Will Dayton fans welcome Archie Miller back to UD Arena? Voice of Flyers thinks so

“I have stood up here at this press conference a few times,” Miller said. “One time I stood up here at 32 years old, and I was 0-0. No job, no wins, never had any experience. And you go through your growing pains. We honored that process, and we were able to have a group that broke through.”

That was a reference to Miller’s 2013-14 Dayton Flyers team that reached the Elite Eight. Miller said he was most proud of the fact that the success didn’t stop there. Dayton made four straight NCAA tournament appearances, which had never been done at UD, before Miller left for the job at Indiana, where he didn’t reach the NCAA tournament in four seasons.

“Sometimes you break through, and you maybe they don’t hear from you for a couple years,” Miller said. ”Sometimes you break through, and you continue to go. I think the thing I was most proud of at Dayton was the consistency. We had tremendous support, unbelievable people, great friends. Then I moved to a second spot and had a press conference and I was popular only at the beginning.”

Miller is popular now in Rhode Island, where he replaces David Cox, who was fired on March 11 after posting a record of 64-55 in four seasons.

It will be interesting to see how popular Miller will be in Dayton when he returns with his new team to coach against the Flyers at UD Arena.

“I hope it’ll be positive,” said WHIO’s Larry Hansgen, the radio voice of the Flyers, on Sunday in Nashville before Dayton’s NIT game against Vanderbilt. “I think he did good things for this program, and he left on good terms. I hope he gets a very warm response.”

“He took this program to the next level,” said former Flyer Keith Waleskowski, who joined Hansgen on the radio broadcast Sunday. “I don’t think you can just forget that. He left for another opportunity. People do that. That’s part of the game, and even at that time, you wish him the best of luck. I would hope that as a fan base, we would recognize the positive impact he had on our program and the things that he did in the past and how it has continued to impact us now now in the present.”

Hansgen sent Miller a text on Friday when the news broke of his hiring and wrote, “Congratulations. I hope you go 29-2.”

Rhode Island and Dayton have played twice in the regular season seven years in a row. That streak started in the 2015-16 season, Miller’s fifth at Dayton. Dayton went 6-2 against Rhode Island in David Cox’s four seasons.

Cox was an assistant on Dan Hurley’s staff before getting the head coaching job, and they proved Rhode Island can be a winning program. They reached the NCAA tournament in 2017 and 2018 and won a tournament game each time before losing in the second round. That success led to Hurley getting the job at Connecticut.

Hansgen and Waleskowski think Miller can have success at Rhode Island.

“It’s not a program that’s perennially in the dumps,” Waleskowski said. “They’ve had solid years in the past. He did great things when he was here at Dayton. I think he’s obviously fully capable of doing the same things or similar type of things at Rhode Island.”

In a roundabout way, Miller’s success could be good for Dayton because a stronger A-10 would be good for Dayton. The conference ranked 10th in the Ken Pomeroy ratings this season after ranking ninth the last two seasons. It ranked eighth in Miller’s last two seasons at Dayton.

“I do want him to be successful,” Hansgen said. “But I think that comes up to a limit. Brian Gregory’s a friend but when he brought Georgia Tech into the arena, I wanted him to get beat, and that’ll be the same with the Rams, but I’m glad to see Archie back.”