BYU women’s basketball head coach Jeff Judkins won his 300th game for the Cougars on Feb. 5 of the 2015 season.
Judkins has won more than 300 games in 14 seasons, and the Cougars have won 20 or more games in each of the past six seasons. At that pace, Judkins would win over 600 games in less than 30 years as head coach. It took Sharon Fanning-Otis, who has coached at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Kentucky and Mississippi State, 36 years to get over the 600 mark.
Judkins passed the the previous BYU mark of 219 wins set by former women’s head coach Courtney Leishman with a win over Pepperdine during the 2011–2012 season. He now has 302 total wins as head coach, not including 2014–2015 postseason play.
“It’s amazing that I’ve been here that long. I start thinking of the great games and the great players,” Judkins said. “I’m certainly not here that long without the players I’ve had, from Erin Thorn, back when I started, to Lexi Eaton tonight. They make this job a lot easier.”
Judkins led the Cougars to the best finish in school history during the 2013–2014 season with a 28-7 record. The team received a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament that year, and the Cougars upset five-seed North Carolina State and four-seed Nebraska on their way to the Sweet 16. In the Sweet 16 BYU lost to UConn, who went on to win the NCAA Tournament Championship.
“It’s been amazing to be a part of that road,” junior BYU guard Lexi Eaton said. “It’s so important to him, and that’s why we love Juddy: he loves to win. We’re competitors, too, and we want to play for a coach like him.”
The Cougars have appeared in seven NCAA Tournaments and on two occasions have made it to the Sweet 16 under Judkins.
“Judd’s such a good guy. He loves all of us, and we love him,” current BYU forward Morgan Bailey said. “When we go out on the court, we know that we are representing him and his program. We go out and give it all we got. It’s nice to see his hard work pay off.”
