Archie Miller Provides Update on Parker Stewart

Parker Stewart is with the team right now, and Archie Miller gave an update on where Stewart stands in terms of playing this season.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — If anything were apparent in Indiana's 81-69 loss to Purdue Thursday night in Assembly Hall, it's that the Hoosiers need shooting.

Both Purdue and Indiana made the same number of field goals — 25. But Purdue made 11 3-pointers while Indiana only made three. That turned out to be one of the biggest differences in the game.

On Dec. 15, Indiana picked up Parker Stewart, a grad transfer from UT Martin. One of Stewart's best attributes is his ability so shoot the ball. Although he is eligible play with Indiana this season, it was unknown if he would actually do so.

Head coach Archie Miller provided an update on Stewart earlier this week.

"He is on campus and he's just started to get integrated with our group," Miller said. "His arrival was one of which he had to go through a quarantine situation. Couldn't really be around a whole lot until he was through that. Once he's through that, now he's in our testing program, and he can start to get a little bit more acclimated."

Stewart was actually in attendance for Indiana's game against Purdue Thursday night. He didn't warm up with the team, but he was there in street clothes.

"He's got a lot of work to do in terms of getting acclimated with the team, getting acclimated with the doctors, COVID protocols, physical exams, so he's not anywhere near joining us for practice or anything like that," Miller said. 

Even though it doesn't sound likely that Stewart will suit up for the Hoosiers this season, Miller did circle back on the previous statement to say they hope they can get Stewart in some practices relatively soon.

"He is now a full-go in being a part of what we're doing," Miller said. "Each day that goes by hopefully we can get him a little bit smoother in terms of his transition, and the hope would be that sometime next week, or the week after, he can begin to start to work with us on the practice floor and see where we're at with that."

But this late into the season, it doesn't seem like Indiana has any real plan to insert Stewart into the rotation. Especially with getting Armaan Franklin back, Indiana will have a little more depth to its backcourt moving forward.

"As of right now, there's no real plan to be able to integrate him any which way possible just with the circumstances surrounding his arrival, medical, doctors, everything that a normal guy who transfers in at the break has to go through," Miller said.

Indiana's next game will be on Thursday, Feb. 21, when the Hoosiers travel to Iowa to take on the No. 5-ranked Hawkeyes.

Related Stories on Indiana Basketball:

• INDIANA LOSING STREAK TO PURDUE IS EMBARASSING: Tom Brew writes a harsh reality on Indiana's struggles to Purdue over the last couple of years. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA FALLS TO PURDUE 81-69: For the recap of Indiana's 12-point loss to the Boilermakers, CLICK HERE
• INDIANA-MSU POSTPONED: Indiana's game at Michigan State on Sunday has been postponed. CLICK HERE