Bobby Champagne went against conventional wisdom when he took his first head coaching job last April.

"I've always been told you don't want to be the one who follows a legend. You want to be the next guy," Champagne said. "I guess I didn't follow that."

Champagne, 35, took over for University of North Alabama men's basketball coach Gary Elliott. All Elliott did in his 15 years in Florence was win 270 games and a national championship.

The Lafayette, La., native said he's pleased so far with the transition from legend to rookie. The Lions are 7-10 against a back-breaking schedule.

"We've got a good group of seniors and everybody is trying to learn a new system," Champagne said. "The players are trying to learn the system, the coaches are trying to learn the players and the players are trying to learn the coaches.

"We've had just five home games out of 16 and we've played seven ranked teams. In one stretch, we played five straight ranked teams that had one loss combined. That was a tough stretch in our schedule."

Champagne knows about tough schedules. Before moving to Florence, he was an assistant at UTEP, Georgia State, University of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Washington State and his alma mater, South Alabama.

In his career, Champagne has been to the NCAA Tournament seven times - with USA, Washington State, Oklahoma and Louisiana. He also has had two appearances - with Georgia State and Washington State - in the NIT.

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