RAPID CITY - A former assistant men's basketball coach at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology died unexpectedly last week at his home in Boise, Idaho.

Varick Cutler, 54, had been suffering from flu-like symptoms a few days before he died, according to a news release from the school.

Cutler was a Hardrocker assistant coach from 1993 to 2001 under former head coach and current atheletics director Hugh Welsh.

"Varick had a great passion for the game of basketball," Welsh said in the news release. "He was an enjoyable guy to be around and the Hardrocker baskeball progam misses him greatly."

After his eight year stint in Rapid City, Cutler became a crisis intervention counselor in Boise and also got back into the game of basketball by becoming the assistant coach in Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore.