University of North Carolina Athletics
Cedars History Report: Catching Up With Lebo
August 9, 2002 | General
May 15, 2002
Welcome to the CEDARS of CHAPEL HILL History Report
Jeff Lebo is a busy guy these days. He usually shows up for work at 7 a.m. and doesn't get home until 10 p.m. Since April 4, when Lebo resigned as head basketball coach at Tennessee Tech to take over at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, he hasn't had a free moment.
FIRST MONTH ON THE JOB
Jeff Lebo was Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year for three straight seasons. During his first several weeks on the job in Chattanooga, Lebo has been pecking and hacking away at what sometimes must seem like a mountain of responsibilities. He's been getting to know the school's administration and the people who work there in the sports department. He's been meeting with the returning players, trying to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as basketball players and as students, and working to get academic help for them where necessary.
He's been implementing some of the academic policies and team regulations that worked well for him at Tennessee Tech. He's helping to get the families of his assistant coaches settled (the entire Tennessee Tech staff made the move to Chattanooga). He and his staff have also been hustling to do some recruiting. The recruiting part presented some serious logistical challenges at first, because the coaches were unfamiliar with hotels, highways and the layout of the college and the town in general. But they dealt with it.
"It's been a whirlwind," Lebo says. "You have to prioritize and get things as much in order as you can."
Further complicating matters has been the fact that UTC's new athletic director, Steve Sloan, has been out of state, finishing his duties as the AD at Central Florida. Sloan was hired at UTC the same week as Lebo. Even in the midst of this scramble, Lebo maintains the outlook and demeanor of a man who knows what he needs to do. And he seems to have a good idea of how to do it. On the recruiting front, for example, Lebo and his staff have already landed five new players -- three freshmen and a two highly regarded junior-college transfers.
COACHING HISTORY
It doesn't come as a big surprise that Lebo is getting the hang of this coaching business because he has been coaching basketball for nearly his entire adult life.
After a mini-playing career with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs during the 1989-90 season, Lebo hung up his basketball shoes and decided to look for work as a coach. He soon wound up with a job as an assistant at East Tennessee State University. He spent two years there before accepting an offer to become an assistant to Eddie Fogler at Vanderbilt.
ecause of NCAA regulations, Lebo had to take a significant pay cut to accept the Vanderbilt opening, but he says the move was worth the drop in salary.
"I may have only been making $12,000 a year," he says, "but the experience I gained working with Coach Fogler was worth a million bucks."
After a year at Vanderbilt, Lebo followed Fogler to South Carolina. He remained an assistant for another five years there.
Lebo has high praise for Fogler, the man who was also responsible for recruiting Lebo to play at Carolina.
"He taught me everything I needed to know about running a basketball program," Lebo says of Fogler. "From practices, to recruiting, to speeches, he taught me everything -- from top to bottom."
After the five years at South Carolina, Lebo felt he was ready for the challenge of a head-coaching job, and in 1998 he took over at Tennessee Tech. He had an impressive four-year run.
His teams' records at Tech improved from 12-15 in 1999, to 16-12 in 2000, to 20-9 in 2001. Then Tech had a 27-7 mark in 2002.
In what Lebo describes as a "special season," Tech went 15-1 in conference play in 2002 and almost defeated eventual NIT champion Memphis in the NIT quarterfinal. To get to the quarterfinals, Tech won tournament games against Georgia State, Dayton and Yale. During the regular season, Tennessee Tech had impressive performances in close losses on the road against perennial powers Louisville, Tennessee and New Mexico.
Tech just missed making the NCAA Tournament field, losing 70-69 to Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament final. Lebo's teams won back-to-back conference titles for the first time in school history, and the 27 total victories and 15 conference wins in 2002 were school records. For his efforts, Lebo was named OVC coach of the year for a third consecutive year. He feels like he has left the Tennessee Tech program on a good footing.
"A lot of the guys [on this year's team] are juniors," he says.
After the season, his name seems to have been mentioned in connection with just about every vacant coaching job in America. Not bad for a guy who has been doubted at just about every step of his playing and coaching career.
PLAYING DAYS
UNC basketball fans remember Jeff Lebo as a savvy, hard-working, fundamentally sound player. Lebo was one of Carolina's best shooters ever, and he had the confidence to take -- and often make -- the big shot. As a Tar Heel between 1985 and 1989, Lebo averaged 4.3 assists and 11.8 points for his career.
He set school records for free throw and 3-point percentage, and he still shares the single-game UNC record for assists (17) with Ed Cota. He made 41 straight free throws during his junior season, and there were games when he made six and seven 3-point shots.
He was second-team All-ACC in 1988 and was named to the first or second All-ACC Tournament teams in 1987, '88 and '89. He was also an academic All-American.
When he talks about his playing days at Carolina, though, Lebo doesn't mention personal accomplishments or conference championships. Instead, his fondest memories from college center on the people he came to know while on the UNC basketball team, and on the program's commitment to qualities such as unselfishness, precision and hard work.
He maintains a great appreciation for the fact that Coach Smith continually stressed to his players the need to be prepared for the "real world."
"What makes me more proud than anything," Lebo says, "is when I look in the back of that UNC media guide and see all the names of the old players, see what they're doing now, and how successful they've been."
For Lebo, being a part of the Carolina family is an amazing thing, something "no one can take away from you."
He talks regularly to Smith -- whom he calls "the busiest retired person I know" -- and had a visit in Chattanooga a few weeks ago from former UNC great Phil Ford.
LEBO AS COACH
Many of the principles Lebo absorbed while playing at Carolina have carried over to become part of his own coaching philosophy.
"Things I value that I know Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge value also -- we like athletes who are skilled, who can pass, catch, shoot and think," Lebo says. "But we also look for that work ethic. It's not always the player who can jump the highest or run the fastest that turns out the be the most valuable."
As with Smith, Lebo stresses academics and preparation for post-basketball life.
"I always tell kids when we visit them: If you don't want to finish school and get a degree, Jeff Lebo is the wrong coach for you," he says. "We would like for kids to dream about pro basketball, but to be prepared for the day when they take that ball and those shoes away from you."
In addition to Fogler, Smith and Guthridge, Lebo's father, Dave Lebo, has definitely had a major influence on his manner of coaching.
That's because Lebo has had the unique experience of both playing for and coaching with his dad. Dave was the basketball coach at Carlisle (Pa.) High, at which Jeff played high-school ball between 1981 and 1985.
The 1985 Carlisle team won the state 4-A championship, with Lebo leading the way as a prep All-American. After Lebo came to UNC, his father guided Carlisle to three more state championships in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
Overall, Dave Lebo compiled a 654 -243 record in 31 years of coaching at the high-school level.
Then, when Jeff took over the head coaching position at Tennessee Tech in 1998, his father agreed to come on as an assistant.
The arrangement has worked out great, Jeff says, and the two are still together on the bench. He states flatly that his father has one of the greatest basketball minds he has ever been around.
"It's like having a library next to you in your office that you can go in and ask questions," Lebo says.
Having Dad on the payroll also comes with special fringe benefits, Lebo says ... like free babysitting. He and his wife, Melissa, whom he met at UNC, have three children: Addison (7), Mills (4) and Creighton (8 months).
HIS NEW JOB
At Tennessee-Chattanooga, the school and community are counting on Lebo to overhaul a languishing program. The Moccasins reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997, but since then they have been a mediocre 72-73 under outgoing coach Henry Dickerson.
Lebo says that his staff's recruiting efforts this spring have "addressed some needs" -- most importantly securing a point guard and a couple of inside players. The freshmen, he says, should provide a nice foundation of players to build on -- but he's learned never to rely too much on freshmen for a quick fix.
All of the returning UTC players are academically eligible for next season, although a couple of them will need to pass summer school courses to remain qualified.
Lebo is excited about his new home, and he is energized by the challenge of guiding the school's basketball program.
"When I was at ETSU, I remember coming down here [to Chattanooga] to play and seeing the big crowds of 10,000 or more in the arena," Lebo said. "That was very impressive to me, and I always said that this would be a place that I would enjoy coaching at someday.
"That is the kind of tradition I want to be a part of and build upon. We can return to those times."
The 35-year-old Lebo hopes to build a program at UTC similar to the one at UNC. He would like to create a place where, 20 or 30 years from now, former players will be able to come back and be recognized both as basketball players and as well-regarded contributors to the community.
He has a 10-year contract worth a reported $350,000 annually -- a portion of which is actually being guaranteed by local businesses that are hoping a strong basketball program will improve the town's economy.
Lebo says some people have questioned the wisdom of his taking the Chattanooga job, calling it a "lateral move," but he doesn't buy the argument.
"People said I was committing 'coaching suicide' when I took the job at Tennessee Tech, and that turned out all right," Lebo says. " I've been doubted at every step along the way.
"I've been kind of used to that. In high school they said I was on the team because my dad was the coach. Then I was told I wasn't good enough to play at Carolina, that I was too slow.
"As long as I'm doing what I feel is best for me and for my family, I don't pay much attention to that type of talk."
LEISURE ACTIVITY
Since he made the move to Chattanooga, Lebo hasn't had a chance to indulge his favorite leisure pastimes -- golf and tennis. Recognizing the value of good PR, he did manage to find time recently to throw out the first pitch at a local minor-league baseball game, but in general he prefers to spend what little free time he has with his family.
Lebo does, however, hope to have Coach Smith visit for a round of golf one day in the not too distant future.
