Kim Mulkey Attains 600-Win Milestone Faster Than Legendary Adolph Rupp

Averaging 30 wins a season, Baylor’s Kim Mulkey became the fastest Division I college basketball coach to win 600 games. The No. 2 Lady Bears knocked off Texas Tech 77-62 to accomplish the feat late Tuesday night in Lubbock, Texas.

“I know what being a player means to a coach,” Mulkey said. “And these kids mean the world to me. And not just this team. And not just the championship teams. I go back to that very first team that I inherited and how hard they played and we made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the first year.”

She is the first person to win an NCAA championship as a player, assistant coach and head coach. Mulkey starred at Louisiana Tech University, Dallas News reported. Her teams won two national titles. Then, she won a gold medal as a member of Team USA in the 1984 Olympics. Next, the fireball assisted at Louisiana Tech, leading them to seven Final Fours and the 1988 NCAA Championship.

Baylor signed Mulkey in 2000. She has since won three NCAA championships including the 2019 title and a perfect 40-0 run in 2012. Winning best describes Mulkey. She has achieved 10 Big 12 titles, three USBWA Coach of the Year Awards and seven Big 12 Coach of the Year Awards. The Lady Bears have missed the NCAA tournament just once since she became head coach.

The Lady Bears are 24-1 and 13-0 in Big 12 play this year. The only blemish came against No. 1 South Carolina. Statistically, Baylor has the fourth-best offense and the second-best defense in the nation, scoring 83.3 points per game while allowing 50.9 points per game, according to the NCAA.

The school commemorated the 600th win handing out hats and T-shirts to players honoring the coach’s milestone. Mulkey said: “I wish and hope that our program can probably mail one to every player I’ve ever coached because that’s who needs to be wearing them.”

Mulkey passed the mark in just 700 games. Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp reached the mark in 704 games across 28 seasons with the Wildcats’ men’s team. On the women’s division, UConn’s Geno Aurriemma, who passed 600 wins in his 22nd season in 2006.

According to CBS Sports, Mulkey faced controversy after defending Baylor in 2017 when a former student filed a lawsuit alleging 31 different Baylor football players committed 52 "acts of rape" between 2011 and 2014. The coach's initial response to an imaginary father who might say I’ll never send my daughter to Baylor was, “You knock them right in the face.” She later apologized.