From college basketball’s beginnings until 2009, no coach reached 1,000 victories.
“It’s a hard number to even comprehend,” Pat Summitt, the longtime Tennessee coach, told reporters after she became the first coach to achieve the milestone.
On Tuesday, less than a decade after Summitt reached the mark, two more coaches joined her in a matter of hours: Sylvia Hatchell of North Carolina and Geno Auriemma of Connecticut.
The 1,000-win club growing from three to five members in a single season would have been remarkable, but for it to happen in a single day was almost unbelievable, and it left the two Hall of Fame coaches struggling to convey what it meant to them.