as a coach, I am optimistic right now that a lot of these things can hopefully come back together when we’re full strength. But I think the other guys are prepared.”

On Armaan Franklin’s progress

“As we enter our first game, I couldn’t be more pleased with Armaan in terms of what he’s been able to handle and what we’ve asked him to do. Here early he’s gotten a lot of extended minutes and reps, because of the injuries…looking back on it, would we know as much about him now? Probably not, if things were good. Armaan will play a heavy role here in early November. We have a lot of confidence in him.”

On Jerome Hunter’s first showing

Miller reiterated that Jerome has not played in live action over a year and in reality it was the first time he played five-on-five in front of the crowd. Certainly, there are jitters when you return back into an environment like Assembly Hall. Miller mentioned that Jerome is hitting those shots and has been in practice, but Hunter will need some time get more opportunities under his belt. In the second half, “a more physical Jerome” showed up, which is what the team sees more in practice. Hopefully, Hunter can balance both.

Right now, the goal for Hunter is to get in there and get a feel.

On what the team learned from the exhibition

“We got off to a decent start defensively, that led to our offense… On the back-half, we were not very efficient offensively.

In the second half, Miller liked that the team established their physical dominance and the approach at the front of the rim, which showed up on the box score in the fouls drawn column.

Defensively, Miller thinks the team was not very good in a lot of areas. In reality, there are a lot of a first year guys and guys that have not had a lot of experience on the court. Miller hopes that they improve as they approach the opener.

“We’re gonna be a quest to be the best defensive team that we can be. I think this team knows if we hang our hat defensively with the numbers that we have, that’s the best chance of becoming a really good team, a consistent team.”

In addition to defense, rebounding is also an area for improvement.

Having Al and Rob back will help clean up of the scheme and running of the sets.

On Trayce Jackson-Davis

“Trayce through 25 practices right now is the No. 1 player on our team in practice points by over 100 points. That’s not a slim margin. So he’s doing some things really well for us every day. If he does those things well every day, he’s going to continue to see success. Definitely see Trayce as being a vital part of what we’re doing, an impact players. He’s one of the best players, most talented guys on our team.”