ICYMI: VanDerveer reaches 1,000 wins

By AP
Published

Tara VanDerveer reached a huge milestone while College of Charleston was penalized for making a big blunder.

The Hall of Famer VanDerveer became the second women's basketball coach to reach 1,000 victories when Stanford topped USC on Friday night. With her record at 1,000-228, VanDerveer joins Pat Summitt - who died last summer from early onset Alzheimer's disease with 1,098 wins - as the only other women's coach with 1,000 victories. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is the only Division I men's coach with 1,000.

''It's an honor to be in her company. And Coach Krzyzewski's company, too,'' VanDerveer said.

Stanford's coach quickly turned her attention to Monday's big Pac-12 conference showdown against UCLA.

''I have more than 1,000 memories of coaching,'' VanDerveer said, then quickly added, ''... and I'm moving on to 1,001 Monday night.''

While VanDerveer was celebrating, College of Charleston was embarrassed.

The College of Charleston women's team unknowingly has been playing home games and practicing with men's basketballs all season long. They suspected something was up, and recently it caught up with them.

In a bizarre incident, the Colonial Athletic Association reversed the outcomes of a pair of conference games Thursday involving the Cougars for the school's use of the improper balls. The circumference of a women's ball is about an inch smaller than a men's one and typically weighs two ounces less. While it may not seem like a lot, that's a big difference.

Visiting schools noticed the difference in the balls throughout the season, but were told by Charleston officials that those were the correct basketballs.

The school switched apparel companies over the summer and had to get new basketballs before the season started. The College of Charleston declined to comment beyond a statement issued by athletics director Matt Roberts saying the school regretted the ''unintentional situation occurred'' and ''accept full responsibility for what happened.''

Other things that happened this week:

RATINGS BOON: Top-ranked UConn's win over Temple, the 96th straight for the Huskies, drew the largest household audience in the New York market for any game televised by SNY since it began showing UConn in 2012. The cable sports channel said the Huskies drew a larger household rating in the New York market than the Knicks-Nets game that night. It also drew a higher rating in the market than an NHL doubleheader and seven other college basketball games. SNY has broadcast 83 UConn games and the four highest rated ones have come over the past month.

SHATORI FROM DEEP: Maryland's Shatori Walker-Kimbrough hit a shot from the opposite 3-point line to end the third quarter of the Terrapins win over Indiana on Sunday.

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