UNC’s Hatchell, UConn’s Auriemma both reach 1,000-victory mark on same night

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The 1,000win club gained two new members when Geno Auriemma and Sylvia Hatchell reaching the milestone.

Hatchell became the third women’s basketball coach to achieve the mark with North Carolina’s victory Tuesday over Grambling State. Hours later, Auriemma got his 1,000th victory as top-ranked UConn beat Oklahoma.

“There’s a lot that goes into winning,” Auriemma said after the 88-64 victory. “People think because you’re at a great school that has great tradition it’s easy to win. If it was that easy, every school that has it will win all the time. They don’t, it’s hard.”

The pair joined late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer as the only women’s coaches to reach that milestone. Mike Krzyzewski is the only men’s coach to have won 1,000 games.

Auriemma is the fastest to achieve the mark, doing so in his 1,135th game. He has gone 500-36 since winning his 500th game in 2003. That includes winning 100 of his last 101 contests.

Both Hatchell and Auriemma have been around the game for a long time. Neither thought they’d coach 1,000 games, let alone win that many.

“As far as the 1,000 wins, gosh, I just can’t believe I’ve coached that many games,” said Hatchell , who has battled leukemia and was declared cancer-free in 2014.

Auriemma has been impressed with the way Hatchell has been able to bounce back from her cancer and handled North Carolina’s multiyear NCAA academic investigation, which ultimately led to no violations against the school or the women’s basketball program.

“It’s hard when you go through some personal things like Sylvia has, then go through some things that the school has gone through. There have been a lot of challenges, personal and professional for Sylvia,” Auriemma said.