Pat Summitt. Geno Auriemma. Muffet McGraw. Tara VanDerveer.

And now, Mike Durbin.

Durbin joined a very elite club Wednesday night when the College of Saint Benedict basketball team beat St. Thomas 88-83 in Claire Lynch Hall.

Wednesday's win marked the 700^th of Durbin's career, making him one of just 17 active coaches – at all levels of the NCAA – to reach the impressive milestone, and one of just 34 coaches in NCAA history to reach the 700-win mark.

"What an exciting coaching milestone for Mike," said Mary Geller, CSB's vice president for Student Development. "I remember celebrating his 500^th win in Claire Lynch – wasn't that just yesterday!? – and now here he is crossing 700. This milestone represents the years of hard work and dedication Mike has given to the numerous teams and student athletes he has coached and mentored through the years. We are so fantastically blessed to call him our head basketball coach."

Elite Company

Durbin – who started his head coaching duties at CSB in the 1986-87 season – is now 700-250 in 36 years of coaching – including 35 seasons with the Bennies. Wednesday's win puts him in elite company not only in Division III, but at all levels of the NCAA.

Durbin is now one of just 17 active coaches in the NCAA to have 700 wins or more, and one of 34 coaches all time to reach the milestone.

He's on an even shorter list at the Division III level.

Wednesday's win makes Durbin one of just three active Division III coaches to have 700 or more wins, and one of just six coaches in Division III to reach the milestone all time.

"I have always enjoyed competing against Mike's teams," said Tammy Metcalf-Filzen, Carleton's longtime women's basketball coach. "We have had some epic battles over the years in big games. His teams have always played with great passion, and a high level of sportsmanship. Playing a style that is very tough to guard - quick, skilled players - has led to an incredible level of success. There is much to be celebrated in this rare 700-win milestone!"

Durbin is also currently tied for fourth in Division III with 25 20-win seasons, and his .738 winning percentage is 21^st-best among active coaches at all levels of the NCAA.

A Good Fit From the Beginning
Durbin started his head coach career with one season at Wittenberg University in Ohio where he finished the 1985-86 season 4-22. Following one year in his native Ohio, Durbin – a 1981 Kent State alumnus – was offered the head coaching position at Saint Benedict, and he's been here ever since.

Though he wasn't dressed for the cold Minnesota weather when he came to St. Joseph for his interview, former CSB Athletic Director Carol Howe-Veenstra said it was immediately clear that Durbin was prepared to step in as Saint Benedict's next head coach.

"The tipping point was Mike's collegiate experience and understanding the recruiting piece," Howe-Veenstra said. "He came in with a plan. That's his life. If you think about what's made him into a strong coach, it's that he has a plan, he has a vision and he believes in the mission of CSB. He believes in developing the whole person and that was clear in his coaching style."

After finishing 10-16 in 1985-86 under coach Lynne Williams, the Bennies – then Blazers – finished 17-9 and took fourth in the MIAC in Durbin's first year at the helm.

That was also Denny Johnson's first year as the team's assistant coach – a title he held for 29 years – and he remembers how excited people were about Durbin and the team.

"We won 17 games and you'd have thought we won a national championship," said Johnson, who reached the 600-win milestone together with Durbin in 2014 and also served as CSB's head softball coach for many years. "The women on the team bought into it. The fans started to buy into it. That first season really set the tone for things. We might not have had the most talented team, but we played hard, and I think that was a trait of our teams all those years, and still."

Consistently successful
Durbin recorded his first 20-win season in 1987-88, and won the program's first MIAC title and earned its first trip to the NCAA Tournament a year later in 1988-89. That sparked an 11-year streak of national tournament trips for CSB, highlighted by the team's Final Four appearance in 1992-93 and a national runner-up finish in 1998-99.

In that 11-year span, Durbin won more than 275 games.

"To be back in the MIAC and to still see Mike do what he loves is just amazing," said Kelly Mahlum '93, a member of the 1992-93 Final Four team, a 1993 All-American and the head women's basketball coach at St. Olaf. "It is a gift to be part of the long, successful history of Saint Ben's basketball, and I cherish it very much. I just cannot thank Mike enough for helping a small-town girl find her way in this world through the game of basketball. Congrats on this awesome career milestone!"

Durbin reached the 300-win milestone in December 1999, and on Dec. 1, 2001, he became the winningest coach in MIAC history when he beat Macalester for his 338^th win. He surpassed Ted Riverso, the former St. Thomas women's basketball coach, who had 337 career wins.

"Reaching a milestone like this is a testament to (Mike's) teams performing at a consistently high level," said Riverso, who now coaches the Augsburg women's basketball team. "(His) leadership provides the necessary knowledge, motivation and enthusiasm for such an accomplishment. Even though the game and players have changed, (Mike's) commitment to a winning culture has not."

Win 400 came against the Tommies in 2004 and 500 and 600 both came against the Scots in 2008 and 2014, respectively.

"It is such an honor to have played under Mike at CSB," said Laura Wendorff Meyer '00, who was part of the 1999 runner-up team and is the program's all-time leading scorer and a three-time All-American. "Not only was Mike a great coach, he was able to perfectly blend an atmosphere of academics, athletics, and personability. I always felt that Mike cared for each of us as a person first. I truly don't feel I would've had this experience anywhere else."

More than Xs and Os
As well as having one of the highest win totals in the NCAA, Durbin is one of the longest-tenured coaches with a single team. He is one of 18 coaches at all divisions to have been or still be coaching at the same school for 35 years or more.
That longevity has helped him reach the 700-win milestone, but it's his work with his team off the court that has helped with the longevity.

"Mike has been successful at CSB for a variety of reasons," said Michelle Barlau Goodman '03, an All-American and the second-leading scorer in CSB history. "Of course he has all the Xs and Os down, but more importantly he builds relationships with his players and he builds trust. A telling point in these relationships is the number of former players who still keep in touch with him. He sincerely cares about them and is still involved in their lives once they step off the hardwood court."

On his office walls along with photos of his nine All-Americans, his milestone wins and his family, are Christmas cards, wedding invitations and letters from his many former athletes.

"Mike understands the value of women in sport, and has remained innovative in his recruiting and coaching young women athletes," Geller said. "In turn, he has built an expansive network of alumnae who invite him to their weddings, send photos of their babies in Bennie gear and show up at games just to visit Claire Lynch gym and say hello to their good friend Coach Durbin."

Durbin, who has guided CSB to 13 MIAC titles, 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and is a two-time NCAA Division III Coach of the Year, has also coached five Academic All-Americans, one NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship award winner and has been around when 19 of the program's 20 1,000-point scorers hit the milestone.

Howe-Veenstra says having Johnson as a full-time assistant for 29 years and her husband, Steve Howe-Veenstra, as an assistant coach for the past 20 years, has helped Durbin stay consistent on the hardwood, but Johnson is quick to pass the credit back.

"We won a lot of games but we had a lot of really, really good people," Johnson said. "I say we because we went together, but it started with Mike. He organized it and had everything laid out. I just give Mike so much credit for what he's achieved. It's phenomenal. The success he's had … 700 is a lot of games to be sitting there for."