URI will pay new basketball coach Archie Miller $8.5M over five years
Archie Miller was officially announced as the next men’s basketball coach at the University of Rhode Island on Friday, and his five-year contract represents a level of financial commitment not previously seen in Kingston.
Miller agreed to terms on an $8.5-million deal — $1.4 million the first two seasons through 2023-24, $1.9 million in each of the last three through 2026-27. He will be introduced in a Monday morning press conference on campus at the Higgins Welcome Center.
More: Searching for success: What you should know about URI's new basketball coach, Archie Miller
The Rams moved quickly after firing previous coach David Cox last Friday. They identified Miller — a former head coach in the Atlantic 10 with Dayton and later at Indiana — as a primary target and worked over several days to secure him. URI president Marc Parlange and athletic director Thorr Bjorn finalized an agreement with Miller late Thursday.
More: URI fires men's basketball coach David Cox after 4 seasons
“We say it all the time that we’re a basketball school,” Bjorn said. “Now we can tell people that we actually are acting like it at a high level.”
Miller’s contract includes a salary pool of $765,000 for his support staff — three assistant coaches, three full-time staff members and two unpaid graduate assistants. His buyout starts at $1 million through April 2023 and declines by $200,000 annually over the life of the deal. The Rams have pledged to add more charter flights for road games and set a firmer timeline for the construction of a basketball-specific practice facility.
“URI is synonymous with success on the basketball court,” Miller said in a statement. “It hasn’t just been one coach. It has been several who have led this program into March Madness.”
At the top of the list
Miller, 43, reached the Elite Eight with the Flyers in 2014, the first of four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. He was hired away by the Hoosiers for the 2017-18 season and went just 67-58 overall before his firing in March 2021. Miller was paid a contract buyout in excess of $10 million and spent the last year as an analyst with The Field of 68, a digital college basketball media entity.
“We came up with about 15 names, but Archie was by far at the top,” Bjorn said. “I needed to find out if he was interested.”
Bjorn assembled a four-person team to immediately begin a search for his next coach — associate athletic director Garrett Waller, associate athletic director Brittney Miles, associate athletic director Shane Donaldson and former athletics intern Jack Davis. Bjorn reached out to Miller through former St. Bonaventure athletic director Tim Kenney, who is a close friend. Bjorn and Miller spoke extensively by phone on Sunday and began to discuss the framework of a deal.
“Our first phone call was great, but I would say Archie was just listening and taking it in,” Bjorn said. “Then from that point on we just started talking a lot.”
Miller was put in contact with a pair of significant URI donors earlier in the week — former CVS president Tom Ryan and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Mike Fascitelli. Bjorn and Parlange discussed an increased investment at the university level that put the Rams on par with programs in the conference like the Flyers, VCU and Saint Louis. Parlange ultimately agreed to fund the additional spending within the university budget and not through alternative means like a loan from the URI Foundation.
“This can’t be, ‘Hey coach, these are things we’re hoping to do,’ ” Bjorn said. “It needs to be, ‘These are things we’re doing.’ Marc understood that and made those commitments at the university level.
“Now we’re able to go out and do something really special. That means building the program up and going to compete at the national level. That’s where we all want to be.”
Expectations and a desire to compete
Miller’s base salary in all five years will be $400,000. The majority of his remaining compensation will come through Ryan Center gate receipts — $750,000 in each of the first two years, $1 million in each of the last three. Miller will also be paid $200,000 in athletic department appearance fees in each of the first two years, $450,000 in each of the final three and retention bonuses of $500,000 apiece in September 2024 and September 2025.
“You have a lot of teams spending a lot of money to do great things, and you know who those teams are,” Bjorn said. “We need to be one of them. That’s what the expectation is and that’s where we need to be.”
Cox was fired the day after losing to Richmond in the conference tournament, as the Rams finished a second straight season under .500 overall and fell to 16-28 in their last 44 games against league foes. His three assistant coaches — Todd Bozeman, Austin Carroll and T.J. Buchanan — made roughly $390,000 combined for the 2021-22 season. The expectation with Miller at the helm is URI will be able to assemble a stronger staff and upgrade their talent base swiftly.
The Rams were shut out of the postseason all-conference awards earlier this month and had a lone incoming recruit for the 2022-23 campaign. California shooting guard Chance Stephens requested a release from his letter of intent after the decision to part ways with Cox and four players — Malik Martin, Antwan Walker, Ishmael Leggett and Tres Berry — entered the NCAA transfer portal. URI was under significant pressure to reverse that downward momentum and landed arguably the top free-agent coach on the market.
“I will cheer for him like I do every single year except for one game,” said Providence coach Ed Cooley, who happens to be a close family friend. “I hope they’re absolutely horrendous when they play us, and I told him that as I talked to him on the phone today.
“I’m very excited for him. I’m very excited for the URI fan base.”
There was a noticeable decline in those patrons this season. The Rams were off by more than 21% from their total attendance figure in 2019-20, which was the last season played without COVID-19 restrictions. The Friars sold out each of their final five home games at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center and will play for a Sweet 16 berth on Saturday against Richmond.
“There's a lot of passion for Rhode Island basketball from our fan base and our alums,” Bjorn said. “That’s coming out in full force.
“Now it’s time — in my opinion — for people to continue to step up. We need their support in terms of coming out to games. That’s probably the most important thing we can do right now.”
Miller’s contract approaches what Bjorn offered Dan Hurley to stay at URI following the 2017-18 season. The Rams had reached a second straight NCAA Tournament and were on the verge of losing their coach to Connecticut. Hurley’s annual salary would have reached $2 million and come alongside several program enhancements now at Miller’s disposal.
Bjorn said the practice facility — a renovated version of Tootell West Gymnasium — is fully funded at just shy of $8 million and currently out to bid. URI hopes to start construction in June and be finished by the end of next summer. That would coincide with the signing of Miller’s first full recruiting class featuring prep prospects.
“I can’t tell people this is what we hope to be,” Bjorn said. “I need to know that we can do it. And (Parlange) said, ‘I agree with you. Let’s do it.’ ”
The Rams owe Cox a buyout of roughly $1 million and will be negotiating a settlement with his representatives in the coming days. Cox was given a previously undisclosed one-year extension following the 2019-20 campaign and had two years remaining on his existing deal. He finished 64-55 in his four seasons with URI, and that followed a successful four years on staff as an assistant coach and associate head coach under Hurley.
“That was really hard,” Bjorn said. “But once the decision and the conversation took place, I had to put on my next hat.
“We needed to go find that coach.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: URI confirms the hiring of Archie Miller as head basketball coach
