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A spirit that is not afraid

Shootin' Hoops with Lebo

Auburn Men's Basketball head coach Jeff Lebo, in his fifth year as head coach, has helped record the second most wins in the team's history, by going 24-12 last season.

The team made it to the third round of the NIT Tournament and lost to Baylor.

More impressively, he led the team to win eight out of the last nine SEC regular season games.

Eight of the Tigers' 11 wins in the conference were by double digits.

He came to a team facing NCAA probation and many players left Auburn.

It was a slow and steady struggle for Lebo and his Tigers, but the hard work is paying off.

His father, Dave Lebo, is an assistant coach for the program.

He said the biggest struggle for Jeff was taking small steps and doing things the right way.

"He had to make some decisions to get the right kind of players in here," Dave said. "Auburn being on probation was very, very difficult to overcome some things because kids don't want to come to a school that's on probation."

Dave said his son made sure players coming in wanted to play for the name on the front of the jersey, and not the name on the back.

As a player, Jeff led his high school in Pennsylvania to a 108-9 record in four years with a state championship his senior year.

In college, Lebo started all four years at the University of North Carolina and helped lead them to four NCAA Tournament trips.

Two of those were Sweet Sixteen finishes with the other two being Elite Eight. He was coached by the legendary Dean Smith which is something he said he will always remember.

He even had a brief career in the NBA, appearing in four games for the San Antonio Spurs during the 1989-90 season.

Basketball has always been a family affair for the Tigers' coach.

Dave coached Jeff in high school and has served as an assistant coach here at Auburn.

Dave also aids his son during the summer months with the basketball camps the team offers.

One of the camps, the father-son camp, was Dave's idea.

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"We enjoy that camp more than any other camp we have, to be truthful," Dave said. "We enjoy seeing the fathers and their sons come back and watching them grow and sharing the Auburn experience."

Dave said he actually tried to get Jeff to not pursue coaching as a profession.

"You know, he had it in his blood because he grew up in a basketball family," Dave said. "I'm pleased at what he's done and how he's grown as a young person through coaching. The game helped him and now I think he's just interested in trying to pass that on to others."

In parallel with the Auburn spirit, Jeff Lebo said his family is very important to him.

He has been married to his wife, Melissa, for 17 years.

The couple has three children together, two daughters Addison, 14, and Mills, 11, and one son Creighton, 7.

With last season being his most successful as an Auburn Tiger and the end of the season finishing so strong, fans can only expect bigger and better things from Jeff Lebo and the men's basketball program.


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