Claude Pardue stood on the sideline, his eyes wide and arms moving pointedly toward a mostly empty court. Georgia State basketball practice had ended, but Pardue, an assistant coach now in his eighth season with Georgia State, was still there working with one of the team's underclassmen.

It's one of the things Pardue was brought here to do when Ron Hunter hired him shortly after accepting the Georgia State head coaching job in 2011. During his time on Hunter's staff, Pardue has helped oversee the recruitment and development of GSU standouts like R.J. Hunter, D'Marcus Simonds, Ryan Harrow, Devonta White, and Devin Mitchell.

Pardue has seen this program go from a CAA school with very little name recognition, to a team with four Sun Belt titles, two NCAA tournament appearances, and a program very much on the radar of recruits, as well as high school and AAU coaches around the country.

“When I'm recruiting and talking to coaches, parents, and recruits just saying 'Georgia State,' the question eight years ago was, 'Oh, Georgia State, where's that?',” Pardue said. “Now it's, 'Oh, Georgia State, I know exactly where they're at. I know the University, I know the academics they provide, I know the basketball team.' So, the whole brand has grown, just knowing the blue and white.”

A Myrtle Beach, S.C., native, Pardue went to Lawrenceville High School in New Jersey before traveling to Atlanta to play at Emory University. After graduation, he spent two years as a graduate assistant at Georgia State under Rod Barnes, then left to work as a program coordinator under Tim Floyd at UTEP. Then came the call from Hunter.

Pardue credits Hunter with teaching him how to manage a team throughout a long season. He's learned first-hand how difficult that is to do, and how powerful it can be when you start to see the pattern of success Georgia State has achieved, winning 20 or more games in five of its first six seasons since joining the Sun Belt.

“Maintaining that success is very hard to do,” Pardue said. “A lot of things have to align for you to have it once, but we've had sustained success. And we want to keep growing, get a little bit better each day. And then you look up five years later and you have that sustained success, you have a chance to compete for a championship every year.”

This story originally appeared in the final basketball gameday program of the year.