CAMPING WORLD MAUI INVITATIONAL

December 2, 2020

Archie Miller

Indiana Hoosiers

Postgame Press Conference

Indiana - 79, Stanford - 63

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

(Audio was muted.)

ARCHIE MILLER: He did a nice job on some plays, specifically, I thought he really competed defensively for the first time and he helped us and, but that was what was needed. You take a lot of inventory from these three games because we're not playing four games at home against five teams. We didn't have that opportunity. And when you play against this field to get two at least, to me, really was going to pay some dividends in our improvement and also what we need to do to get better, but also down the line I just don't know how everyone's schedule will look the same, but the fact that we got these three games in may be the main world of difference at the end of the season.

Q. I wanted to ask you about kind of big picture, you had that ugly loss yesterday, you're down two seniors. What does that tell you about this team that they were able to turn around on 24 hours and put in this kind of performance?

ARCHIE MILLER: Well, one, I've said this before, we have a no maintenance group. It wasn't like we at the end of the game the, the sky's falling everywhere else, but our team was fine. We have a high character group that likes one another.

And to be quite honest with you, Trayce needed to get lit up. He needed to get going and we're not going to be where we need to be unless he plays at a really extremely high level. He answered the bell today. I think, I was proud of him and just in general, though, I thought our guys, they didn't blink. We prepared in a very, you know, last night late, up early in the morning, and I thought our guys did a great job of just kind of coming back.

It means something to them right now to win. They like playing with one another. They like being around one another. It's an easy group to be around and when you're in this type of situation in these tournaments, I've seen it a thousand times, you get exposed to a lot of things you weren't ready for. And for our team, we got punched good in the mouth and to be able to get back up and respond and get better and deal with it the way we did, it shows that, I think, it's what you're going to need this type of season.

Q. You mentioned Trayce kind of needing to get lit up a little bit. Is that a situation where you have to say something to him or does he know that what, maybe how he played yesterday wasn't acceptable and he just kind of goes about his business on his own and turns it around after yesterday?

ARCHIE MILLER: No, I mean, I think just in general Trayce, to me, he's playing in a funk because maybe he's a little bit bothered by his offensive production or not being able to make a few easy ones that he missed. To me, he played a little down, almost worried about why he wasn't making some shots or playing well.

And at the end of the day, I've always said this, what makes Trayce special is he's got an incredible motor and when he runs and rebounds and he plays, it just makes it so much easier. Yeah, we needed to jump start him and he knew that and the good part about Trayce is he's extremely coachable. You're able to coach him hard and I think being able to explain some things with our team last night, we needed that. I mean, it's very rarely that you're able to be exposed at this competition level this quick, with really, even when you play in Maui in years past, you're going to get three or four in before you go. That's not the case this year.

So all these teams that are here, I mean, this is the competition level on day one with no real testing of your lineups or what happens when guys get hurt or in foul trouble. This is really trial by error. So for us, it was an invaluable experience and I'm really thankful that the guys at Maui and Coach Odom and those guys were able to just fight their way through this and get this thing pulled off here in Asheville. It's been great.

Q. You guys had Armaan Franklin against Ziaire, a top-5 guy coming from the 2020 class. Armaan outscores him, out-rebounds him. Just your thoughts on the way Armaan played the whole game today.

ARCHIE MILLER: Phenomenal. Becoming one of the best defenders we have. He's guarding bigger players, smaller players, all over the floor. He's accountable right now. He's playing much tougher. And one of the things that I love about Armaan right now is a year ago at this time I was begging him to rebound. I was begging him to mix it up and get it dirty.

And my man has, I think, eight rebounds today and he's averaged, in this tournament I'm almost positive that he's come up with 18 defensive rebounds at the guard spot for us. He's averaging six defensive rebounds. That's just a complete change in his makeup.

So the more he focuses in on that, I asked him about three or four times if he needed a blow, Nope, I'm good, I don't need a blow. And to me, growing up, growing up, getting bigger, older, stronger, he's a good player and when he plays like that today, we're good.

Q. What does it say about his maybe responsibility, accountability as well as, obviously, physical conditioning that he can go 40 minutes in a game like this, that you can ask him to pick up a couple different matchups and you don't really ever need to pull him out?

ARCHIE MILLER: Yeah, that's a drastic, stark difference from a year ago at this time. So he's went through the battles. He's worked -- Armaan's a physically-conditioned athlete. He can run all day. He was our pre-season strength and conditioning award winner as true freshman. He's in incredible shape and now he's 12, 13 pounds heavier and he's a year older.

So I wasn't worried about his conditioning level. He's the guy every day that I don't worry about. We just need from Armaan, even in today's great game and after the game, he kind of stays the same. We would like to see a little more emotion out of him and we'll try very hard to keep pulling that out of him, but I think he showed today, and in this tournament in general, how important he is to our team.