Entering his second year as head men's basketball coach at Southeastern Louisiana University, Jim Yarbrough has quickly established himself as a winner to the Lion faithful.

Continuing to build on the success established during the previous two seasons that saw Southeastern capture a pair of Southland Conference championships and secure a berth in the NCAA Championships, Yarbrough guided Southeastern to its third straight winning campaign with a 16-12 record and its third straight berth in the SLC postseason.

Much of the staples that led to the success of the past two seasons under former coach Billy Kennedy quickly became evident under Yarbrough's watch - highlighted by a tenacious defense that has led the SLC in scoring defense three of the past five seasons.

But Yarbrough also brought some of the traits he acquired as the top assistant to legendary coach John Kresse at the College of Charleston - mainly the ability to knock off the "Big Boys."

In his third game as Southeastern's head coach, Yarbrough guided the Lions to one of its biggest wins in years with a decisive 57-46 victory at Mississippi State - the Lions' first-ever win over the Bulldogs and the first victory over an SEC school since an 89-88 win over LSU in the 1966-67 opener.

Named as Southeastern's 11th head basketball coach on June 23, 2005, Yarbrough brings tremendous energy and a wealth success to the Florida Parishes as both a head coach and assistant after averaging nearly 22 wins per season and earning postseason berths seven times in an 11-year span.

"My vision (for Southeastern) is taking that blue print of success that has been handed down and applying it here," Yarbrough said at the time of his hiring. "It's about being very organized, doing things well, quality, a standard of excellence and keeping a constant intensity level at everything you do."

Prior to his appointment at Southeastern, Yarbrough spent five seasons as head coach at Division II Valdosta State where he won 70 percent of his games and led the Blazers to two Gulf South Conference championships and two berths in the NCAA tournament. His success at Valdosta State centered on a staple of Southeastern basketball the last few years - defense.

Emphasizing a tough, pressure defense, Yarbrough's teams were consistently ranked among the national leaders in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense.

During his five-year tenure at VSU, Yarbrough's teams finished the season in the top 10 in scoring defense four times while finishing in the top-10 in field goal defense twice. Even in Yarbrough's inaugural season at VSU, the Blazers finished 18th among Division II schools in scoring defense despite an 11-14 record.

But his coaching start in Division I basketball came under coach Kresse at CofC, which went 153-28 in a six-year run that produced five postseason berths and saw the Cougars dominate the Trans America Athletic and Southern Conferences with an 89-7 record.

Before the recent success of mid-major programs Gonzaga, George Mason, Southern Illinois and Creighton, CofC was considered by many as one of the country's top up-and-coming programs thanks to its "Giant Killer" status that included wins over national powers North Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, Tennessee and Stanford.

During Yarbrough's first five years at the South Carolina school, CofC went 76-4 in league play and went to three NCAA tournaments and made a pair of appearances in the NIT.

After that six-year run that saw CofC average nearly 26 wins per season and the many lessons learned from Kresse, Yarbrough got the "itch" to become a head coach and mold his own program. And just like a pair of former Cougar assistants, Gregg Marshall and Ben Betts, who went on to becoming Division I head coaches, Yarbrough was ready to mold his own program.

In the next five seasons as a head coach at Valdosta State, he resurrected a once-proud program and molded it into a national power.

Arriving in south Georgia beginning in 2000-01, Yarbrough revived a VSU program that had suffered through three consecutive losing seasons, including back-to-back 9-17 campaigns. In his first season at VSU, the Blazers finished 11-14, but the foundation was being laid for a return to past glory that was experienced under Gary Colson, Jim Melvin and James Dominey.

The return to prominence would occur the following season as Yarbrough's Blazers finished 24-8 overall, tying the school-record for most wins in a season and earning their first NCAA tournament berth since 1978-79. VSU, which claimed its first-ever Gulf South Conference East Division title, went on an 11-game unbeaten streak while Yarbrough earned NABC South Region Coach-of-the-Year honors.

Following a 19-7 campaign in 2002-03, VSU established itself as one of the top teams in Division II. The Blazers opened the 2003-04 season with 10 straight wins and finished the season with a 25-4 record.

Led by the nation's top-ranked scoring defense that allowed 52.2 points per game, VSU earned its second GSC East Division title and finished third in the Division II national polls. The Blazers were ranked first in the region polls each week of the season and entered the NCAA tournament as the region's No. 1 seed. For his effort, Yarbrough was named the Gulf South Conference and NABC South Region Coach-of-the-Year.

After an 18-9 record in 2004-05, Yarbrough again got the itch, and just like Marshall, who guided Winthrop University to five conference championships and six appearances in the NCAA tournament, and Betts, now an assistant at Oklahoma, Yarbrough's future goals were set ... to become a Division I head coach.

Yarbrough got his start in coaching spending six years at the prestigious Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla., where as the school's Associate Head Coach, he helped lead them to a pair of state championships and three berths in the Final Four. Yarbrough also served as head coach in AAU basketball for Team Jacksonville and led them to the 1990 state championship and several berths in the national tournament.

Yarbrough left the high school scene in 1992 as he accepted a position as assistant coach at the University of West Florida under veteran coach Don Hogan. Yarbrough spent one season at UWF, which was making the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II.

A native of Tampa, Fla., Yarbrough is married to the former Glynda Burton and they are the parents of two children, daughter Samantha (9) and Jack (6).