Interview: Lebo Talks Tar Heels

By Adam Lucas

Every single day at practice, Jeff Lebo is reminded of the path that brought him back to Chapel Hill as an assistant coach.

"I walk to midcourt every day (at practice) and we huddle together," Lebo said on today's episode of the Carolina Insider podcast. "My mind goes all over the place going back to me walking to that center court (as a player). Now I'm seeing Coach Davis there and I'm out there with them, and I'm reminded of all my time with Coach Smith."

That time as a player came from 1985-89 and included an Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1989 in one of the most heated games in the history of the Carolina-Duke series, a game Lebo recounts—including Davis's humorous role—in the podcast.

His time in Chapel Hill included such colorful personalities as J.R. Reid and Steve Bucknall, who remain somewhat legendary both for their production on the court and their fun off of it.

"We were somewhere and got blocked in," Lebo said on the podcast. "JR and Buck and Dave Popson lifted the front end of a car and moved it so we could get out. That was really impressive to me. I held them in high esteem from then on out."

But even the automobile moving exploits of his teammates couldn't compare to the wisdom Lebo gained from Dean Smith. Lebo had grown up the son of accomplished coach Dave Lebo in Carlisle, Pa., so he already had an advanced knowledge of the game.

Attending practice every day with Smith was a graduate class in both basketball and life.

"You learn so many things from Coach Smith," Lebo said. "You learn about time management, one. You learn about being accountable, being dependable, being reliable. You learned about sacrifice, and all the basketball things.

"I tell people all the time that the best class I ever had at North Carolina was from 3-5:30 every single day with Coach Smith. I miss him immensely. I miss his notes, his calls, his laugh. I go into the office every day and when I go in there's a statue of him there, and I touch it. That's my way of saying thank you to him."

Of course, his unspoken way of saying thank you is by working every day to make sure the program Smith built doesn't miss a beat in the first year of the Hubert Davis era. The new head coach has been clear that in addition to strategic planning, he wants his coaching staff to be committed to skill development of the current team.

That's an area where Lebo, who worked as a head coach at Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Auburn and East Carolina from 1998-2018, thrives.

"Skill development is how I became a player," he said on the podcast. "I wasn't as fast and couldn't jump as high and didn't have the quickness of a lot of guys. My dad taught me how to play the game. Skill development is so important to these players, and I take it seriously. I love it. When you come out on the court with me, I'd rather work you hard for 45 minutes at game speed than be out there for three hours shooting and walking after the ball. I don't play with that. Skill development is what I love to do, I believe in it, and Coach Davis believes in it. It will be very important to our program."

The full interview with the first-year assistant coach, which includes how Lebo believes being a head coach will make him a more effective assistant to Davis, how the seniors pranked a freshman Davis in 1989 on Dean Smith's birthday, and what style of play the coaches expect to play this season, is available on today's Carolina Insider, which also features discussion of this week's post-scrimmage practices and more.

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