When new University of South Alabama men’s basketball head coach Matthew Graves needed an assistant for his staff, he didn’t look far for his first hire.
Darnell Archey, who served on the Butler coaching staff with Graves as coordinator of basketball operations, joined the men’s basketball staff in April 2013.
Archey, a four-year letterwinner for Butler from 1999-03, served on the Bulldogs’ staff for the previous four seasons.
In addition to his recruiting duties, Archey is primarily responsible for individual skill instruction and player development.
Under his guidance, Barrington Stevens III became the first USA player since 1989 to post an assist/turnover ratio of 2.0 or better in a season, and just the second ever to do it twice, accomplishing the feat after his sophomore and junior seasons.
Taishaun Johnson also flourished under Archey’s watch, setting school freshman records in 2014-15 for points (414), and free throws made (138) and attempted (177).
Archey’s efforts on the recruiting trail helped land 2016-17 recruit Kevin Morris, who was the No. 5 rated player in the state of Alabama and received a three-star ranking by 247sports.com.
The New Castle, Ind. native accumulated five years of coaching experience at the high school level, including three as a head coach, where he mentored two McDonald’s All-Americans and future all-conference performers in the ACC and Big 10 Conference, before being hired at his alma mater.
Archey’s most recent work as a head coach came at Park Tudor (Ind.) High School in 2008-09. In his one season, he coached Kevin (Yogi) Ferrell, who was ranked the No. 2 point guard and No. 19 overall by Rivals.com. Ferrell was Indiana Mr. Basketball runner-up before earning All-Big 10 Honorable Mention and All-Freshman Team honors at Indiana.
Prior to his stop at Park Tudor, Archey spent two seasons as the head coach at Columbus North (Ind.) High school.
While at Carmel (Ind.) High School from 2004-06, he spent two seasons as varsity assistant and junior varsity head coach, helping the Greyhounds to a sectional runner-up appearance in 2005 and a sectional championship a year later. One of his pupils was Josh McRoberts, who went on to star at Duke and is a six-year veteran in the NBA.
As a player, Archey set several school records and played on three NCAA Tournament teams. He finished his career as the school’s all-time leading 3-point shooter—he is currently third—with 217, and set new school marks for free throw percentage in a season (97.3%) and a career (95.1%).
The free throw records were helped by his NCAA-record 85 consecutive conversions at the charity stripe, set over parts of three seasons starting on Feb. 15, 2001 and ending on Jan. 18, 2003.
Butler set or tied a school record for victories in a season in each of Archey’s four years, culminating in a 27-6 campaign in 2002-03 that resulted in a Sweet 16 appearance.
Archey’s teams appeared in the postseason all four years and compiled a 4-4 record in the NCAA Tournament and NIT. In the Bulldogs’ run to the Sweet 16, they earned wins over No. 20 Mississippi State and No. 14 Louisville before finally bowing out to top seed and No. 3 Oklahoma.
Butler defeated Louisville thanks to Archey’s eight 3-pointers (on nine attempts) and 26 points. The eight 3s are tied for the most in school history in an NCAA Tournament game—and fourth-best overall—while his percentage (88.9%) against the Cardinals still stands as the school NCAA mark. He additionally holds the Bulldogs’ NCAA Tournament record for 3-point percentage in a single tournament (68.8%).
After that season, Archey participated in and won the Men’s Collegiate Three-Point Championship held at the Final Four.
Once his collegiate playing career was over, Archey played with the Harlem Globetrotters and a touring Australian basketball club.
Archey earned a B.S. degree in business (marketing) in 2003 from Butler and he received his teaching license in 2006 from Indiana Wesleyan. He and his wife Amanda have two daughters, Allie (7) and Ava (4).
