Coach K, Pat, and Geno

First of all, congrats to Duke hoops coach Mike Krzyzewski on winning his 1000th game. Yet it has been mistakenly reported that Coach K is the winningest college basketball coach of all time. Not quite.

That honor still belongs to Pat Summitt, long known for the dynasty she built while with the Tennessee Lady Vols. Amazingly enough, Summitt became the head coach of the Lady Vols while still only 22 years old. She had several players merely one year her junior. After 38 years of wildly successful coaching, Ms. S would have to step down from her duties, while only at the relatively young age of 59, due to early-onset Alzheimers.

Yet she had compiled a whopping 1098 victories. Had illness not struck, no telling how many more she could have racked up. To this day, still only 62 years old, given her love for the game/job, Summitt may well have coached many more years. Over her career at UTenn, her teams averaged 28.9 wins per year, and had an overall winning percentage of 84.1.

On the other hand, Coach K is closing in on 68 years old, though he looks much younger. He's coached for 40 years (two more than Pat) and is still almost 100 victories shy of her record. To be fair, there is little question that men's college basketball has been, and remains more competitive than the lady's version. Typically, there are only 2-3 teams of gals that are considered "elite" every year, while the guys side is usually much more wide open. Put another way, top ladies' programs have a lot of "gimme" games against far inferior competition, while the boys have to pretty much "bring it" in most games or risk being defeated. In that respect, Summitt enjoyed a distinct advantage for many years. Her Vols played a lot of games against schools that didn't even take ladies' basketball seriously. No scholarships were offered and they were mostly whatever rag-tag team of walk-ons they could cobble together.

Then again, Coach K doesn't show any signs of slowing down any time soon and, given his Duke program, it's not much of a stretch to imagine them winning 25 games a year for the next 4 or 5 while he remains head coach to surpass Summitt. Time will tell if he decides to hang around that long. Given continued good health, this will totally be up to him. It's not like he's going to get fired or jump to the pros.

Yet another gorilla will be entering the room soon. One Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn Lady Huskies. The diminutive Italian stallion could wind up being the best of them all -- actually by a wide margin. Yes, he's just closing in on 900 career victories, still a hundred behind Coach K, and two hundred back of Coach Pat. That's a lot of games still to be won.

But he has several things working in his favor. Summit coached 38 years. Krzyzewski 40 and counting. Auriemma has coached but 30 and is only approaching his 61st birthday. He looks like he's 45, maybe 50, and clearly still loves what he does. His career winning rate to date is an astounding 87%. Better than Pat, and far better than Coach K. And don't look now, but his team is -- again and still -- elite. They're currently ranked #2 and it wouldn't surprise many if Geno and his Lady Huskies won yet another national title this year. Even if not, 30 win seasons are almost a given to that program in the near future, considering how cream of the crop preps have to get in line to go to UConn. Winning breeds more winning, and the beat goes on.

Do the math. Auriemma's 7 years younger than Coach K and only 100 victories behind him. Coach Pat will forever be stuck at 1098.

Health allowing and the fire remaining, if Geno decides to keep coaching for another 10 years or so -- and his teams continue at the blistering pace they appear on track to do -- he could set the all-time win bar so high nobody will ever get close again.

After all, Coach K, Pat, and Geno all got head coaching jobs when they were quite young. That doesn't happen much anymore, particularly at top programs. And when they started, there wasn't much money in it. They did it for the love of the game.

Nowadays, guys and gals serve many years as "assistants" learning their craft before getting a shot at a head coaching job.

And their salaries have gone through the roof once they get there. Even if they could, nobody's going to keep going through the rigors of coaching for 30-40 years when they have a bazillion dollars in the bank.

So Mike might pass Pat. And Geno might well pass them both before he's done.

And that will pretty much be that. Nobody else will get close again. Ever.