Back in January, former Stanford Cardinal head coach Tara VanDerveer became college basketball’s winningest coach. Victory No. 1,203, a 65-56 triumph over the Oregon State Beavers, propelled VanDerveer past former Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The five-time National Coach of the Year’s triumph came amidst a sea of red at Maples Pavilion. Just 10 months later, with the crowd sporting a slightly brighter variation of the same color, head coach Geno Auriemma rewrote the record.
The No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team’s 85-41 victory over the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights at Gampel Pavilion gave Auriemma his 1,217th career win. 63 former Huskies and 10,299 fans witnessed the 11-time national champion become the new winningest coach in college basketball.
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Auriemma’s successful legacy can be defined through a plethora of impressive numbers.
The three-time gold medalist is the fastest coach in college basketball history to win 800, 900, 1,000, 1,100 and 1,200 games. Less than 3.5 years separated each of Auriemma’s milestone victories.
12 coaches have won 1,000+ college basketball games at any level. Only a quarter of them reached that number while coaching at exactly one Division I school in their entire career. VanDerveer and Krzyzewski have also won 1,000+ games at one Division I program, though they coached multiple teams.
The six-time USBWA Coach of the Year possesses the three longest winning streaks in women’s college basketball. Four out of the top five stretches between both men’s and women’s college basketball also belong to him. John Wooden, who has the second-most championships of any coach at 10, possesses the lone non-Auriemma winning streak.
The two-time FIBA World Cup gold medalist is the only coach with multiple perfect seasons, something he has done six times in three different decades. Just two coaches—Auriemma and Pat Summitt—have three-peated in women’s basketball. The 2011 John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award recipient is the lone individual to win four titles in a row.
160 collegiate athletes have played for Auriemma over the last 40 years. Seven of them have won a Naismith Player of the Year award. 27 earned WBCA All-American honors. 22 (and likely counting) are members of the Huskies of Honor. 16 have won 27 Conference Player of the Year awards between the Big East and the AAC.
Every player who spent at least four years with the program has graduated. Five of them (six if Paige Bueckers goes to the Dallas Wings next April) have been the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
But what makes reaching this milestone so special? As Rebecca Lobo said during the postgame ceremony Wednesday night, it might never happen again.
Division I college basketball teams play around 30 regular-season games. While not every conference invites all of its programs to their conference tournaments, let us add one more game into the average season.
That comes out to approximately 31 games in a campaign, excluding NCAA Tournament contests. Not every program plays that many—most power conference schools play at least one more—but it is a fair number to work with.
Going .500 comes out to around 15.5 wins. A first-time head coach at a Division I program winning that many times per season would need over 81 years to break Auriemma’s mark. The average American lives approximately 77.5 years.
The 18-time conference coach of the year has won 20+ contests in 35 of his 40 seasons in the Nutmeg State. Reaching Auriemma’s current all-time record while winning that many games on average will require over 60 years of being a head coach.
If a coach averages 25 wins across their career, the rate only falls down to 48 seasons. It does not go below 40 until one secures at least 30 victories per year, the pace the 27-time conference tournament champion has hovered around.
Now suppose a coach makes the Final Four as frequently as Dawn Staley or Auriemma do. Depending on how many victories a team had going into March Madness, reaching that round would nearly guarantee a 35-win season. A coach who succeeds that much would catch the West Chester graduate’s mark in almost 35 years.
Winning 40 games is one thing; breaking Auriemma’s record will require doing that 31 times. Reaching that number in a single season literally requires perfection. Only 10 teams in Division I women’s basketball have ever achieved that feat.
All of these rates will only increase as the former Virginia assistant coach continues his career and racks up more victories.
Even then, the unprecedented success goes well beyond the individual wins and the mind-boggling numbers. Auriemma played basketball under Buddy Gardler at Bishop Kenrick High School but did not play in college. How he got into the basketball coaching business is unique.
“It was a favor that I did for somebody, and that turned into a hobby—something to do to pass the time,” the two-time high school assistant coach said postgame last Friday. “I had never envisioned it lasting this long. I do not think anybody goes into anything thinking that they are going to spend 40 years of their life at one place doing the exact same thing.”
Yet Auriemma has been in Storrs that long, his tenure paralleling Kim Mulkey and Bill Self’s coaching careers.
If the Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer’s time in Connecticut is an output, then the players have provided a consistent input. All 160 of them have helped elevate the program to the standard it strives for today.
“They should feel incredibly proud, because we built it out of nothing in a place where they said it could not be built,” Auriemma told ESPN following win No. 1,216. “Anytime you create something, you are going to remember that the rest of your life.”
The nine-time AP Coach of the Year doubled down on that belief five days later in Storrs.
“When this is all over, what we will remember is tonight. We will remember this, and I will remember each and every one of my players that I have ever coached,” Auriemma said during Wednesday’s postgame ceremony. “I do not know how much I helped them get what they wanted, but they helped me get everything I wanted.”
While he has enjoyed the moment over the past week, the Basketball Hall of Famer has never been one to think deeply about his career victories. For Auriemma, his main mission involves player development and preparing for the games ahead.
“[This season’s players] came here for their own goals; for their own aspirations; for what they want,” the 20-time Big East Tournament champion explained on November 15. “I have tried to keep focus on ‘How do I make them better able to go get what they want?’ … Whatever happens on my end happens.”
Auriemma, at 70 years young, shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. His current contract, which he signed in June, runs until 2029. Even as the college basketball world around him changes, the sport’s winningest coach remains a constant figure.
People may take a lot of things for granted throughout their lives. Auriemma’s success across 40 seasons should not be one of them.
Some of the seven-time WBCA National Coach of the Year’s records will fall over time. One thing is for certain though: there will never be another Auriemma.
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