URI Coach Miller’s Potential Day of Horror
The Biz of Sports
URI Coach Miller’s Potential Day of Horror
It has the potential to be a nightmare for URI Coach Archie Miller.
Yes, URI is getting a check from UConn for the short drive, but the potential for disaster is significant.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Rams will face the Huskies — the National Champions for the past two seasons and they are loaded again.
In the ESPN preseason, UConn is ranked 3rd in the country.
“Back-to-back-to-back? Don't count out the Huskies, especially not after Dan Hurley rejected the Los Angeles Lakers to stay in Storrs days after Alex Karaban withdrew from the NBA draft to return to college. Karaban is the lone starter back for the reigning national champions, but he should combine with top-10 recruit Liam McNeeley and Saint Mary's transfer Aidan Mahaney to form one of the most dangerous shooting trios in the country,” writes ESPN.
The Rams enter the season being projected 11th in the Atlantic 10 — a 15-team mid-major conference.
In Kingston, Miller, in his third year, is facing his third reboot.
While many of last season’s Huskies left for the NBA, many of last season's Rams jumped in the portal and ran away from Rhode Island.
While Hurley has won back-to-back National Championships, Miller has gone 21-42 in two seasons at URI. His A-10 conference record is even worse—11-25 (.306 winning percentage).
In the past century, only two URi coaches have worse winning percentages: Jerry DeGregorio (.200) and Brendan Malone (.302)
Miller and Hurley could not be on more different career paths.
Hurley, the last great URI coach, turned down the Los Angeles Laker’s head coaching job this year, and Miller, in his third year of a five-year contract, is on a razor’s edge.
Prior to Hurley making his final decision to stay in Storrs and skip life in Hollywood, GoLocal's sports analyst Kevin Stacom wrote:
Money is Money, and the initial estimates of LA’s offer were extravagant, ranging upwards of $100-150 million, and most pundits had surmised that he had no choice but to take the offer. Who would have begrudged him for that? On top of that, you could imagine the heady experience of a former Jersey City gym rat entering a room with the King (LeBron), Magic Johnson, Jeanie Buss, and GM Rob Pelinka.
I have to credit our old friend Rick Pitino, who, in an interview in the NY Post on Friday, induced the following headline:
“Rick Pitino believes Dan Hurley will stay put at UConn, won’t jump to NBA yet.” Some of his more prescient comments included, “What I’m hearing- and I have no inside information that his father (Bob Hurley Sr) and his wife (Andrea) are very strong in his life, and they don’t want to go…I think he’s going to try it, no different than John Calipari tried it or I tried it…..I don’t think he’s going to take the job, but I think he’s going to try the pros someday.
Miller's opportunities are more limited. Monday's game is a day of reckoning. This season may define his career.
UConn's Hurley could play the second team for much of the game and cut Miller a break. But the Huskies' second team is significantly more talented than the Rams-of-the-week.
Scheduling this "exhibition" was not a good idea. It is a reminder of how far URI has fallen since Hurley left.