Steve Barnes

Position: Associate Head Coach Alma Mater: Azusa Pacific, 1980

Steve Barnes enters his eighth season as the associate head men's basketball coach at Southern Miss and his 28th year in collegiate coaching and 30th season overall.

Barnes, whose relationship with current Southern Miss Head Coach Larry Eustachy dates back to the 1970s, most recently coached with Eustachy at Iowa State as the associate head coach in 1998-99 and 2002-03.

Barnes and Eustachy were high school and college teammates at Arcadia High School, Citrus Junior College and Chico State. The pair have competed or coached together in six different settings (Arcadia High, Citrus, Chico State, Idaho, Utah State and Iowa State), including all three of Eustachy's head coaching posts.

Between his two stints at Iowa State, Barnes was the head coach at San Jose State University for three years, posting a 39-51 mark. He led SJSU to the school's first back-to-back .500 seasons since the mid-1980s, going 15-15 and 14-14 in his first two campaigns.

In his first season, Barnes helped lead SJSU to a fifth-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference, the best by the school since becoming a member of the WAC. The Spartans were 10-22 in Barnes' final season (2001-02). That year was highlighted by a 64-62 win at Iowa State that broke the Cyclones' school-record 39-game home-court winning streak, the second-best active winning streak in the nation at the time.

Known for his recruiting prowess, Barnes reaped immediate rewards at San Jose State, assembling some of the top recruiting classes in the school's history. His 2001 SJSU recruiting class was ranked in the top 20 nationally by Clark Francis' HoopScoop. Barnes also had a key role in recruiting Iowa State All-American and 2001 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year Jamaal Tinsley, a first-round NBA draft pick in 2001.

The Arcadia, Calif., native has 28 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 20 at the Division I level. He only had one season with a sub-.500 record, which occurred in his final year with San Jose State.

Barnes began his coaching career in 1978 at Arcadia (Calif.) High School, his alma mater, as an assistant coach. He later became an assistant coach for the 1982 and 1983 seasons at Azusa Pacific, his collegiate alma mater. While in college, he played one season at Azusa Pacific, leading his squad to a 25-10 record as a senior and earning his bachelor's degree in 1985.

He received his first head coaching job at Capistrano (Calif.) Christian High School in 1984, before returning to the collegiate level at Saddleback College in 1985 as an assistant coach.

Barnes spent two seasons there, finishing in second place at the California Community College state championship tournament in 1987.

He spent the 1987-88 season at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, before joining Kermit Davis' Idaho staff in 1988 as an assistant coach. In his first two years at Idaho, the Vandals won two Big Sky Championships and made two NCAA Tournament appearances.

After Davis departed in 1990, Barnes stayed on staff at Idaho, working with Eustachy. That stint marked the first time the two worked together as collegiate coaches. The pair coached three years together at Idaho, winning the Big Sky Conference Championship with a 24-8 record in 1993.

Barnes and Eustachy continued their coaching relationship in 1994, as Barnes served as the associate head coach at Utah State for two years.

Following the 1994 season, Barnes left the Aggies to become an assistant at Division II Cal State Bakersfield. The Roadrunners made NCAA Tournament appearances both years, including a 26-4 mark in 1996. In his short time at CSU-Bakersfield, Barnes recruited first-team All-American and 1996 Division II Player of the Year Kebu Stewart, who later became a second-round draft pick for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Barnes coached two front-line standouts while at Iowa State, All-American Marcus Fizer and Paul Shirley, both of whom went on to careers in the NBA. Barnes also had a hand in recruiting former All-American and current NBA standout Jamaal Tinsley and NBA veteran Jackson Vroman.

Barnes again teamed with Eustachy at Utah State as the associate head coach in 1997. The pair spent two more seasons with the Aggies, sharing the Big West Conference regular-season title in 1997, and finishing with a 25-8 record in 1998, capturing the outright title and earning an NCAA berth.

Barnes left with Eustachy and headed to Iowa State in 1998. The Cyclones went 15-15 in Eustachy's first season, led by first-team All-Big 12 selection and future All-American Marcus Fizer. Barnes left ISU in 1999 when he took the head job at San Jose State.

Barnes was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 22, 1957. He spent his youth growing up in North Carolina, before moving to Arcadia, Calif. He and his wife, Judy, a native of Folsom, Calif., are the parents of two children, Megan and Josh.