Robert Lee returns to the sidelines with Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns for his sixth season as head coach and 14th season overall in 2009-10.

Having been with the Ragin' Cajuns for such a long period of time, Lee has seen the program through good times and bad times. There have been 20-win seasons that led to conference titles and postseason appearances and then losing seasons which left the program looking for answers.

He has experienced the whole gamut of emotions.

What he has been focused on is making sure that the program is on solid ground both on the court and in the classroom.

The Ragin' Cajuns academic standing was unstable when Lee took over as the top boss in 2004-05 and from day one he has worked toward creating stability and satisfactory results.

Louisiana has seen a constant improvement in its APR score the past two seasons. The program scored a perfect 1,000 in 2006-07 and 2007-08 and and registered a 980 in 2008-09. That performance has helped rapidly improve the program's multi-year APR average from 788 following the 2005-06 season to 917 following 2008-09.

The score during the 2008-09 academic year has moved the multi-year APR average above 900 (917 actual) and put UL on pace to move out of the historical penalty structure of APR pending 2009-10 results, completing Lee's mission of solid academic standing.

With a nucleus of players in their third season together - the same group which won the Sun Belt West title in 2007-08 - the Ragin' Cajuns chances of reaching Lee's goal of a successful on-court product could be reached.

Lee will have his most experienced squad on the court in 2009-10 as there are nine seniors on the roster.

Last year it seemed as though UL might have veered off course in terms of success on court, but one has to remember that Lee had to deal with injuries to several players that added up to a total of 61 games lost to injury/illness.

Throughout his first five years as head coach Lee has been able to make late season adjustments in the team's style of play to fit his personnel - a trait which makes him one of the top strategists in the Sun Belt Conference.

In 2007-08, behind a young nucleus, the Cajuns battled back from a slow start to finish the regular season 6-2 and add the title of SBC West Champs.

In 2005-06, UL was sitting at 5-14 at the end of January and could have mailed it in down the stretch. Lee wouldn't allow his team to do so. He took a group of guys and taught them to value the "team" concept. The end result was his squad ending the regular season 7-1 in February and advancing to the semifinals of the SBC Tournament.

More valuable in Lee's character is importance on preparing young men for the future.

More memorable than wins and losses in the 2005-06 season was Lee's molding of Michael Southall into a dominant basketball player once more. Southall who had spent the previous two seasons away from basketball with off-court issues was given a second chance with the Ragin' Cajuns. Lee looked at it as an opportunity for a young man to prepare for the future. The chance given to Southall allowed him to play competitively once more to improve his chances at a spot in the NBA and allowed Lee to teach him the values of being a well-rounded citizen.

Lee's defensive philosophy has paid dividends. His 2007-08 squad held opponents to 65.8 points per game - the lowest for UL since moving to Division I.

An added boost for the program came during the recruiting season. The 2008-09 signing class was named  best in the Sun Belt Conference, according to The Hoop Scoop.

Even though Lee has only been the UL head coach for five full seasons, he has already laid down the foundation for a program that will focus on winning in the game of life first and letting the chips fall where they may on the basketball court.

The Basics

The veteran of the Ragin' Cajuns men's basketball staff, now in his 14th season with the program overall and sixth season as the head coach, Robert Lee was elevated to the position of head coach on Aug. 17, 2004, when he was officially introduced as the program's top boss after an eight-year stint as a valued assistant.

Lee, 41, is a New Roads, La., native and 1991 graduate of Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La.

He spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at Louisiana serving on the staffs of former head coaches Marty Fletcher (1996-97) and Jessie Evans (1997-2004) before taking over as head coach prior to the 2004-05 season.

During his tenure at Louisiana, Lee has been a part of a program which has advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals four times, won the Sun Belt Tournament in 2000, advanced to the NCAA Tournament once and NIT twice, while claiming three Sun Belt West Division championships.

Prior to Louisiana

Lee joined the Ragin' Cajuns basketball program during the summer of 1996 after serving four years as head coach at nearby Opelousas High School.

Lee guided OHS to four consecutive 20-win seasons including a 29-5 mark in his final season in 1995-96, which also included a berth in the state Class 4A quarterfinals.

Before launching his coaching career at Opelousas High, Lee served for one year as a student assistant at Nicholls State in 1990-91 under head coach Rickey Broussard.

Personal

Lee was a four-year letterwinner at Nicholls State and served as team captain in his senior season in 1989-90 under then Colonels head coach Gordon Stouffer.

Lee received his bachelor's degree in general studies from Nicholls State on May 17, 1991, while earning both President's List and Dean's List honors for his academic achievement.

Lee and his wife Donique are the parents of one daughter, Jourdan, and one son, Trei.