Year graduated
1999
Major accomplishments
Ranked seventh all-time career scorer at New Castle High with 1,103 points; Set Butler’s career free-throw percentage record at .953; Ranked second on Butler’s all-time career three-point field goal list with 217; Holds the NCAA Division I record for 85 consecutive free throws; Won the NCAA three-point shootout during 2003 Final Four
New Castle not only has the largest high school gym in the United States, but it also has the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, which is one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world and produces some of the straightest shooters in the sport.
When Darnell Archey saw his Butler University career three-point record of 217 broken by Bruce Horan in a victory over Tulane on November 30, 2005, the former Bulldog shooting guard broke into a huge smile.
“I have to take my hat off to Bruce for two reasons,” said Archey, who set the NCAA Division I record for 85 consecutive free throws before going on to win the national three-point shootout during the 2003 NCAA Final Four at New Orleans. “One, because we’re the best of friends, and two, because he’s a New Castle guy like me. The New Castle guys have to stick together. Everybody always picks on us because we come from such a small town. The joke is we’re such good shooters because we have nothing else to do in New Castle.”
New Castle has one of the best high school basketball traditions in Indiana. The Trojans won the town’s only state championship in 1932, in addition to having had 10 Indiana All-Stars and two Mr. Basketballs: Kent Benson in 1973 and Steve Alford in 1983, both of whom helped Indiana University win NCAA championships in 1976 and 1987, respectively.
Locals will never forget the famous “Church Street Shootout” when Kokomo’s Jimmy Rayl, who became Mr. Basketball in the 1958-59 season, had 49 points in the last regular-season game in the tiny Church Street gym. This gym later became the YMCA where Archey played as a youngster. New Castle’s Ray Pavy, who was the No. 2 Indiana All-Star that season, outscored Rayl by two points in New Castle’s 92-81 victory on February 20, 1959. Combined, they scored 100 points. Another memorable New Castle moment came on March 19, 1983, when Alford scored 57 points in a 79-64 semistate victory over Indianapolis Broad Ripple in Hinkle Fieldhouse. It is the highest total ever recorded in the state tournament.
Archey played junior varsity basketball as a high school freshman before being moved up to varsity. There he scored 1,103 points in three years, becoming seventh on the all-time career list. In the 1996-97 season, the last of one-class basketball in Indiana, New Castle was 19-1 in the regular season. The Trojans met Batesville in the regional championship game.
“That was the first time I ever played before a sold-out crowd in the fieldhouse,” said Archey. “They were turning people away. We wound up winning in overtime, 61-58. They were comparing them to Milan. We thought after that game we might get to the final four. At the semistate in Hinkle Fieldhouse we played Franklin and they upset us, 76-65.”
The Trojans finished 24-2 in 1997. In Archey’s junior season, New Castle went 15-6, losing to No. 1 Anderson in the sectional. The next year, the Trojans, 16-8, won the sectional, but lost to Indianapolis North Central and Jason Gardner in the regional at Anderson, 62-58. North Central won the state championship that season.
As a junior, Archey committed to Butler. “When I walked onto that campus, I fell in love with the place,” he said. “My only concern was that previous season I went one for nine from the three-point line against Franklin in the semistate. I wasn’t sure I could shoot there. But I remember right before I met with coach Barry Collier, my dad and I went out to the Hinkle Fieldhouse. I think I missed only two shots in a five-minute span. I then knew I could shoot there.”
In his four years at Butler, Archey played for three different coaches, Collier for one year, Thad Matta for one year, and Lickliter for two years.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Archey. “The only thing that changed, basically, was the coach. We had the same kids, the same style of play, the same defense.”
The Bulldogs didn’t miss a beat in those four years. They were 23-8 in 1999-2000, and lost to Florida, 69-68, in overtime in the NCAA tournament on a last-second shot by Mike Miller. The next season Butler went 24-8 and beat No. 23 Wake Forest, 79-63, in the NCAA tournament before losing to No. 4 Arizona, 73-52. In Archey’s junior season, the Bulldogs were 26-6, and lost in the NIT tournament at Syracuse, 66-65, in overtime. The Bulldogs were 100-28 in those four seasons with “New Castle guys” playing major roles.
In the 2002-2003 season, New Castlers Brandon Miller and Archey, seniors, and Horan, freshman, played for Coach Todd Lickliter at Butler. In addition to setting a school record of 27 wins, they were the first Bulldog team to make it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. In the first rounds, they defeated No. 20 Mississippi, 47-46, on a last-second shot by Miller; and No. 14 Louisville, 79-71, with Archey sinking eight of nine three-point shots. However, Butler’s dream season ended in the first game of the Sweet Sixteen at Albany, N.Y. when the Bulldogs lost to No. 3 Oklahoma, 65-54.
Archey played four seasons at Butler. He finished with 985 career points, a .443 three-point percentage, and a school record of a .953 free-throw percentage. Miller, who received the 2003 Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award—presented to an NCAA Division I men’s player for outstanding character, leadership, integrity, humility, sportsmanship and talent—is 23rd in Butler’s all-time scoring with 1,121 points. He is third on the three-point career list with 189 in three seasons. He went to Southwest Missouri State as a freshman to play for Alford, and when Steve went to Iowa, Brandon transferred to Butler. Bruce Horan finished his Butler career with 314 three-point baskets, second most in Horizon League history behind Rashad Phillips of Detroit, who had 348. Horan had 113 three-pointers in his senior season, and finished with a streak of 80 games with a three-pointer, second-longest in NCAA history to the 88 held by Illinois’ Cory Bradford from 1998-2001. Darrin Fitzgerald of Butler holds the NCAA record of 158 three-pointers in one season set in 1986-87.
Archey says it was a goal of Miller, Joel Cornette, and himself “to put Butler on the map. We always talked about what Gonzaga did. That’s what we wanted to do, get us in the national spotlight. Then we got to the Sweet Sixteen and all the focus was on us. It was awesome. We didn’t really have a go-to guy. There was a different leading scorer almost every night. Everybody said we played basketball how it’s meant to be played, sharing the ball, playing tough defense and every guy, one through 12, having that ‘never-quit’ attitude. A lot of times we were the smallest team out there. But our hearts were huge.”
Dennis Archey always insisted that his son should “shoot to swish,” because thinking that way would always give him more arch if he was in a slump. He also insisted upon having a routine when shooting free throws. Archey would straddle the nail holes by the foul line to make sure that he was perfectly in line with the basket, bend his knees, and dribble three times. He said, “That was my magic number.”
Archey has a lot of magic numbers: he made free throws in 11 different arenas in 57 games against 22 different opponents (31 at home, 33 on the road, and 21 at neutral sites), he didn’t miss a free throw in the entire 2001-2002 season (23 of 23); and, the most free throws he made in any game was eight at Indiana State on December 5, 2002.
“During my sophomore season I remember Gary Buchanan from Villanova set the record for successive free throws at 73,” said Darnell. “I set my goal to get 74 in a row, but I never thought I’d get there. I didn’t get fouled a whole lot. In my junior year I only shot 23. Probably half of them were off technical fouls.
“A funny thing was it didn’t matter if I was on the bench or in a game, Coach Lickliter always had me shoot free throws off technical fouls on the other team. The first time that happened was against IU in the championship game of the Hoosier Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse in 2002. Late in the second half, IU coach Mike Davis got a technical foul. Coach Lickliter sent me in. I had thought it was illegal for a guy to come off the bench and shoot technical foul free throws, so I had a big grin on my face shooting them.”
It was during a tournament in Hawaii that Archey sank nine free throws to tie Buchanan’s record. He broke the record with his first free throw in the next game on January 4, 2003, at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a game Butler won, 68-65. The streak ended four games later in a 64-60 home victory over Youngstown State when Archey missed his first of two free throws. “The pressure was really getting to me” he said. “Steve Alford called me after I finally missed. He told me he would shoot free throws in his backyard. I think his record was 216 in a row. Steve said that now, as he neared that, his body would just shut down. That’s how I felt. I thought it was pretty special that Steve and his father, Sam, called me.”
Archey credits Brad Stevens, Butler assistant coach, with a major assist in getting him paired against Matt Bonner, Florida; Kent Williams, Southern Illinois; Kyle Korver, Creighton; Tom Coverdale, Indiana; Willie Deane, Purdue; Jason Gardner, Arizona; and Hollis Price, Oklahoma in the 2003 Men’s Collegiate Three-Point Championship.
“They wanted bigger school names, but Brad kept calling about me,” said Archey. “When we made the Sweet Sixteen that helped my case. I thought I could win, but I remember shooting my first three and my legs locked up. Luckily I made the final four contestants and after that I had my confidence.”
Korver was favored to win the shootout, but Archey beat him and Bonner out to claim the men’s title. “I was a jump shooter and eventually that bit me, because I was tired,” he said. “I went against Amy Wahl, the women’s winner from Fort Wayne. She beat me. I lost to a girl, they always say, but it was nice her being from Indiana.”
Archey’s plan to play professionally in Australia didn’t work out, so he used his marketing degree to get into business. A few months later he decided that if he couldn’t play basketball any more he would coach. He was assistant varsity coach at Carmel High School in 2004-2005 and then took over as Carmel junior varsity coach the next season.
Of his Butler career, Archey says, “I thought I overachieved. I had aspirations of going to the NCAA tournament and hitting big-time shots, but I wasn’t very big, so I thought it would never happen. Now I want to be a high school basketball coach because I want to be a state champion in Indiana.”
If he made it happen as a New Castle guy at Butler, who’s to say he can’t make it happen as an Indiana high school coach?