Sylvia Hatchell, longtime UNC women’s basketball coach, wins 1,000th game

Hatchell and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma could both join the 1,000-win club on the same day.

Sylvia Hatchell, longtime North Carolina women’s basketball coach, has won her 1,000th game. The Tar Heels defeated Grambling State 79-63 on Tuesday afternoon, and Hatchell became the third women’s basketball coach to reach 1,000 career victories.

“It means a lot,” Hatchell told the North Carolina Herald Sun. “But numbers don’t mean that much to me. I just want to win the next game.”

Hatchell is the fifth Division-I basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins, and the third woman. The other four include Tennessee’s Pat Summitt and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, and on the men’s side, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. (Though the NCAA will claim that Boeheim doesn’t belong on this list after vacating 101 of his wins in 2015.)

Incredibly, the club may add another member within hours — legendary Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma will go for his 1,000th victory on Tuesday night.

Hatchell began coaching at North Carolina in 1986 and has remained with the school ever since, though she was forced to temporarily step aside in 2013 and 2014 while battling leukemia. Hatchell’s first 272 wins came at Francis Marion, a college in Florence, S.C., but she’s now in the midst of her 32nd season leading the Tar Heels.

“We’re not done,” Hatchell told the Herald Sun. “There are more things I want to do. Winning more championships, getting this team back to what we’re used to.”

Among her many accolades, Hatchell has led the Tar Heels to three Final Four appearances (1994, 2006, 2007) and one championship (1994). She was twice named National Coach of the Year (1994, 2006) and was inducted to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2013. She also won five total gold medals as a head or assistant coach for USA Basketball, including one at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

This season, Hatchell is leading the Tar Heels to a resurgent season. After North Carolina missed the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, in large part due to star players transferring while Hatchell took her leave of absence. After Tuesday’s historic victory, the Tar Heels are 10-2.