BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — I wasn't there when James Naismith hung the first peach basket and sketched out the first basketball play. But I've been around the hoops game a long, long time, and I've always had three simple tenets that show me a well-coached team in a game with very high stakes.

How do you start the game?

How do you finish the game?

What kind of players do you do it with?

Thursday night, Indiana's Archie Miller checked off all the boxes.

And he did it emphatically.

It was Indiana's biggest game of the year, a massive showdown with Big Ten gold standard Michigan State and its legendary coach, Tom Izzo. Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall was sold out and rocking, and hundreds of thousands of people were watching on national TV.

And Archie Miller coached one hell of a game. I'm not one to gush over coaches — or rip them for the opposite outcome — but Miller deserves a ton of credit for Indiana's 67-63 victory over Izzo and the Spartans. This win was huge, and singlehandedly changes the storyline for this Indiana team.

We now, dare I say, need to start paying attention to the standings, because the Hoosiers are now legitimately in the hunt for a Big Ten championship.

And Miller deserves a lot of credit for that. There's been more low points than high in his two-plus years at Indiana, on the court and the recruiting trail, but what became blatantly obvious Thursday night is that Indiana is on the cusp of being a very good team.

There was no doubt on Thursday night that they were a very well-coached team, as well.

Let's talk about my barometers for a minute. Indulge me, please, as we wake up to a Hoosiers team that is 15-4 overall, the best mark in the Big Ten along with Maryland, and 5-3 in the league, just a game behind the Spartans in a very crowded table.

Let's look:

How do you start the game?

Indiana started out on fire with an 18-4 run to take early control of the game, and Miller gets a ton of credit for hitting all the right buttons. That's Hall of Famer Tom Izzo on the other bench, and Izzo had six days to prepare for this game.

But it was Miller and the Hoosiers who were nearly perfect coming out of the gate. They scored on six of their first eight trips and had Michigan State dazed and confused.

How do you finish the game?

Well, this was a thing of beauty. You knew Michigan State would come back, and they did. The last 12 minutes of this game, neither team lead by more than three points until the final second. It was a typical Big Ten brawl, one tense possession after another.

Tied with just a couple of minutes to go, Miller dialed up the right plays to pull out a win. Joey Brunk scored on a nice post move, Al Durham got wide open on a kick-out and nailed a 3-pointer and Brunk got a huge offensive rebound and putback to put Indiana ahead for good.

That was a poised, well-trained team down the stretch there. Panic? Not this group.

"That was a big step for us tonight, being able to pull this one out,'' Miller said. "I give our guys credit, though, because we found a way to gut it out. We have good camaraderie as a team, and we have good leadership right now. And we have some poise so that in tough spots we can come back and hang in there. Obviously we're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think our team believes if we do what we need to do and play hard and compete, we can beat anybody.



"When you're at home, you have to find a way to dig it out and use it to your advantage. But coming into the last 3:52 or whatever it may have been, we were a very calm, very poised group. The guys that were in the huddle — and even the guys that didn't play as much — I thought were ready to go.''

They absolutely were. They were coached up well, without question.

And lastly, what kind of players do you do it with?

Sure, we wish Miller would have won a few more recruiting battles, but the guys he had out there did one heck of a job Thursday night. They are a coachable group, and they showed it right down to the wire.

And give credit, too, for Miller having the right guys out there.

The final play says it all. It was 65-63 Indiana and Michigan State's Cassius Winston, the best point guard in the conference, had the ball in his hands with just a dozen seconds to go. Indiana switched the ball screen and there was 6-foot-9 forward Trayce Jackson-Davis — a true freshman, mind you — now on Winston, and staring him down.

He attacked Winston, and didn't let him shoot a 3-pointer. And when Winston, who's crazy quick, started downhill toward the basket, Jackson-Davis was with him stride for stride. Winston had no chance to score and put up a lob to Xavier Tillman that looked more like a bad shot. Tillman had a look right at the rim, but it didn't go in. Ballgame, with Indiana the winner.

It says a lot that Jackson-Davis was in perfect position, and executed the game plan and those defensive rules perfectly. That's pure talent there — Izzo wanted him so bad and hated losing that recruiting battle to Indiana — but that's also coaching, having him drilled well enough to be in the right spot and not back down from a likely Big Ten Player of the Year candidate.

"Three beats you, and to be able to switch all ball screens, you take away hopefully the pick-and-pop,'' Miller said. "The last play of the game, with nine seconds, you don't want to give up an easy pick-and-pop, so we switched it. The bottom line is you have to press up on the guard, and you have to move. And you can't allow him to knock you back and shoot a 3.



"I thought Trayce was aggressive on his switch. He can move. Trayce can really move and he motors and knows what he's doing in terms of being engaged on things. You won't see a big guy cover more ground or move like him. It's one of his great gifts.''

That's a well-coached freshman, doing his thing. And it saved a huge victory.

"For him to be able to do that at the end of the game, I just thought he executed. He executed,'' Miller said. "We've had some games that you can go back to against Arkansas where he switched, or even against Rutgers, where he switched and dropped. He's being more protective.



"He wasn't protective (against Winston), and he knew he couldn't be in this situation. He did a good job executing. And his ability level, obviously he can do whatever you ask him to do.''

Indiana is now 5-0 in games decided by five points or less this season, which is another perfect barometer to show out quality coaching. Indiana is getting it done when it matters the most. Those final few minutes say a lot about a team, and how poised and prepared they were.

Oh, there are still things to complain about, but not today. That was a hell of a win for Indiana.

And that was a hell of a win for Archie Miller.

Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Michigan State Spartans coach Tom Izzo talks before the game with Indiana Hoosiers coach Archie Miller at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

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