The 2014-15 season will mark Raru Archer’s second year as an assistant coach for the Norfolk State men’s basketball team. His duties include organizing team travel, film exchange, engaging the team in community outreach programs, running various camps and supervising the team managers.
On the court, he works primarily with the Spartan guards. Archer is known as a coach who installs a level of toughness in his players and helps them with their mental approach and preparation before practices and games.
During Archer’s first year with the Spartan program, guards Pendarvis Williams and Malcolm Hawkins were each named to the All-MEAC second team. Williams had career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goal percentage and free throw percentage on the way to earning numerous honors and awards.
Hawkins dramatically improved his numbers across the board from his junior season, and both he and Williams ranked in the top 10 in the league in scoring. Point guard Jamel Fuentes ended the year second in the MEAC in both assists and assist-turnover ratio as well.
NSU went 19-15 overall in 2013-14 in Archer’s first year and competed in the postseason for the third straight year. The Spartans tied for third in the MEAC regular season standings at 11-5 and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
He arrived at NSU after serving for five seasons from 2008-13 as a coach for the men’s program at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., including the last two as the head coach. In his first year in charge in 2011-12, Archer led the Falcons to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 19 championship, earning the regional Coach of the Year award along the way.
Lackawanna earned the regional regular-season championship for three straight years from 2009-11. During his time there both as an assistant and a head coach, Archer mentored six all-region players: Marcus Ashton and Kevin Steward in 2009, Shedrick Haynes in ‘10, Darl Charles in ‘11 and DeAndre Albriton and Antoine Hackman in ‘12. Ashton was also named the Region 19 Player of the Year, while both he and Haynes earned NJCAA All-American honors as well.
Prior to serving at Lackawanna, Archer was the video coordinator for the men’s program at Rice during the 2007-08 season and a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Texas Southern, in 2006-07.
A member of both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA), Archer graduated in December 2004 with a bachelor’s in human performance from Texas Southern. He also earned a masters in human performance from Texas Southern in August of 2007.
A native of Trinity, Texas, Archer starred at Trinity High School, where he was a member of the Texas Sports Writers Association (TSWA) all-state team.
