Kelly Amonte Hiller and Cindy Timchal

[jff97]

With today's win, Kelly Amonte Hiller tied Cindy Timchal for the most NCAA championships by a head coach (8). Hiller probably doesn't think she belongs in the same conversation as Timchal, but she will be after today. So here's a little comparison.

Timchal has coached 41 seasons, and has a 563-157 record. She started her career at Northwestern, going 76-40 and appearing in the NCAA Tournament in all nine seasons. Next was 16 years at Maryland, which led to the first dynasty in the sport. The Terps won seven straight titles from 1995-2001, going 140-5 over that time with four perfect seasons. That included a 50-game win streak from 1995-97, the longest in Division 1 history. Besides bringing a lot of innovations to the coaching world, her time at MD gave way to a coaching tree with too many branches to count. She then left to transition Navy from a club sport into a varsity sport, and has won 227 games, gone to a Final Four and appeared in 7 NCAA Tournaments in 16 seasons.

Hiller has been arguably the most successful branch of Timchal's coaching tree. After Timchal left Northwestern for Maryland, the Wildcats played one more season at the NCAA level in 1991 before becoming a club program. Hiller was the next coach of the team when they were an NCAA sport, taking over in 2002 and leading the Wildcats to unprecedented success. Starting in 2005, Northwestern went 168-9 over the next eight years, winning seven national championships. This included five straight from 2005-09, perfect seasons in 2005 and 2009 as well as a 41-game win streak from 2009-10. After two more Final Four appearances following their 7th title in 2012, the program went through a brief slump but started building again. The resurgence started with a high-octane offense, first led by Selena LaSota and then Izzy Scane. A lockdown defense emerged this year and the return of Scane led to another title. In 22 years in Evanston, Hiller is 352-88 overall.

I wasn't sure how to end this post, because I didn't want this to turn into a GOAT debate. Both coaches have a case. Timchal's influence spans across generations of the sport. Hiller followed Timchal's dynasty with one of her own, and no coach has had a further gap in between their most recent national titles. Maybe Hiller makes this conversation all moot by winning another at some point in the future. But instead of the needless debate (plenty of that to come in the offseason, this is a message board after all), just thought it was as good a time as any to acknowledge the impact both have had on the sport.

[ultravisitor]

Both tremendous for their ability as coaches as well as for their continued influence on the growth of the game.