MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University women’s basketball coach Mike Carey has been recognized as a member of the 2021 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Victory Club, the organization announced Tuesday.

Earlier this season, Carey secured his 700th career victory after defeating LSU, 62-42, on Nov. 28, in the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout. In his 33 seasons of coaching, the Clarksburg, West Virginia, native has amassed a career record of 720-325. Carey is one of eight coaches nationally who surpassed 700 victories this season.

The WBCA Victory Club honor is bestowed annually on each WBCA-member head coach who achieves a milestone of 200, 300, 400, 500 or more career victories during the current season on the level of competition at which they currently coach. Victories recorded at differing levels of competition (such as scholastic and collegiate) cannot be combined.

This year, Carey guided the Mountaineers back to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2016-17. It marked WVU’s 11th trip to the Big Dance and 15th postseason appearance under Carey. West Virginia also reached the Big 12 Championship title game this season for the first time since the 2016-17 season and the third time since joining the league in 2012-13.

The winningest coach in program history, the 2020-21 campaign marked Mike Carey’s 20th season coaching the Mountaineers. He holds a record of 432-223 at WVU. During the 2020-21 campaign, Carey led West Virginia to 22 wins, the most since the 2018-19 season, and now has won 20 or more games 13 times during his time in Morgantown. He also guided WVU to 13 victories within the Big 12 Conference for the first time since 2013-14, when the Mountaineers won 16 league games.

Carey also led West Virginia to a win over then-No. 17 Texas on Jan. 9, and Tennessee, who finished the regular season at No. 14 in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll. He finished the 2020-21 season with six wins against opponents who rank inside the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) Top 50 this season.

On March 3, Carey was named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2021 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s Coach of the Year award and was the only coach from the Big 12 Conference to be honored on the list. Earlier in the season, he also was selected to the award’s watch list.

During his time at West Virginia, Carey has been honored as the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2014, after the Mountaineers won a share of the league’s regular-season title, and the Big East Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2010. In 2017, Carey led the Mountaineers to its first Big 12 Conference Tournament championship in an upset over No. 2 Baylor.

A full list of this year’s 2021 WBCA Victory Club honorees is below:

Name                                School                                                          Date Reached         Milestone

Rhonda Farney                  Georgetown (TX) High School                      01/15/2021               1200

Geno Auriemma                University of Connecticut                              01/21/2021               1100

Tara VanDerveer                Stanford University                                       12/19/2020               1100

Mike Carey                       West Virginia University                           11/28/2020              700

Mike Durbin                       College of Saint Benedict                              02/24/2021               700

Shirley Egner                      Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point                  02/10/2021               700

Bill Fennelly                        Iowa State University                                    01/27/2021               700

Jay Trousdale                     Poway High School (CA)                               03/27/2021               700

Anthony Pappas                Waterloo West High School (IA)                    01/16/2021               600

Lisa Stockton                     Tulane University                                          02/23/2021               600

Bo Browder                        Xavier University of Louisiana                       03/12/2021               500

Steve DiPatri                      Wildwood Catholic Academy (NJ)                02/08/2021               500

Jody Martinez                    Taylor University                                           12/09/2020               500

Dawn Staley                      University of South Carolina                         03/21/2021               500

Matt Dempsey                   U.S. Merchant Marine Academy                  02/14/2021               400

Laura Foster                       T.C. Roberson High School (NC)                   02/17/2021               300

Juli Fulks                            Transylvania University                                 01/16/2021               300

Sue Syljebeck                    Siena Heights University                               11/14/2020               300

Polly Thomason                 University of Texas at Dallas                         12/10/2020               300

Cleve Wright                      Gannon University                                        02/07/2021               300

Jeff Nickel                          Shawnee State University                             11/12/2020               200

Shawn Reed                      Tabor College                                               02/04/2021               200

Reed Sutton                       Faulkner University                                       02/20/2021               200

Reid Takatsuka                  Hawai’i Pacific University                              02/06/2021               200

Krista Van Hauen               St. Ambrose University                                 02/13/2021               200

Stephanie Yelton               University of West Florida                             01/23/2021               200