It was the evening of Dec. 29, a night most students spent far from Charlottesville, oblivious to the history that was being made miles away.
Meanwhile, in front of a small group of fiercely loyal women's basketball fans at University Hall, coach Debbie Ryan quietly slipped into the record books. Ryan earned her 600th career win that night in a dominant 98-52 win over James Madison, joining one of the most storied groups in coaching history and becoming only the 12thNCAA women's coach to reach the milestone. Ryan also became only the fifth coach to reach the mark at one school.
Attempting to share the spotlight, Ryan gave credit to her players and supporting cast over the years.
"They give all the credit to the coach, but I've never scored a basket for the University of Virginia," she said. "I feel like all the credit goes to the deserving players that have played here over the years, the coaches that have coached with me, the fans and the administration who made it possible."
The historic victory came in the championship game of the Cavalier Classic tournament and made Ryan only the second coach in the ACC to reach 600 wins: North Carolina State's Kay Yow reached the same mark Dec. 2.
Leading up to her landmark game, Ryan attempted to keep the pressure off of her players and divert attention away from the potential record.
"We were all pretty quiet about it," Ryan said. "I didn't want to put added pressure on [the players], especially since it was in the middle of a tournament. I didn't want them to feel that pressure, but they knew and I think they talked about it amongst themselves."
Over her 27 years coaching at Virginia, Ryan has single-handedly engineered the team's rise to prominence. She guided the Cavaliers to 20 consecutive NCAA tournaments from 1983-2003 and reached the Final Four an astounding three consecutive times in the 1990's.
Ryan has also reached the 600 win mark after only 843 games, leaving her with a remarkable .711 career winning percentage.
Because of Virginia's consistently high performance over the years, many Cavalier players said they were not aware the record was close until media coverage began.
"I knew she was close but didn't know exactly where she stood," sophomore Brenna McGuire told The Danville Register Bee.
Ryan shows no sign of slowing down after her 600th win, but said she hasn't begun seriously looking towards the future.
"To be honest, the numbers are attached to me, but coaches aren't about numbers," Ryan said. "It's a day-to-day job, and it's a moment-to-moment situation just because you're dealing with college age students that have other things beside basketball."
For now, the Cavaliers will focus on a tough week of ACC basketball, beginning when they host a surging Virginia Tech team on Friday. The Cavaliers will face North Carolina State Feb. 3 in a showdown between Yow and Ryan, the two 600-win coaches in the ACC.
Now that the milestone is behind her, Ryan can turn her attention to a more immediate goal -- getting back to the NCAA tournament for the 21st time and piling on more wins for the Cavaliers.
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