Jeff Lebo - Men's Basketball Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Jeff Lebo

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jlebo@unc.edu
Phone:
919-962-1154

Jeff Lebo is in his fifth season as assistant coach at UNC, where he starred as a sharp-shooting guard from 1985-89 under legendary head coach Dean Smith.

The captain of the 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference champions and a 20-year veteran as a collegiate head coach joined the basketball staff at his alma mater prior to the 2021-22 season. In his first four seasons as the most veteran member of Hubert Davis’ staff, the Tar Heels have won 101 games, including going 56-24 in ACC play, earned a Final Four berth, an ACC regular-season championship and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

He coached 2024 Jerry West Award winner RJ Davis, a record-setting guard who was also a first-team All-America and ACC Player of the Year.

Lebo played at UNC for Smith and assistant coaches Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler, Roy Williams and Phil Ford. He was a teammate for one season at UNC with current head coach Hubert Davis.

In 1989, Lebo won the Patterson Medal, the most prestigious award given annually to a Tar Heel student-athlete based on exceptional career achievements. Following his senior season, Lebo held at least 10 UNC records. He was Carolina’s leader in single-game and career three-pointers made, single-season and career three-point percentage, career three-point attempts, single-season and career free throw percentage, consecutive made free throws, single-game assists and career assist-turnover ratio.

Following his playing career in Chapel Hill, Lebo played part of one season with the San Antonio Spurs, then embarked on a coaching career during which he spent eight seasons at three schools as an assistant coach and a combined 20 seasons as head coach at Tennessee Tech, Chattanooga, Auburn and ECU. He also was an assistant coach with the Greensboro Swarm, the G-League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets, in 2019-20.

Lebo went 327-278 (.540) as a head coach, winning 20 or more games five times, including at least one season at all four schools. His 2001-02 Tennessee Tech team went 27-7 in winning the Ohio Valley Con-ference regular-season title for the second consecutive season. His teams also won 24 games at Auburn in 2008-09, 23 at ECU in 2012-13, 21 at Chattanooga in 2002-03 and 20 at Tennessee Tech in 2000-01.

The Carlisle, Pa., native won 116 games at ECU, establishing him as the Pirates’ winningest coach since the program joined Division I in 1965. He was ECU’s first coach to win 20 games in D-I and is second all-time at ECU in wins at any level. Lebo’s teams set ECU records for points, three-point field goals, assists, blocks, steals and fewest turnovers per game.

Six Pirates earned all-conference honors, including Maurice Kemp, who in 2013 became the school’s only Conference USA scoring champion and first-team All-Conference USA selection. In 2014, Akeem Richmond led Division I with 155 threes.

Lebo began his coaching career as an assistant at ETSU from 1990-92, then joined Fogler at Vanderbilt for the 1992-93 season. The Commodores won the SEC championship and advanced to the Sweet 16. He coached with Fogler at South Carolina from 1993-98, winning an SEC title in 1997 and playing in two NCAA Tournaments.

In 1998-99 he began his head coaching career at Tennessee Tech, where he inherited a program that was coming off four consecutive losing seasons. In his third season the Golden Eagles won 20 games for the first time since 1946-47. They won a school-record 27 games in 2001-02, earning the school’s first post-season appearance since 1963. Tennessee Tech won three times in the 2002 NIT before losing at eventual champion Memphis.

Lebo was named OVC Coach of the Year in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and the 2002 NABC District 7 Coach of the Year.

He then accepted the head coaching position at Chattanooga, where he took over a program without a returning starter or a signee for the upcoming season. However, he led the Mocs to a 21-9 mark in the first season, the program’s first 20-win season in six years.

Chattanooga averaged 81-plus points and ranked among the nation’s top eight in scoring both seasons.

In 2004, Lebo was named head coach at Auburn, where the Tigers were facing NCAA sanctions. His teams won 96 games in six seasons, including 24, then the second-most in Auburn history, in 2008-09.

As a player at North Carolina, Lebo’s teams went 116-25 overall, including 44-12 in regular-season ACC play, won the ACC regular-season title in 1987 and 1988, the ACC Tournament in 1989, and advanced to two NCAA regional finals and two other Sweet 16s.

He scored 1,567 points (11.8 ppg), had 580 assists, 159 steals, made 211 of 493 three-pointers (.428) and was 308 of 367 from the free throw line (.839). He was 15th in UNC career scoring when he concluded his career and was third in assists behind only Kenny Smith and Phil Ford.
Lebo was the first Tar Heel to make 200 three-pointers and has the highest percentage of the seven players who have made 200 and the second-highest (behind only Hubert Davis) of players with 100 or more. He shot 46.4% from three in 1987-88 and 45.0 in 1986-87.

As a senior he set the UNC record, which was tied by RJ Davis, for consecutive made free throws with 41, breaking Bobby Lewis’s record of 39, which had been set in 1966.

His season-best free throw percentage of .878 in 1987-88 is currently the fourth-highest by a Tar Heel and he is sixth in career percentage at .839.

Lebo scored in double figures 80 times with 20 or more points 15 times. That included a career-high 29 against Indiana on Nov. 25, 1988, in Madison Square Garden.

He set a UNC single-game record with 17 assists against Chattanooga on Nov. 19, 1988, which was one of six games in which he had 10 or more assists (he had three points-assists double-doubles). His career assist-error ratio of 2.21 (580 assists, 263 turnovers) also was a UNC record and is currently third all-time.

He earned second-team All-ACC honors as a junior, was a member of three ACC All-Tournament teams, including first-team honors in 1987 and 1989, and was a USBWA All-District selection in 1988. He won a silver medal playing for Team USA in the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis.
He was a high school All-America at Carlisle High School, where he played for his father, Dave. They won the Class 4A championship in 1985, capping a career in which Carlisle went 108-9.

Lebo and his wife, Melissa, a native of Williamston, N.C., and 1991 UNC graduate, are the parents of two daughters, Addison and Mills, and a son, Creighton, a member of the Carolina Basketball team from 2020-24. Creighton is a graduate manager at UNC.

Jeff Lebo is in his fourth season as assistant coach at UNC, where he starred as a sharp-shooting guard from 1985-89 under legendary head coach Dean Smith.

The captain of the 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference champions and a 20-year veteran as a collegiate head coach joined the basketball staff at his alma mater prior to the 2021-22 season. In his first three seasons as the most veteran member of Hubert Davis’ staff, the Tar Heels have won 78 games, including going 43-17 in ACC play, earned a Final Four berth, an ACC regular-season championship and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Lebo played at UNC for Smith and assistant coaches Bill Guthridge, Eddie Fogler, Roy Williams and Phil Ford. He was a teammate for one season at UNC with current head coach Hubert Davis.

In 1989, Lebo won the Patterson Medal, the most prestigious award given annually to a Tar Heel student-athlete based on exceptional career achievements. Following his senior season, Lebo held at least 10 UNC records. He was Carolina’s leader in single-game and career three-pointers made, single-season and career three-point percentage, career three-point attempts, single-season and career free throw percentage, consecutive made free throws, single-game assists and career assist-turnover ratio.

Following his playing career in Chapel Hill, Lebo played part of one season with the San Antonio Spurs, then embarked on a coaching career during which he spent eight seasons at three schools as an assistant coach and 20 seasons as head coach at Tennessee Tech, Chattanooga, Auburn and ECU. He also was an assistant coach with the Greensboro Swarm, the G-League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets, in 2019-20.

Lebo was 327-278 (.540) as a head coach, winning 20 or more games five times, including at least one season at all four schools. His 2001-02 Tennessee Tech team went 27-7 in winning the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title for the second consecutive season. His teams also won 24 games at Auburn in 2008-09, 23 at ECU in 2012-13, 21 at Chattanooga in 2002-03 and 20 at Tennessee Tech in 2000-01.

The Carlisle, Pa., native won 116 games at ECU, establishing him as the Pirates’ winningest coach since the program joined Division I in 1965. He was ECU’s first coach to win 20 games in D-I and is second all-time at ECU in wins at any level. Lebo’s teams set ECU records for points, three-point field goals, assists, blocks, steals and fewest turnovers per game.

Six Pirates earned all-conference honors, including Maurice Kemp, who in 2013 became the school’s only Conference USA scoring champion and first-team All-Conference USA selection. In 2014, Akeem Richmond led Division I with 155 threes.

Lebo began his coaching career as an assistant at ETSU from 1990-92, then joined Fogler at Vanderbilt for the 1992-93 season. The Commodores won the SEC championship and advanced to the Sweet 16. He coached with Fogler at South Carolina from 1993-98, winning an SEC title in 1997 and playing in two NCAA Tournaments.

In 1998-99 he began his head coaching career at Tennessee Tech, where he inherited a program that was coming off four consecutive losing seasons. In his third season the Golden Eagles won 20 games for the first time since 1946-47. They won a school-record 27 games in 2001-02, earning the school’s first post-season appearance since 1963. Tennessee Tech won three times in the 2002 NIT before losing at eventual champion Memphis.

Lebo was named OVC Coach of the Year in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and the 2002 NABC District 7 Coach of the Year.

He then accepted the head coaching position at Chattanooga, where he took over a program without a returning starter or a signee for the upcoming season. However, he led the Mocs to a 21-9 mark in the first season, the program’s first 20-win season in six years.

Chattanooga averaged 81-plus points and ranked among the nation’s top eight in scoring both seasons.

In 2004, Lebo was named head coach at Auburn, where the Tigers were facing NCAA sanctions. His teams won 96 games in six seasons, including 24, then the second-most in Auburn history, in 2008-09.

As a player at North Carolina, Lebo’s teams went 116-25 overall, including 44-12 in regular-season ACC play, won the ACC regular-season title in 1987 and 1988, the ACC Tournament in 1989, and advanced to two NCAA regional finals and two other Sweet 16s.

He scored 1,567 points (11.8 ppg), had 580 assists, 159 steals, made 211 of 493 three-pointers (.428) and was 308 of 367 from the free throw line (.839). He was 15th in UNC career scoring when he concluded his career (currently is 29th) and was third in assists behind only Kenny Smith and Phil Ford.

Lebo was the first Tar Heel to make 200 three-pointers (currently seventh) and has the highest percentage of the seven players who have made 200 and the second-highest (behind only Hubert Davis) of players with 100 or more. He holds the fourth- and sixth-highest single-season three-point percentages by a Tar Heel (.464 in 1987-88 and .450 in 1986-87).

As a senior he set the school record, which still stands, for consecutive made free throws with 41, breaking Bobby Lewis’s record of 39, which had been set in 1966. Lebo’s streak of 41 currently equals the eighth-longest in ACC history.

He currently is fifth at UNC in career free throw percentage and has the fourth-best single-season percentage (.878 in 1987-88).

Lebo scored in double figures 80 times with 20 or more points 15 times. That included a career-high 29 against Indiana on Nov. 25, 1988, in Madison Square Garden.

He set a UNC single-game record with 17 assists against Chattanooga on Nov. 19, 1988, which was one of six games in which he had 10 or more assists (he had three points-assists double-doubles). His career assist-error ratio of 2.21 (580 assists, 263 turnovers) also was a UNC record and is currently third all-time.

He earned second-team All-ACC honors as a junior, was a member of three ACC All-Tournament teams, including first-team honors in 1987 and 1989, and was a USBWA All-District selection in 1988. He won a silver medal playing for Team USA in the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis.

He was a high school All-America at Carlisle High School, where he played for his father, Dave. They won the Class 4A championship in 1985, capping a career in which Carlisle went 108-9.

Lebo and his wife, Melissa, a native of Williamston, N.C., and 1991 UNC graduate, are the parents of two daughters, Addison and Mills, and a son, Creighton, a member of the Carolina Basketball team from 2020-24.