Auburn Introduces New Head Coach

Tony Barbee of UTEP was formally introduced as the new head coach of the men’s basketball program Thursday afternoon. Barbee was one of at least four candidates interviewed for the position and replaces Jeff Lebo who coached the team for the last six seasons.

During his four year tenure at UTEP, Barbee rebuilt a program that saw it’s win total steadily increase from 14 in the inaugural season to 26 in 2010. This season the Miners had the best record in Conference USA at 15-1. It was good enough to reach the conference title game and a spot in the NCAA tournament as a No. 12 seed where they fell to No. 5 seed Butler in the first round.
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Earlier in his career, Barbee was an assistant for coach John Calipari at Memphis from 2000-2006. During that time the program averaged nearly 25 wins per season and Barbee was involved in recruiting six straight top-10 classes including the number one ranked class in the nation in 2001.

Barbee is Auburn’s first black head coach in men’s or women’s basketball. He will earn $1.5 million annually over the next six years, with a base salary of $225,000, according to ESPN.

Watch the Live report at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5716699