SPEARFISH, S.D. — Former Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball coach Kelly Kruger was announced as the interim head coach for the Black Hills State University women’s basketball team on Monday. This will be Kruger’s 35th season as a head coach, with a 531-446 record and a pair of Sweet 16 appearances in the Division II NCAA Tournament.

Black Hills State University went 18-11 overall and 13-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference last season, putting them fourth in the conference standings. Head coach Rachel Erickson announced that she was resigning from the position to take an assistant coaching job at Division I Colorado State on July 18.

Kruger coached SMSU from 1991 until 2005, leading the Mustangs to a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference titles, a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and four seasons with at least 20 wins.

Kruger was an assistant football coach for SMSU for three seasons and an assistant men’s basketball coach before taking over as the women’s head coach in 1991 and led it through its transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II.

Kruger finished his time with SMSU with a 234-164 record, helping the Mustangs set the program’s single-season wins record at 20-9 in the 1999-2000 season, also leading the team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. He went to eclipse that mark each of his next three seasons with the team, including a 25-5 record in 2000-01 to claim SMSU’s second consecutive regular-season conference title.

Kruger was a three-time NSIC Coach of the Year in 1994, 2000 and 2001.

“I’m excited to welcome Coach Kruger to our Yellow Jacket family as the new head coach of our women’s basketball team,” BHSU Director of Athletics Mark Nore said. “Coach Kruger has been a great friend and mentor to me for over 20 years. He’s one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known, and he truly knows the game. He is one of the best teachers of the game I have ever met. More than that, he cares about people. He’s the kind of coach who makes a difference on and off the court.”

Between Kruger’s tenure with SMSU and his start as the Black Hills State interim head coach, he coached Adams State University (Colo.) from 2006 to 2013, Ashford University (Ariz.) from 2013 to 2016 and Iowa Central Community College from 2016 until 2020. He also ran Basketball Docs, a program to provide skills training and mentorship for high school and college programs, and coached Sanford Spots teams in the AAU circuit out of Sioux Falls for the last five years.

Kruger was inducted into the SMSU Athletics Hall of Honor in 2022.