UConn’s Geno Auriemma Sets Mark for Most Wins in NCAA Basketball History

Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma is presented with a jersey after becoming the NCAA all-time basketball wins leader at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., on Nov. 20, 2024. Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images

There is a new all-time coaching wins leader in NCAA basketball history, and he resides in Storrs, Connecticut. Geno Auriemma, who has led the UConn Huskies women’s basketball program since 1985, set the mark with an 85-41 victory over Farleigh Dickinson on Wednesday night in front of the home crowd.

It was the 1,217^th victory of Auriemma’s coaching career, all coming with Connecticut, as he broke a tie with former Stanford women’s head coach Tara VanDerveer, who retired in April.

Auriemma’s victories aren’t just the most in women’s college basketball as they are the most in all of college basketball. Mike Krzyzewski, formerly of Duke, holds the record on the men’s side with 1,202 wins, and VanDerveer broke that mark earlier this year.

With both Krzyzewski and VanDerveer now retired and with no active coach on either the men’s or women’s side within 150 wins of Auriemma, he’ll likely hold this record for a while.

Auriemma’s record number of victories has come in just 1,379 games, giving him an 88.3 percent win rate, which is also an all-time record. Several of those wins were on the biggest of stages as his 11 national championships are another record, he’s been to 23 Final Fours, and he’s guided UConn to six undefeated seasons.

Many of the star players who were part of those legendary UConn teams were in attendance in anticipation of the record. Diana Taurasi, Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird, and Maya Moore were among 63 former players on hand for the win over Fairleigh Dickinson.

However, Auriemma knows that it was more than just the stars who helped him reach this record. After the game, he addressed the crowd and his former players at center court, specifically mentioning the walk-ons who arrived in Storrs and were treated in the same fashion as the five-star recruits coming out of high school.

Of his former players, Auriemma said they impacted him just as much as he impacted their lives.

“I’ll remember each and every one of my players that I’ve ever coached,” said Auriemma. “I’ll remember them when they were 17, and the look in their eyes of, ‘Coach, can you help me do this?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I think I can, but we’ll see.’

“And now, we look back 40 years later, and I would say, I don’t know how much I helped them get what they wanted, but they helped me get everything I wanted. So, thank you.”

Taurasi, who was a three-time champion and two-time Naismith College Player of the Year under Auriemma, also took the mic and brought some levity to the ceremony. She reminisced about having several talks with Auriemma’s wife, Kathy, whom she called Mrs. A.

“Mrs. A, I always remember those conversations in your driveway, where I’m like, ‘Mrs. A, I’m done with this man.’ And you would say, ‘Me too, Dee, me too,’” recalled Taurasi.

“And like what Rebecca [Lobo] said, ‘Banners, Hall of Famers, MVPs, champions, Players of the Year—we always come back because of you, coach. We come back because of you, and don’t you ever forget that. We love you.”

Auriemma has only had one head coaching job in his entire life, as he was hired by UConn 39 years ago after spending nine years as an assistant coach in both women’s college basketball and at the high school level. That makes him unique both in college basketball as a whole, and relative to his peers.

Connecticut Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma takes pictures with past and present players after becoming the NCAA all-time basketball wins leader at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., on Nov. 20, 2024. Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images

VanDerveer coached at Idaho and Ohio State before spending three decades at Stanford, while even coach Krzyzewski had a prior job before landing in Durham, North Carolina. The all-time wins leader on the men’s side spent five years as the head coach at Army, his alma mater, before being hired by Duke.

The 70-year-old certainly doesn’t plan on trying his hand elsewhere, nor does he plan on hanging up the whistle any time soon. In June, Auriemma signed a five-year contract extension with the Huskies that runs through April 2029, one month after his 75^th birthday.

That will allow him to further create distance between himself and every other coach in college basketball history in regard to win total.

Amongst active women’s college basketball coaches, the person with the next-most wins is Andy Yosinoff, who coaches at Emmanuel College, a Division III school in Boston. He’s roughly 300 wins behind Auriemma, and he’s six years older, making it nearly impossible for him to pass Auriemma’s mark.

On the men’s side, Dave Holmquist, who coaches Division II program Biola University, picked up his 1,059^th victory on Saturday, making him 159 shy of passing Auriemma’s current mark. But he’s three years older than Auriemma and is extremely unlikely to outlast the UConn coach.

As for this current Huskies squad, it will undoubtedly help Auriemma add to his record as it’s a championship contender.

The team has started off 4-0, winning each game by double-digits, and it’s led by 2021 Player of the Year and expected 2025 WNBA Draft first overall pick, Paige Bueckers. She and the rest of the Huskies are looking to end the eight-year drought for Auriemma without a national championship, which is the longest of his career since his first title in 1995.