Men's basketball coach Ray Shovlain has worked hard for every victory in a remarkable 32-year career on the Fighting Bees bench, but few have been more hard-earned than a double-overtime, buzzer-beating win over Clark College in Dubuque, Iowa, in January of 2015.
Darian White caught a full-court inbounds pass from Blake Buls, whirled and buried a long-range 3-point bucket as time expired, lifting the Bees to a 73-70 victory and carrying Shovlain into a rare group of college coaches with 600 career wins.
"It didn't come easy, but none of them do," Shovlain said after becoming what is believed to be the 87th men's college basketball coach at any level to achieve 600 career wins.
Shovlain '79, '82 MBA beat a quintet of NCAA Division I Who's Who members into the 600-win club. Directly behind him on an unofficial list of all-time wins leaders are Texas' Rick Barnes, Kentucky's John Calipari, Oklahoma's Lon Kruger, Kansas' Bill Self and Texas Tech's Tubby Smith.
Shovlain, who scored his first win at SAU in November of 1983, improved to 600-423 with the milestone win.
Shovlain is one of 37 active coaches with 600 wins and ranks sixth in career wins among active Division II NAIA coaches. He will be hard-pressed to catch the leader in all-time wins by a men's coach at any collegiate level. His friend, Harry Statham, is closing in on his 1,100th victory at McKendree College in downstate Illinois.
Shovlain is one of 38 members of the 600-win club who achieved the milestone coaching at one school.
"I am proud to have been part of this many wins at a great school like St. Ambrose," Shovlain said. "But I am prouder to have met and coached so many great young men and truly outstanding people. This is a milestone I share with each and everyone of those players as well as all the great assistant coaches who have been part of this program the past three decades."
Earlier this year, women's coach Krista Van Hauen collected her 100th career victory at the Queen Bees helm.
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