Archie Miller Just Scored His First Big Recruiting Wins At Indiana

Archie Miller is on fire. The new head basketball coach at Indiana had yet to land any commitments since taking the job in April, but in the last 24 hours he has pulled off several big wins. Miller has landed three top 100 recruits in that span.

First came the commitment of Robbinsdale Armstrong (Minnesota) forward Race Thompson, who is ranked 86th on the 247 composite for 2018. Thompson is a 6’8″ 200-pounder who had offers from roughly a dozen schools. He will also reportedly reclassify to the class of 2017 and aims to be on campus in Bloomington by August. Thompson informed the world of his decision Sunday afternoon.

Next, Pickering North (Ohio) forward Jerome Hunter announced his commitment to the Hoosiers. That announcement came Monday morning, as the 6’7″ 195-pounder picked Indiana over Michigan, Ohio State, Pitt and Xavier. Hunter ranks 60th in the 247 composite for 2018 and has been rising rapidly in the last few months.

Just two hours after Hunter announced, South Bend Riley (Indiana) forward Damezi Anderson made his pledge to Indiana public. Anderson, a 6’6″ 175-pound small forward is currently ranked 91st in the class of 2018 on 247.

All three players are versatile forwards who can play multiple positions and do multiple things. All are solid athletes and all of them can shoot, which means they can all likely contribute early at Indiana.

In just 24 hours, Miller went from having no commitments secured, to three big ones. Given how far behind he and his new staff were with the class of 2018 compared to other schools who had been recruiting those kids for years, it’s an impressive feat. Miller and company were able to identify talent, build relationships and secure commitments incredibly quickly.

Since arriving on campus, Miller has done a lot to solidify the future of the program. He put together a top-level staff, has modernized Indiana’s social media presence (don’t discount the importance of this), kept the commitments the previous staff had secured for 2017, and — most importantly — has clearly gotten his returning players to buy in to his system.

While the 2017-18 season could start out fairly rocky for the Hoosiers given their incredibly difficult non-conference schedule (at Seton Hall, Duke, at Louisville, Notre Dame), the future looks bright thanks to the work Miller and his staff have put in.