All across the landscape, there are signs that Georgia basketball is undergoing a renaissance of major proportions.

The Won/Loss ledger is improving steadily. Its players are achieving in their classrooms. Its facilities are being upgraded significantly. And these are but three tangible signs.

Much of this upward mobility must be attributed to the tireless efforts of head coach Dennis Felton, who has just begun his fourth year in charge of the Bulldog program.

The progression of the Georgia program thus far under Felton closely resembles the one he forged at his first head coaching post.

Two seasons at Western Kentucky produced little forward movement in the Hilltoppers' Won/Lost ledger. In fact, his second team posted fewer wins than his inaugural squad.

Western, however, took a giant leap ahead in Felton's third season, 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 three years of his tenure. His 39-49 record includes a significant improvement in the 2006 season. Three-plus 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.

"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, the Clemson squad in 1996, lost to Georgia in the West Regional first round. The next year the Tigers went 21-8 and reached tne 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."

In the spring of 1998, just before Barnes left Clemson for the Texas job, Felton ascended to the lead chair at Western Kentucky. He took over a storied program amidst a drought of sorts, and his initial results were predictable.

His first two Hilltopper squads went a combined 24-34 but had their moments of success. The 1999 team advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament title game. The next group went 5-4 in its last nine games and finished at .500 in league play.

The 2001 campaign, during which Western equalled its victory total of the previous two seasons (24), marked the beginning of his prosperous run in Bowling Green.

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: 12-year-old Jazz and nine-year-old Nile.