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Georgia women’s coach Andy Landers is one win from becoming the seventh men’s or women’s basketball coach with 850 wins at one Division I school. He’s 849-287 in his 36th season at Georgia.
Coach; School; Wins
Pat Summitt; Tennessee; 1098
Jim Boeheim; Syracuse; 952
Mike Krzyzewski; Duke; 916
Geno Auriemma; Connecticut; 881
Dean Smith; North Carolina; 879
Adolph Rupp; Kentucky; 876
Thinking back to 1979, Andy Landers remembers the first thing he wanted to do as Georgia’s new women’s basketball coach was to defeat Valdosta State and Mercer.
“Georgia had never beaten them. That was the state of affairs,” he said Friday. “I wanted to gain respect in the state, and to do that, I knew we had to win.”
And 35 years later, Landers hasn’t stopped winning, which has him on the verge of joining an elite list.
Only six coaches — Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma, North Carolina’s Dean Smith and Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp — have won 850 games with one Division I program, a group that Landers will join with Georgia’s next victory.
Landers is 849-287 at Georgia as the Lady Bulldogs (6-0), who are tied at No. 22 in the AP poll, play at Tennessee Tech (1-3) at 7 p.m. Saturday. Including his time at Roane State before Georgia hired the 26-year-old as the program’s first full-time coach in April 1979, Landers is 931-308.
“I don’t think about these things, really,” Landers said. “I didn’t know this thing was even coming until somebody said something about it in the media room. It says you don’t win them all at once. It says we’ve been consistent over a very long period of time, and in doing that, you, as a coach, you have an experience, like this when you’re at a place where it’s doable and you’re working for people who want it.”
After winning respect within the state, Landers said his second goal at Georgia was to crack the top 10, which came about three years later. He still hasn’t accomplished his third goal of winning a national championship, but the Lady Bulldogs played in the title game in 1985 and ’96.
“To be on that list with the greats, shows he’s in that category, as well,” Georgia senior guard Erika Ford said. “He’s hard-working. He’s worked hard (to be closing in on) 850 wins. It says a lot about his character and his heart and what he believes in.”
Landers said he never thought he would still be the coach at Georgia 36 years later.
“I doubt that anyone, from Adolph to Krzyzewski, ever looked 35 years down the road, or 850 wins down the road, and said I’ll be there in 20 or 30 years, whatever it was,” he said.
Summitt, a longtime Landers contemporary and rival, retired with 1,098 wins at Tennessee. Boeheim and Krzyzewski, who coach men’s teams, are still active, as is Auriemma, who coaches the UConn women’s team.
“I’m in awe of it. I’m still like a 15-year-old with everybody on this list,” Landers said. “I was a kid when Adolph Rupp was coaching at Kentucky. He was basketball royalty. I’m not basketball royalty.”
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