Mike Carey Recognized in 2021 WBCA Victory Club

West Virginia University women’s basketball coach Mike Carey has been recognized as a member of the 2021 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Victory Club, the organization announced Tuesday.

Earlier this season, Carey secured his 700th career victory after defeating LSU, 62-42, on Nov. 28, in the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout. In his 33 seasons of coaching, the Clarksburg, West Virginia, native has amassed a career record of 720-325. Carey is one of eight coaches nationally who surpassed 700 victories this season.

The WBCA Victory Club honor is bestowed annually on each WBCA-member head coach who achieves a milestone of 200, 300, 400, 500 or more career victories during the current season on the level of competition at which they currently coach. Victories recorded at differing levels of competition (such as scholastic and collegiate) cannot be combined.

This year, Carey guided the Mountaineers back to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2016-17. It marked WVU’s 11th trip to the Big Dance and 15th postseason appearance under Carey. West Virginia also reached the Big 12 Championship title game this season for the first time since the 2016-17 season and the third time since joining the league in 2012-13.

The winningest coach in program history, the 2020-21 campaign marked Mike Carey’s 20th season coaching the Mountaineers. He holds a record of 432-223 at WVU. During the 2020-21 campaign, Carey led West Virginia to 22 wins, the most since the 2018-19 season, and now has won 20 or more games 13 times during his time in Morgantown. He also guided WVU to 13 victories within the Big 12 Conference for the first time since 2013-14, when the Mountaineers won 16 league games.

Carey also led West Virginia to a win over then-No. 17 Texas on Jan. 9, and Tennessee, who finished the regular season at No. 14 in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll. He finished the 2020-21 season with six wins against opponents who rank inside the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) Top 50 this season.

On March 3, Carey was named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2021 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year award and was the only coach from the Big 12 Conference to be honored on the list. Earlier in the season, he also was selected to the award’s watch list.

During his time at West Virginia, Carey has been honored as the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2014, after the Mountaineers won a share of the league’s regular-season title, and the Big East Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2010. In 2017, Carey led the Mountaineers to its first Big 12 Conference Tournament championship in an upset over No. 2 Baylor.

A full list of this year’s 2021 WBCA Victory Club honorees is below:

Name School Date Reached Milestone

Rhonda Farney Georgetown (TX) High School 01/15/2021 1200

Geno Auriemma University of Connecticut 01/21/2021 1100

Tara VanDerveer Stanford University 12/19/2020 1100

Mike Carey West Virginia University 11/28/2020 700

Mike Durbin College of Saint Benedict 02/24/2021 700

Shirley Egner Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 02/10/2021 700

Bill Fennelly Iowa State University 01/27/2021 700

Jay Trousdale Poway High School (CA) 03/27/2021 700

Anthony Pappas Waterloo West High School (IA) 01/16/2021 600

Lisa Stockton Tulane University 02/23/2021 600

Bo Browder Xavier University of Louisiana 03/12/2021 500

Steve DiPatri Wildwood Catholic Academy (NJ) 02/08/2021 500

Jody Martinez Taylor University 12/09/2020 500

Dawn Staley University of South Carolina 03/21/2021 500

Matt Dempsey U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 02/14/2021 400

Laura Foster T.C. Roberson High School (NC) 02/17/2021 300

Juli Fulks Transylvania University 01/16/2021 300

Sue Syljebeck Siena Heights University 11/14/2020 300

Polly Thomason University of Texas at Dallas 12/10/2020 300

Cleve Wright Gannon University 02/07/2021 300

Jeff Nickel Shawnee State University 11/12/2020 200

Shawn Reed Tabor College 02/04/2021 200

Reed Sutton Faulkner University 02/20/2021 200

Reid Takatsuka Hawai'i Pacific University 02/06/2021 200

Krista Van Hauen St. Ambrose University 02/13/2021 200

Stephanie Yelton University of West Florida 01/23/2021 200