Rapid City’s Archambault adds defense to offense

Mason Archambault is like a lot of college basketball players adjusting to a new level. He was recruited because of his offensive skills – the kid can shoot it, as they say – but the quickest route to playing time was going to be at the other end.

It’s not an uncommon set of circumstances within the sport. Less common are examples of buying into that message with so much enthusiasm that it actually leads to more playing time fairly quickly.

Archambault is a former star at Rapid City Stevens who moved on to Gillette College in Wyoming and smoothly made that jump. Now he’s making the next one to Division I.

He is doing this with a mixture of confidence and humility. The most obvious sign of that is when Coach Todd Lee told him he was going to have to make himself useful at the defensive end to make an impact this year, he went out and did it. That counts as a win-win for Archambault and for the Coyotes.

The 6-1 guard averaged 13.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game as a sophomore in Gillette. He finished the season as the team's top 3-point shooter at 45 percent and led the team in scoring.

The Coyotes saw athletic ability, keen instincts and Division I shooting talent. Since then, that package has improved. With two more years after this one, what’s not to like?

At Stevens, Archambault completed his career with more than 1,000 points and graduated with a 42-percent shooting percentage on 3-point attempts.

He was zeroed-in on landing a Division I scholarship at that point but knew there would be ways he’d have to advance. His two years in Gillette were, in the end, a good move.

His father, Russ Archambault, played for the University of Minnesota and was the NAIA Division II national player of the year at Huron University in 2001. Russ advised his son to get stronger.

So that’s that Mason did. Gillette sends players to Division I with some regularity so becoming a valuable player at that level was an encouraging sign. He wasn’t going to be able to deliver on that, though, unless he took improvement seriously.

The younger Archambault is now a strong and sturdy guard who has two years of eligibility remaining after this season.

“It’s a big transition from junior college to Division I,” Lee said. “And Mason has done a great job with it. He’s adjusting well because he understands what he can do. He’s a great teammate and he’s embraced working on the defensive end of the floor.”

Getting new teammates on a new campus – with COVID-19 as a backdrop – is a heck of a way to take on the challenges of Division I basketball. And to hear Archambault tell it, in some ways it’s just exactly as weird as you might think.

“We’re getting through it OK now but earlier in the season, it was pretty crazy,” he said. “We had people in and out of quarantine, gone for 14 days in a row. And this was happening while we’re trying to learn things in a new place. People would have to leave and then we’d have to learn it again. It was tough. But now things are slowing down and we’re making the adjustments.”

The Coyotes (6-6, 4-0 Summit) have won five consecutive games going into Friday and Saturday Summit League matchups at Western Illinois. Archambault hit 5-of-6 shots from the field and 3-of-4 on 3-pointers in the Coyotes’ last victory, a 68-62 win over Kansas City. He had 13 points on six shot attempts. That’s the efficiency that helps win games.

“We’re becoming more together as a team,” Archambault said. “At the beginning of the season, we had some tough games but now I think we’re adjusting to our roles. We’re figuring things out and it’s taking us in the right direction.”

The right direction is all part of the plan. As a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Archambault is very conscious of his roots. It’s part of the reason he’s taking pride in becoming a productive Division I basketball player.

“There aren’t a lot of Division I players who are Native American,” he said. “In Rapid City, you’re recognized. People want to look up to you. I can be a role model. I want an opportunity to show them that they can make it.”