BYU basketball coach Dave Rose recorded win No. 300 after defeating Portland at the Marriott Center on Feb. 4.
Such an accomplishment brought deserved acknowledgment from fans, media and players.
“300 of anything is a lot,” said BYU forward Eric Mika. “It’s not easy. One win at this level is not easy. Coach has done a tremendous job having a winning year every year. It just goes to show how good of a coach he is and how much he knows.”
Rose’s basketball knowledge has put him in elite company.
The average college basketball season lasts from mid-November until March, with teams playing around 30 regular season games plus conference and national tournament games. With 20 wins being a common benchmark for a program’s progress, a moderately successful head coach would get to 300 wins around their fifteenth season, after more than 450 games.
For Rose, win No. 300 came in game No. 407 during his twelfth season, making him the 25th-fastest coach to reach the 300-win plateau.
“Coach Rose is a pretty humble guy,” said guard/forward Davin Guinn. “He doesn’t say a whole lot about that kind of stuff, but we’re super excited for him.”
At 300-107 overall, Rose’s winning percentage of 73.7 percent ranks 33rd all-time, ahead of distinguished coaches such as Bob Knight, Rick Majerus, Tom Izzo and Larry Brown.
“Coach Rose is in a select few,” said forward Yoeli Childs. “He’s a great coach and we’re happy for him.”
Coach Rose also has the highest winning percentage of any BYU head coach.
Since taking over a program that went 9-21 in 2005, Rose has guided BYU to 11-straight 20-win seasons and only needs a few more wins this season to make that 12 straight seasons.
Overall, Rose is averaging 25.7 wins per season. At this pace, he will surpass former head coach Stan Watts for total wins at BYU by the year 2020.
During Rose’s 11 seasons at the helm, BYU has yet to miss postseason play with eight trips to the NCAA tournament and three trips to the NIT.
That level of consistency is tough to achieve these days in the West Coast Conference.
Four conference schools fired their coaches at the end of last season. Since 2005, only St. Mary’s and Gonzaga haven’t made at least one head coaching change.
Nationally, over 40 new head coaches were hired to start the 2005-06 campaign alongside Rose. Not one had more wins or a better winning percentage than Rose coming into this season.
While the 300-win club is not strikingly exclusive, with more than 250 coaches having achieved the mark, the speed and smoothness of Rose in hitting that mark at BYU is one of the best examples to date.
“I’m excited to see how many wins he accumulates throughout the rest of his career,” Mika said.
