Jim Yarbrough
Head Men's Basketball Coach
Phone: (985) 549-3744
Email:
jyarbrough@selu.edu
The very first time Jim Yarbrough stepped on the Southeastern campus he was excited about the possibilities of its basketball program. Of course, that visit found him as part of the College of Charleston coaching staff in town to play Southeastern during the 1994-95 season.
At that point, CofC was one of the biggest mid-major names of the decade. During his tenure there, Yarbrough would be part of unprecedented success – a 153-28 record in six years, two trips to the NIT, three to the NCAA Tournament and historic battles against college basketball’s elites with wins over UAB, Arizona State, Stanford, Maryland, Massacusetts and North Carolina. But on a January night in 1995, standing in Southeastern’s University Center, Yarbrough thought “why not here?”.
Yarbrough has viewed every coaching stop in the last 22 seasons as an opportunity. He has brought his high energy level to even his very first position at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida (1987-1993) as the Boys 8th grade coach and assistant to the Varsity.
His junior high team didn’t fair as well as he’d have liked, but the Varsity team began a remarkable run going to three state final fours in six years and winning a pair of state championships.
Yarbrough’s passion and teaching ability would take form here and lead him to several great friendships important to his career His first, was Buddy Ward (Head Coach at Bolles), whom Yarbrough credits with modeling the art of teaching the game of basketball. His second, was Dr. Harvey Bernhardt, who was not just a mere friend, but as passionate about hoops as was Yarbrough.
During Yarbrough’s six-year stint at Bolles, which included four summers with Team Jacksonville AAU, he made important contacts at the next level. One was a young assistant at Davidson College named Don Hogan.
Hogan was recruiting several players from the Bolles School and got to know Yarbrough. Later he would be named head coach at the University of West Florida and asked Yarbrough to help him get things started.
Yarbrough was not destined to be in Pensacola long. In the Summer of 1994, Yarbrough bumped into a coaching acquaintance from his years on the high school and AAU scene – Charleston coach, John Kresse.
Back in the Summer of 1989, while Yarbrough was coaching Team Jacksonville, Kresse sat in on several practices watching future player Rusty Palmer and admiring the young coach running practice. Palmer would go from Team Jax to being one of the Cougar captains during their first NCAA appearance ever.
In 1994, Yarbrough would be asked to join the Cougar coaching staff. Indeed, Yarbrough learned Cougar-style basketball so well that John Kresse named him Associate Head Coach in 1998, the only one Kresse ever had.
At 36, Yarbrough, who had been maximizing his coaching and recruiting efforts in Charleston, was ready to put his own ‘blueprint’ into motion. In 2000 Valdosta State was searching for a new head coach to reinvigorate and restore its program’s sagging tradition. When Yarbrough arrived in 2000, the Division II school had not participated in an NCAA Tournament since 1978.
In only his second season in south Georgia, Yarbrough was able to establish his vision and traditions for success. The team went 24-8 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tourney. For his efforts, Yarbrough was one of eight finalists for national coach of the year and was named South Region Coach of the Year.
The Blazers kept winning; Yarbrough kept fine-tuning his blueprint and during the 2003-2004 campaign finished the regular season ranked No. 3 in the nation. VSU hosted the NCAA’s South regional, and the Blazers finished the year 25-4.
Again, Yarbrough would be named South Region and Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year.
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.
In May of 2005, the journey seemed to come full circle when Southeastern’s head coach Billy Kennedy left unexpectedly for the University of Miami.
“Suddenly a job I coveted was open and with the help of former colleagues,” said Yarbrough, “the planets aligned just right to fulfill a lifelong ambition to coach on the great stage of Division I basketball and at an institution I really had been spiritually connected to for some time.”
During his three-year tenure in Hammond, Yarbrough has done an excellent job of keeping the program very competitive. His 49 wins in three seasons eclipsed the fastest pace of any coach in Lion history. Additionally, the Lions were the only Division I program in Louisiana to record a winning season in five years from 2003-08.
The program has taken on schools from the power conferences and competed well with the likes of Ole Miss, Minnesota and Alabama. More importantly under Yarbrough’s leadership, the Lions have ‘finished the job’ with victories over Mississippi State, Oregon State and Penn State, and although the Lions have not recaptured the historic ride of the 2005 NCAA season, they have stayed in the upper echelon of the rugged Southland Conference.
“This is truly an exciting and unprecedented time of growth for our program and this university,” Yarbrough said. “We have work to do to bring all aspect of the program to a steady and reliable foundation and put this program to a steady and reliable foundation and put this program on the basketball map.
“But we get closer to the finished product each and every day. Our ‘blueprint’ is defined by tremendous organization and energy to all the details that create a long term tradition – academic excellence, recruiting, personal relationships, player and team development and building ties to the greater community. Our staff and players are committed to these ideals.”
Interestingly, some of the coaching opportunities Yarbrough has been offered over the last 22 seasons have been questioned by colleagues and others.
“Someone might say ‘can you win there?’,” Yarbrough said. “‘Is that the right level’ or ‘that’s not a whole lot of money?’ And I always smile and begin to explain, ‘have you seen the facilities or do you know the potential here?’”
Confident and a builder by nature, Yarbrough can’t help but see the value in each player he coaches and each person he works with, and he realizes every ‘big’ win for the program, in conference or out, and every drop of sweat gets the Lions closer to their desire for ultimate respect and the joy it brings for everyone involved.
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.
A native of Tampa, Fla., Yarbrough is married to the former Glynda Burton and they are the parents of two children, daughter Samantha (10) and Jack (8).
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