With a five-year contract extension through 2012-13 in his pocket, Bob Burton is on track to complete a decade as the Cal State Fullerton men's basketball coach. Matching the accomplishments of his first five seasons will be a challenge.

At 92-60, Burton has the best winning percentage of any Titan coach at .605. Last year he won a share of the program's first regular-season conference championship since 1976 and led the Titans to victory in the Big West Conference post-season tournament, earning CSF its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1978. The 24-9 record was the best Div. I mark in school history and earned him NABC District 15 Coach of the Year honors.

The foundation was laid in 2004-05 when the Titans won two games in the post-season NIT at Oregon State and USF to highlight the program's first 20-win season (21-11) in 27 years. That plateau has now been reached in three of the past four seasons and not since 1981-82 thru 1984-85 had the Titans strung together four winning seasons. In fact, they had not posted a single winning season since 1992-93.

Topping those on-the-floor accomplishments was the performance of last year's team in the classroom. All seven departing players are graduating in 2008.

The newfound winning formula begins with an up-tempo offense set up by aggressive defense while utilizing mature transfer student-athletes from both 4-year and 2-year institutions. The 3-point field goal is a standard weapon. And success away from Titan Gym has been remarkable. Burton's teams are 46-42 on the road including 37-35 on hostile courts.

Burton set the bar high in his second season at Fullerton. A 3-game run in the 2005 post-season NIT capped a 13-4 finish to a 21-11 campaign that arguably was the second best to date in Titan basketball, trailing only the 1977-78 NCAA Regional finalists. The Titans have only six 20-win seasons in 48 years -- 24-7 in 1961-62 by Omalev at the NAIA level, one by Dye (23-9 in 1977-78), one by George McQuarn (21-8 in 1982-83) and now half of them by Burton in only four years -- 21-11 in 2004-05, 20-10 in 2006-07 and 24-9 last year.

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Mark down Jan. 27, 2005, as the turning point in Burton's Cal State Fullerton coaching career. That's when the direction of a seemingly hexed program was altered 180 degrees. Beginning that day, his teams have won more than two of every three games (73-36, .670) after a 19-24 (.442) start.

Until that date, the basketball gods were treating Burton as harshly as they had tortured several predecessors. During an inaugural year (2003-04) littered with misfortune, eight players were lost to a variety of calamities and the count was climbing higher in his second campaign. Projected starting center Lloyd Walls had been ruled out for the year in pre-season drills due to multiple concussions. Inspirational reserve guard Drew Awad had suffered a reoccurrence of cancer which proved fatal. And senior forward Hardy Asprilla had gone down with a season-ending knee injury to mar a lopsided win over Long Beach State that had given the Titans a surprising 8-4 record.

Three consecutive defeats followed and more seemed inevitable as an already short roster tried to cope. Doubters wondered if the Titans would win another game.

Miraculously, the sea of adversity parted and winning became a habit.

On Jan. 27, a Cal Poly team suffering through an 8-game losing streak visited Titan Gym. With Yaphett King joining Ralphy Holmes as a pair of 6-foot-3 starting forwards to go with undersized center Jamaal Brown (6-foot-7), the Titans suddenly clicked. An eased up 92-69 victory over the Mustangs triggered a 5-game winning streak and the surprising NIT run. Burton was rewarded with an extended and improved contract through 2009-10.

Changes? An entire generation had been conceived since the Titans' last upbeat post-season banquet. Expectations were elevated dramatically. Scheduling suddenly became tougher as potential opponents held the Titans in higher regard. Four-year transfers continued to come home by embracing Titan Gym.

Burton would have been excused for running back to the comfort of West Valley College soon after June 6, 2003, when he achieved his long-sought goal of being a Div. I head men's basketball coach. The veteran roster he thought he was inheriting at Cal State Fullerton began to disintegrate as soon as he signed a four-year contract. A combination of academic problems, discipline, knee surgery, a broken window and a resignation eliminated five potential starters before the season began. And during the course of the campaign, the death of a player's relative, more academic problems and a mental meltdown took away three more regulars.

Through it all, Burton and his young staff remained upbeat and the result was modest improvement -- one more victory (11-17) and one higher rung (tied for fifth place) in the Big West Conference standings compared to the 2002-03 squad. With a little luck, it could have been major improvement. The Titans lost 13 games by 10 points or less and of those 13, they held second-half leads in 8 of them. They went 0-4 in overtime contests.

The 2004-05 season was a different story. The Titans were 3-0 in overtime and 6-0 in games decided by one or two points. They started finding ways to win instead of pondering how they were going to lose.

Burton has counted on the support he received from the community college coaches during his hiring process to carry over to the recruiting process.

"If you guys want to see me succeed," he told the audience when he was inducted into the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in March, 2004, "then you better send me some players and fast."

Actually, it has been transfers from four-year schools who have fueled the turnaround. Aided and abetted by 4-year point guard Bobby Brown's magnetism for well-traveled Los Angeles area players, the Titans have gotten great mileage out of Frank Robinson (East Carolina), Scott Cutley and Marcus Crenshaw (Kent State), Jermaine Harper (Virginia) , Jamaal Brown (Western Kentucky), Ray Reed (Georgetown) and Andrew Green (Boise State via College of Sequoias).

Burton came to Fullerton after one year as an assistant coach at Fresno State. He also was an assistant to Lynn Archibald for one season (1986-87) at Utah. But where he made his many basketball connections was at West Valley Community College in Saratoga in Northern California, where he compiled a 488-158 record in 21 seasons, three times reaching the state championship game. He sent more than 80 players to Div. I programs and more than 100 to other four-year colleges.

"I can't tell you how thrilled I was to receive this opportunity," said Burton upon his hiring. "I've never been one of those guys who's moved around a lot. I've always been happy wherever I've been."

Burton won eight conference championships at West Valley and was selected conference coach of the year nine times. He was selected California Community College Coach of the Year four times.

Burton left West Valley to help former Coach Ray Lopes clean up the Fresno State program. Lopes had played for Burton and had been his assistant coach at West Valley. The 2002-03 Bulldogs went a surprising 20-8, won the Western Athletic Conference championship and saw their team grade-point average improve from 2.31 to 2.68.

In Burton's one season at Utah, the Utes went 19-10 to earn an NIT berth.

Burton graduated from Fresno State in 1968 with a degree in social sciences. He earned a masters degree a year later at Cal Poly SLO, where he began his coaching career as an assistant in 1968-69. He became a head coach in 1972 at Willow Glen High School in San Jose and compiled a 143-52 record.

Burton's wife, Toni, is a special education teacher at Brea-Olinda High School. They live in Fullerton.