Challenges await Archer at SGU

Kelly Archer sought a coaching position that offered a challenge.
Boy, did his wish come true.
Architect of five national basketball titles at Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College, Archer was selected Tuesday as the head women’s coach at St. Gregory’s University.
The 43-year-old Archer succeeds Jeff Duke, who spent three years at the SGU helm and authored an 18-70 overall record. Duke was just 8-49 in the Sooner Athletic Conference before accepting a position with the Oklahoma Department of Labor.
The Lady Cavaliers have been a perennial Sooner Athletic Conference doormat.
“This is a monster challenge but I like to be challenged,” Archer said. “The biggest challenge here will be creating a winning mentality.”
Archer did just that in a 13-year stint at Hillsdale following the completion of his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech.
Four of his national championship accomplishments came on the men’s side of the ledger in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2005. Two of the  men’s teams won National Christian College Athletics Association crowns and the other two men’s squads captured Association of Christian College Athletics titles.
Archer also won the 1998 women’s national crown under the National Bible College Athletic Association umbrella.
Twelve of his 13 years at Hillsdale were served as the men’s coach.
He also obtained his masters degree in human relations from the University of Oklahoma while coaching at Hillsdale.
“That was a very busy time,” Archer said.
When Duke resigned, he pointed to the fact that St. Gregory’s has fewer basketball scholarships in its athletic coffer than most of the other SAC institutions.
Archer believes that will be changing.
“We’re going to get our scholarships increased eventually,” he said. “That’s going to have to happen. You have to have depth to be competitive and additional scholarships offer that.”
At Hillsdale, Archer worked void of any athletic scholarships, yet still scheduled a lot of the NAIA bigwigs such as Oklahoma Baptist. “We were down by just five points at OBU with 2 1/2 minutes to play this past year and that was a good OBU team,” he said. “We were able to develop a winning tradition.”
Archer, already behind the eight-ball in this year’s recruiting race, said he takes three factors into consideration when he’s pursuing players.
“Mental toughness is first, how they play defense is second and talent is third. Everything in basketball comes off good defense,” he said. “Good defense keeps you in games. We will play hard-nose defense.”
With just six months standing between his inaugural SGU campaign, Archer is well aware of his most immediate need.
“I have a lot of recruiting to do because I’m so far behind,” he said. “I need recruits bad. We want to be able to recruit the same type of kids as other SAC schools.
“I will be able to get some kids in here for St. Gregory’s. Our returners are excited and pumped. We want defense first, play hard, play smart and have fun.”
Archer paused, then said, “When you go 5-25 over and over, it is easy to hang your head. But getting a winning mentality can be done.
“But, it will test your mettle.”