Wittenberg University Men’s Basketball Head Coach Bill Brown became just the 14th active NCAA Division III coach to win 500 career games after his Tigers upended visiting Capital University by a final score of 79-55.
Brown, a 1973 graduate of Wittenberg, now has a career record of 500-231 in 26 seasons, including 20 at Wittenberg, five at Kenyon and one at Wooster. His record at Wittenberg is a sparkling 440-132, including this season’s 2-1 mark.
At the start of the 2013-14 season, just 13 active NCAA Division III men’s basketball coaches had reached the 500-win plateau. A total of 31 coaches in NCAA Division III history had ever reached that win total before this campaign. In addition, Brown’s career winning percentage of .684 before the season ranked 42nd in NCAA Division III history.
Brown holds the Wittenberg record for coaching victories, and his winning percentage of .769 is exceeded by just three Tiger coaches with four of more seasons at the helm – Larry Hunter, Dan Hipsher and Ray Mears. Under Brown’s direction, Wittenberg has captured seven North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season championships and four NCAC Tournament titles, and the Tigers have made 11 NCAA Division III Tournament appearances.
A two-time district coach of the year and six-time conference coach of the year honoree (including 1986 as the head coach at Kenyon), Brown has guided Wittenberg to two NCAA Division III Tournament Final Four appearances, including a national runner-up finish in 2006.
Coming off a 2012-13 season that included records of 17-10 overall and 9-7 in the conference, the Tigers have eight letterwinners back in the fold and were picked to finish second in a poll of the league’s coaches. Wittenberg started the season with a win over Wisconsin-River Falls on Friday, Nov. 15, before falling in overtime to No. 5 ranked Wheaton in the championship game of the Lee Pfund Classic the next night.
Wittenberg returns to action at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, against NCAC rival Oberlin College and concludes the home stand with a contest against Otterbein at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27.
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