A big deal was made out of Coach K notching his 1,000th career victory recently over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.
And rightfully so.
But try this stat on for size.
After leading St. Anthony to a 66-25 victory over Chester (PA) on Saturday at the PrimeTime Shootout, Naismith Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley is 1,000 games over .500.
“Today’s win put us at 1,118 and 118,” Hurley, 67, said by phone after chuckling. “Somebody brought it up and I’m not so good with math but somebody explained it to me and I looked at it, and wow it’s cool.”
He added: “Everybody will look back at it and say I was part of that for two years, three years, four years. These are the amount of wins I was involved in for [the] school….It’s very cool.”
“It is incredible,” his son, Dan Hurley, the coach of Rhode Island, told SNY.tv. “He is truly one of a kind. His focus, dedication and commitment to his program, school and community are rare. Add his greatness as a coach and you have a Hall of Famer.”
Hurley has won 27 state titles and 12 New Jersey Tournament of Champions crowns. His current team is 16-1 and in the mix for more hardware.
“We’ve shown during the course of the season an ability to play against anybody,” Hurley said. “I mean, anybody we can play against. And we still have nine more games before the state tournament. We only play two seniors out of the nine or 10 we play, so with the underclassmen there is still room for development across the board. So that makes it really exciting.”
Hurley now has added a new standard of excellence to his record and he will have to avoid falling below 1,000 games over .500 to mess up his record.
“Now we just have to fight .500 the rest of my career and we’re OK,” Hurley said.
