Arizona Preps is proud to announce that current college coach, Lucas Archuletta, a current assistant coach for South Mountain Junior College, has joined the Arizona Preps' basketball staff. Archuletta brings loads of basketball experience to our organization, and also excellent experience as a evaluator of basketball talent, which will raise the level of coverage of Arizona high school, prep school and junior college basketball in the state.
Lucas is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico but moved on to and graduated high school from Rio Rancho High School in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. After high school he attended and played for the men’s basketball program at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado from 2010-2012. As a sophomore, he helped lead his team to a Region IX NJCAA Championship & appearance in the Elite 8 for the national tournament - finishing with a 30-6 record.
After graduating from Otero, he transferred to D-II national powerhouse, Fort Lewis College, who competes in the RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) out of Durango, Colorado.
Upon finishing a successful collegiate career and graduating in May 2015 with his Bachelor’s in Business Finance, he moved on to be a graduate assistant coach at Northwestern State University (NSU) in Nachitoches, Louisiana, a Division-I school that competes in the Southland Conference. Ultimately he graduated from NSU in May 2017 with a Masters in Health and Human Performance Sports Administration.
Upon finishing his Masters Degree, he moved back to Colorado to accept the assistant coaching position at his alma mater Otero Junior College. Last season (2017-18) under Head Coach Brendan O’Connor, he helped lead them to a 29-5 record, a regular season Region IX South Championship, a runner up finish in the Region IX tournament, a Top 25 national ranking and an automatic bid in the NJCAA D-I National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.
On top of that he also has been doing player development with numerous collegiate and pro athletes in the off season for the past three years.
Lucas has recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona to join the staff at South Mountain Community College, join the VBA Training Team alongside Elite Skills Specialists Vaughn Compton and Brendan Lavender as well as joining our team here at Arizona Preps.
Archuletta will cover games for the website and provide excellent, in-depth analysis of top performers in featured games throughout the season. We are proud to have him join our team, and look forward to his experience in helping us continue to provide coverage of Arizona basketball, which is definitely on the rise.
