Which coaches may break Tara VanDerveer's NCAA wins record?

Stanford women's coach Tara VanDerveer surpassed former Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski on Sunday as the NCAA's winningest basketball coach at any division. The Cardinal's victory overOregon Statemarked VanDerveer's 1,203rd career win, breaking a tie with Coach K.

So who will catch VanDerveer? Here are some coaches who might be able to do so one day.

Geno Auriemma, UConn women: 1,196 wins

Numerically speaking, Auriemma is in the best position of any active coach to catch VanDerveer. He is on the cusp of passing Coach K's career mark this season. Then again, unlike Krzyzewski, VanDerveer remains active and is also still winning games.

Rarely have two coaches been this closely matched in career wins and age: VanDerveer at age 70 is just nine months older than the 69-year-old Auriemma. Could ownership of this record come down to the simple question of who chooses to retires first, VanDerveer or Auriemma? For now, only the coaches can answer that question.And neither has hinted of an impending retirement.

John Calipari, Kentucky men: 804 wins (official, according to the NCAA)

Calipari is on pace to reach the point where VanDerveer is now in terms of official wins is the neighborhood of 2036-37. That sounds a long way off, and it is: Calipari will be 77 or 78 years old by that point.

Then again on the men's side, Jim Boeheim stayed in the game to roughly that age, so who knows? If Calipari stays in coaching at that age, he could reach some impressive numbers.

Worth noting: Calipari won 42 games combined at UMass in 1995-96 and at Memphis in 2007-08 that the NCAA later vacated.

Bill Self, Kansas men: 787 wins

Self and Calipari are closely linked in career wins, just like VanDerveer and Auriemma. One key difference, however, is that Self is nearly four years younger than Calipari. (Your coaching demographics fun fact of the day: Self and Gonzaga Bulldogs men's coach Mark Few were born the same day, Dec. 27, 1962.)

In theory, Self could become the all-time winningest men's coach by the relatively youthful age of 75. But, again, this will depend on the coach's willingness to continue working at an age when most of his peers have long since retired.

Kim Mulkey, LSU women: 709 wins

Mulkey holds the distinction of being the fastest Division I men's or women's coach to reach 700 wins, requiring just 813 games to do so. Her .862 career winning percentage is second to Auriemma's among all coaches.

One of this discussion's more intriguing what-ifs is where Mulkey would stand if she had commenced her head-coaching career sooner. She was an Louisiana Tech assistant for 15 seasons and didn't win her first game as head coach until age 37. Yet here she is at age 61 with better than 700 wins. It's a remarkable run.

Mark Few, Gonzaga men: 701 wins

Few is close to Mulkey in age (he is also 61) and career wins. In fact, no men's coach holds a better career win percentage.

The only challenge facing Gonzaga's coach in this discussion is that, as noted above, Self is the exact same age. By the time Few won his first game as coach in the fall of 1999, Self had already accumulated 97 victories.

Lindy La Rocque, UNLV women: 87 wins

The youngest coach in this discussion, La Rocque turned 34 last month. In her career, UNLV has won more than 80% of its games.

If LaRocque -- who played in four Final Fours during her Stanford career (2008 to 2012) and was an assistant coach on VanDerveer's staff from 2017 to 2020 -- continues to notch victories at that rate, she might be in a good position to post some VanDerveer-level numbers for career wins when the 2060s roll around.

Jon Scheyer, Duke men: 40 wins

Scheyer is 36 and he's coaching at Duke. Those two facts alone earn him a place at this table even with just 40 career victories. The present head coach of the Blue Devils took the job at about the same age as his predecessor. Look what happened there.