Archie Miller’s daughter was a little girl starting elementary school when her dad received what turned out to be the opportunity of a professional lifetime.
That’s how the University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach and his wife, Morgan, track the years. It’s not the seasons or the game nights or the road trips or the NCAA Tournament appearances.
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Leah’s their only child, now growing into a young woman who’s currently a freshman gymnast at LSU. It’s the beginning of her college career and the start of her father’s journey leading the third of his three programs.
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Dayton will always be a special place for them. The Rams visit for a Saturday afternoon tip at UD Arena, and Miller — with the benefit of hindsight and time passing — put the occasion in perspective this week.
“Inevitably it always comes back to that opportunity that I was given,” Miller said. “My family, myself — we’ll forever be grateful and indebted for the trust that they gave.
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“Long, long, long down the line when my days are done coaching — whenever it is — it will always go back to the start.”
Miller was an assistant at Western Kentucky, North Carolina State, Arizona State, Ohio State and Arizona before succeeding Brian Gregory with the Flyers in 2011. Dayton president Daniel Curran and athletic director Tim Wabler tabbed the 32-year-old fresh off an Elite Eight with the Wildcats while working under his older brother, Sean. Gregory was a postseason coach in his last four years and won the NIT in 2010 before accepting an offer from Georgia Tech.
“They thought you were the guy to lead at such a proud place, in a great city with a great fanbase,” Miller said. “They believed in me when I had nothing. I didn’t have any resumé.”
His first couple of seasons were challenging. The Flyers went 37-27 overall but just 16-16 in Atlantic 10 play. The breakthrough came in Miller’s third year, an Elite Eight run sparked by capturing a grudge match against the Buckeyes. Dayton was eventually eliminated by Florida, the last great team Billy Donovan coached with the Gators before he jumped to the NBA.
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“At that time you don’t understand the faith that it took — that somebody believed in you and gave you that opportunity, and you’ve never coached a game,” Miller said. “I think that’s the first thing that crept into my mind.
“How it all transpired is one thing, but they gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. Whether you win the game, you lose the game, you play them 60 times in the next few years — the thing you remember as a person is that they believed in you.”
Miller rewarded that confidence with a dominant four-year stretch. The Flyers beat Boise State and Providence in the 2015 edition of March Madness and were eventually eliminated by an Oklahoma team led by Buddy Hield. Dayton shared a regular-season league title with VCU and St. Bonaventure in 2015-16 before winning it outright by a game in 2016-17.
“Coaches are really, really sick,” Miller said. “They don’t take five seconds to sit back after wins, after seasons, after a magical game. It just kind of turns into one cycle.
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“You look back years down the road now and you have all these memories. You have all those people who were so good to you. You probably, in that time, never even took five seconds to just sit back and understand sort of how your life’s changing.”
Miller was hired away by Indiana after a March Madness defeat against Wichita State. His four years with the Hoosiers proved difficult — a 67-58 overall mark but a combined 11 games under .500 against Big Ten foes. His firing was a professional setback after what had been a steady climb, and he’s starting over in this second season with URI.
“It was always about the next game,” Miller said. “It was always about the next season. It goes so fast. And in the blink of an eye, your six years are done.
“I even say it now — in the blink of an eye I’ve been gone longer than I was there.”
The Rams (9-8, 3-1 A-10) are coming off a thumping by St. Bonaventure, and you could hardly imagine a tougher place to get well. The Flyers (14-2, 4-0) are on an 11-game winning streak and into a third consecutive year of sellout crowds for every home date. The building’s $76-million renovation, the $4-million upgrade to the practice facility, the support from the community at large — Miller helped start this current golden age of Dayton basketball, and the significance of his return will go beyond just 40 minutes on the floor.
“I was the coach,” Miller said. “I think the coach gets a lot of credit. I think the coach gets a lot of blame. At the end of the day, to be consistently good, you have to have it from top to bottom.
“And we did.”
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