UTEP's Tony Barbee heading to Auburn

[RT Atlanta]

Not knowing the slightest about Mr. Barbee's pedigree (aside from what I read below), I will appreciate the board's thoughts on Mr. Barbee's qualifications. Are there any UTEP fans/graduations that can comment?

I do know that AU's men's hoops team has, to put it bluntly, sucked for the 6 years that Jeff Lebo coached there (only making post season once, in the NIT; although to Lebo's credit he ran a "clean" program). Auburn is looking for results and seems to be willing to pay a closer to "market" rate for a coach that can build a program that at the least has AU in contention with the SEC-West.

War Eagle!

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http://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1269508515275140.xml&coll=1

Tony Barbee, a fresh-faced 38-year-old with a championship pedigree and a winning resume, has been hired as Auburn's new basketball coach.

Barbee, who will be publicly introduced at a press conference this evening, becomes Auburn's first black head coach in a major revenue sport and the 20th coach in the men's basketball program's history.

Barbee will inherit a youthful and inexperienced team but also a gleaming new arena and practice facility and perhaps a renewed commitment to a sport that has traditionally been well behind football in popularity and importance at Auburn.

[El Supremo]

1. Same old story.

When a small university gets a good coach, he gets lured away by big money. In this case 1.4 million a year.

Also: UTEP's star player, Derrick Caracter, will probably go into the NBA draft.