|
 The
progression of Georgia basketball thus far under
head coach Dennis Felton closely resembles the one
he forged at his first head coaching post.
Early on-court results at Western Kentucky, where he
took over in 1998, weren't favorable. The first two
seasons there produced little forward movement in
the Hilltoppers' Won/Lost ledger. In fact, his
second team posted fewer wins than his inaugural
squad.
Felton's third team at Western, however, took a
giant leap ahead, going 24-7 and winning the Sun
Belt Conference title. It began a string of three
straight championship seasons.
At Georgia, similar results have emerged from the
first two years of his tenure. The depth and breadth
of Felton's rebuilding task at Georgia will
certainly make a championship in 2006 a tall order.
However, the foundation for future success appears
to have been laid.
Two years after Felton became the 20th head coach in
the history of basketball at Georgia, his
determination hasn't wavered. His goal has always
remained thusly: to build the Bulldogs into "the
next great basketball program in the country."
Indeed, it took Felton some time to right the
wayward ship that was WKU basketball. Once the
rudder steadied, however, the Hilltopper program
became the best team in the Sun Belt Conference
three years running.
In 2003 Felton became the first coach in Western
Kentucky history to take three straight teams to the
NCAA Tournament. In five seasons in Bowling Green,
he compiled a 100-54 overall record (.649 pct.),
including a 76-20 mark since the 2001 season. The
Hilltoppers earned each of those three NCAA berths
automatically by winning the Sun Belt Conference
tournament, lastly the `03 tourney on their home
floor. To boot, Felton bequeathed the nation's
longest home-court winning streak when he left for
Athens.
Felton is equally proud of his players' performance
off the court at Western. Among the student-athletes
under his guidance, 100 percent of them graduated
and all except two -- a pair he inherited in 1998 --
completed their degrees on time.
Though just two years into his term at Georgia,
already it appears that his attention to the
players' academic performance is paying dividends.
"When we talk about academic achievement, it goes
way beyond getting a degree," he says. "It means
taking advantage of all the opportunities you have
at a great university like Georgia. We want these
young men to be in position to control their
futures, to have a great life once they leave here."
Felton had achieved an exalted status in Bowling
Green. He had declined to pursue other,
higher-profile jobs around the country. His contract
had been extended through the 2008 season. He began
a movement to renovate E.A. Diddle Arena, a $35
million project that was completed for the 2003-04
season.
All of those factors combined to make Western
Kentucky a difficult place to leave. To lure Felton
away, a school would have to possess, as he said, "a
very special potential."
Felton identified UGA as such a place.
Before he became a head coach, Felton climbed the
collegiate ladder in a series of assistant jobs. He
began at the University of Delaware for four seasons
(1986-90) before one season each at Tulane and St.
Joseph's.
In 1992 he got his break when he took an assistant's
post at Providence under Rick Barnes. That season
began a 6-year apprenticeship with Barnes that
included two with the Friars and four at Clemson
University (1994-98).
The six teams that Barnes and Felton coached
together all posted winning seasons (including three
20-win campaigns), all played in the postseason
(four NCAA berths, two in the NIT) and went 114-71,
averaging 19 wins per year. One of their NCAA teams,
Clemson in 1996, lost to Georgia in the West
Regional first round. The next year the Tigers went
21-8 and reached the NCAA Round of 16.
Not surprisingly, Felton claims Barnes as the most
valuable mentor of his coaching career. "For two
reasons," he said. "First, he's one of the best
coaches in the country, and you can learn so much
from someone of his caliber. Second, Coach Barnes
puts you in position to be involved in just about
every aspect of the program. That's what I really
learned from him: how to run a program from a very
comprehensive standpoint."
Also in 2001 Felton began to broaden his coaching
horizons when he served as a court coach during the
USA Basketball National Team trials. That
relationship continued in `03, when he was an
assistant coach for the American team at the Junior
World Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece. That
squad, under head coach Ernie Kent of Oregon, won 12
of its 13 contests, including a 7-1 mark in the
World tournament.
In the spring of 2005, Felton was named as an
assistant coach for the U.S. team at the Under 21
World Championships in Argentina. It is considered
one of the world's most important non-Olympic
basketball competitions.
Felton got his start in the coaching profession as
an assistant at Oxon Hill ( Md.) High School in
1984. He then became an assistant coach at Charles
County Community College (now the College of
Southern Maryland) in LaPlata, Md., for one season
(1985-86) before moving on to Delaware.
His father's career in the U.S. Air Force provided
Felton an adventurous early childhood. Born in
Tokyo, he spent his early years living in and
visiting a variety of locales around the world. His
family eventually moved to Clinton, Md., a surburban
town in the Washington, D.C., area, a short distance
from Andrews Air Force Base.
A star athlete at Surrattsville ( Md.) High School
in Clinton, Md., Felton played at Prince George's
Community College in Largo, Md.. He completed his
athletic and academic careers at Howard University,
where he was a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
All-Academic selection. He is a cum laude graduate
of Howard (1985) with a degree in radio/television
and film production.
Felton and his wife, Melanie, have two sons:
11-year-old Jazz and eight-year-old Nile. |
