Archie Miller plays to Hoosier faithful at Huber Farms

Zach Osterman | IndyStar

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BORDEN – “I think, other than people talking about coaching in Assembly Hall, the only other thing they really talked about was Huber Farms.”

Archie Miller is joking. Maybe.

Or maybe not.

He’s standing in the dining room inside Huber’s Orchard and Winery, killing the last hours of May in front of more than a dozen assembled media. He’ll soon stand, center stage, in a room of hundreds of people, each one hanging on his every word, hoping to crack just a little bit wider their window into Indiana’s future under its new coach.

This event, a staple of the summer calendar of every IU basketball coach, serves as a sort of welcome to the program. Maybe more so than Hoosier Hysteria — maybe more so than his Big Ten opener — this is Miller's up-close look at just how big Indiana basketball is.

Huber plays host annually to one of Indiana’s single biggest fan outreach days of the year, where reserving a table can cost as much as $1,000 and folks from Louisville, Ky., to Bloomington congregate at this isolated winery atop a steep, Southern Indiana hill to hear from their football and basketball coaches.

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Fred Glass, IU’s athletic director and a veteran of Huber’s fried chicken, calls the drive down through Bedford and Mitchell and Salem, “quintessential Indiana,” and this yearly gathering — perhaps the state’s most expensive pep rally — “what Indiana University basketball is all about.”

On this night, fans started lining up before the doors even opened to get a glimpse of that. Every fan who pays to get in the door has a seat reserved, but there’s a line anyway.

Because Archie’s here.

This was one of precious few questions about Miller’s bonafides, and whether he was ready for IU. He spent six seasons at Dayton, a mid-major program with a high-major fan base. But how quickly could he adjust to a program and a place where basketball is everything, and sometimes the only thing?

“Every day I wake up,” Miller says, when he takes the stage inside Huber’s main event room, “I understand more and more what I’m representing.”

He’s standing in front of a crowd Glass says numbers 925. It’s normally 600-700. Tonight, even Glass might be underselling — there’s a chance it’s closer to 1,000.

“It’s really exciting,” Glass says. “It’s one of those things where, it’s hard to oversell it. A lot of times, you want to not play it up, because you don’t want people to be disappointed. But it’s impossible to oversell this event.”

Miller says and does all the things he should say and do, addressing a crowd that would probably agree with him if he proposed draining and selling the Wabash River, and moving its water to the Nevada desert.

When he takes the stage, speakers beside him blare the IU fight song. Fans should sit down after the first rendition, but they’re so enthusiastic that the song plays again. Miller adopts a wry smile and a look that’s part impressed, part confident, and distinctly comfortable.

He launches into his spiel, introducing his new coaching staff, from assistants to graduate assistants to Clif Marshall, his strength coach.

Fans listen intently.

He’s as self-deprecating as he can be.

“I played at N.C. State, and as you can see, a lot of you are probably bigger than me,” Miller deadpans.

They laugh robustly.

He peppers in colorful language. Nothing gratuitous, enough to fit in with a hard-working, blue-collar fan base that’s all passion but has little use for pretense. So Archie Miller swears just a little.

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They laugh even more robustly.

Miller runs through his roster. Rob Johnson needs to talk more. De’Ron Davis is dropping weight and gaining momentum. Collin Hartman, whose mention elicits a round of applause, “isn’t missing a shot” right now, as his health returns.

“You’re starting to get a great feel, a confidence, for how this guy helps us win,” Miller says.

For nearly a half hour, Miller speaks, introducing himself without seeming like he’s selling, encouraging without overpromising, optimistic without peddling false hope.

“The one thing nobody will say is, 'They didn’t work hard,'” he guarantees of his team. “At the end of the day, if we don’t do that, you can pile it on.”

But his biggest hits come during the Q&A portion.

“Are we gonna stop anybody?” cracks the first man on the microphone.

Miller looks at IU football coach Tom Allen, joking that fans asked him that first, before answering, “We’re gonna try.”

What about a Kentucky series?

“Well I think Kentucky’s the one that everybody wants,” Miller says, before turning to assistant and John Calipari disciple Bruiser Flint. “Bruiser, you may be able to get this done.”

Near the end of the program, before Miller will sign more autographs than he’d probably care to count, a woman grabs the microphone.

“Is it Miller time?” she asks, laughing.

Miller smiles, and delivers one more line smothered with the confidence he's carried all evening.

“Is it Miller time? I don’t know,” he says. “I think it’s just our time. We’ve got to do this thing together.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.