Miller: Hoosiers Take Mental Health Issues Seriously

Ohio State guard DJ Carton left the Buckeyes on Friday to deal with some mental health issues, and the news hit home hard for Indiana coach Archie Miller.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Times have changed through the years and now, in 2020, mental health issues no longer get swept under the rug.

And that's a very good thing.

Just hours after Ohio State freshman guard DJ Carton announced that he was "temporarily stepping away'' from the Buckeyes basketball team to deal with some mental health problems, Indiana coach Archie Miller met with the media in advance of Saturday's game at Ohio State.

The issue of mental health matters a lot to him, because he lost a former Dayton player to suicide six years ago.

"There's no more important issue in collegiate sports, in particular as we deal with our players every day, than the mental side of it, and mental health,'' Miller said. "As a coach, I've had a few experiences with some guys that have had some trouble, and I lost a player, Matt Derenbecker, a few years back to a death, and you think about the times that he was with you and the times that he wasn't, and you just wonder to yourself, could you have done more?

"Now, times have really sped up since 2014 or '15. Four or five years later now, you're much more prepared and you're much more equipped as a university and as a staff, and it's more serious when somebody has something.''

An issue — any issue — with a player should always become top priority, Miller said.

"Nothing is more important and nothing should be taken more serious when it comes to that type of stuff. You just never know,'' Miller said. "There's a lot of guys that go through a lot, and you look down the line, what happens when you don't deal with it, it can be really impactful and catastrophic, really bad.''

Ohio State freshman DJ Carton dribbles ahead of Indiana's Rob Phinisee. (Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY SPORTS)

Carton, a freshman from Bettendorf, Iowa, was also heavily recruited by Miller and his staff. Indiana assistant Tom Ostrom was on that same Dayton staff when Derenbecker played there for one season in 2012-13.

Struggling with bi-polar issues since his high school days, he played at three colleges — LSU, Dayton and New Orleans — in four years. He often resisted getting help, from his parents and others, and he was found dead in August of 2014 from a gunshot wound to the head when he was just 22 years old. That was just a few months after his final college basketball season at New Orleans, which was his hometown. 

Awareness to mental health issues are important, and continuing the conversation is really critical. The stigma behind issues like depression and such has, at long last, finally started to fade away.

"If you just look across the board in the NBA and you start to see some of the guys that are talking about it now, it's becoming more of a thing,'' Miller said "In this day and age, kids have a lot on their plate, and you never know what somebody is going through on the way up before they get to you, or what's going on inside of them now.''

Several NBA players have become more open in talking about their issues, most notably Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The awareness helps others get the assistance they need. Miller is hoping that Carton gets well soon and gets back to playing the game he loves.

"Obviously, our thoughts go out to DJ, and hopefully he's doing well,'' Miller said. "Hopefully he continues to do well and gets back as soon as he can for himself. We need to get him back as soon as possible. He's a great kid. He's a great player.''

Indiana senior forward De'Ron Davis is on a council on campus that actually deals with mental health issues and gets help for students and student-athletes. That's something that never would have happened years ago, both having a program in the first place, but also having high-profile athletes involved.

"I feel like we actually just talked about this a couple days ago, that there's a lot of this,'' Davis said Friday. "This school, IU in particular, does a great job of giving students, not only student-athletes, an outlet or someone to talk to.

"I feel like we have someone that is always talking to us or texting us like just little things, and we do a good job as a team just staying together and staying connected. I feel like if we just talk with each other and just have a family bond, it'll help us out a lot, especially with mental health.''