2 coaches, 2 chances for 1,000
NEW YORK — Geno Auriemma never imagined he would have a chance to win 1,000 games, let alone coach that many contests, when he took over UConn 32 years ago.
By his own admission, he just wanted to beat Providence and Villanova, who ruled the Big East. Now he stands one victory away from reaching the 1,000win mark.
Auriemma and his topranked Huskies will try for that milestone against Oklahoma tonight at the Mohegan
Sun Arena.
“Believe me, where we’re sitting right now wasn’t part of the plan,” the Hall of
Fame coach said. “By any stretch of the imagination.”
Earlier tonight,
North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell will also try and join the 1,000-win club when her team faces Grambling State. Only Pat Summitt and Tara VanDerveer have reached 1,000 victories in women’s basketball.
“I think back about all the great players I’ve had, the coaching tree. The main thing is how much fun I’ve had,” Hatchell said. “But, I’m not finished. I want more. I’m greedy, I guess you could say. I want more championships, I want more rings, all that stuff.”
Hatchell gained an extra appreciation for life after battling leukemia and being declared cancer-free in 2014.
Her program finally made it through a multiyear NCAA academic investigation that led to no violations against the school or her program.
“You think about the journey, the ups and downs, you think about the last few years. I’m tougher than ever, I really am,” Hatchell said. “I’ve learned so much. You learn through the great times and the winning, but you really learn through the perseverance.
“I’m healthy as can be now. I’ve beat the worst kind of leukemia you can have. I went through the NCAA; the right thing happened and it worked out.”
It’s fitting that Hatchell has a chance to get No. 1,000 in South Carolina as the Tar Heels are playing their annual games at Myrtle Beach. She got her start at Francis Marion College, which is in South Carolina, in 1975. Hatchell coached there for 11 seasons and won two national titles. She went to North Carolina
in 1986 and won a national championship in 1994.
She’s had a stellar career at North Carolina, although the past two years the Tar Heels have struggled with losing records — their first since 1996. Hatchell has North Carolina off to a 9-2 start this season.
“You’ve got to realize you’re not going to win a championship every year,” she said. “But you persevere and you learn from it and you move on. And that’s definitely what we’ve done the last few years.
“And I’m not finished. I want to be a big part of this, and we get this program back to what we’re used to being. We’re used to being top 10 in the country, year in and year out.”
Hatchell wants to get North Carolina back to where Auriemma and UConn are. Since Hatchell’s lone NCAA title, the Huskies have won 11 national championships and set an NCAA record first with a 90-game winning streak then topping it with a 111-game one.