400 victories for a great coach and a great man

Keep smiling Coach Kaspar, and hopefully you will be in another NCAA Tournament news conference next weekend.

Stephen F. Austin (SFA) men's basketball coach Danny Kaspar is now a part of that list.

Thanks to the beauty of the Internet, I was able to watch my alma mater defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament to give Coach Kaspar win No. 400.

Entering this season, Kaspar had the 18th-highest winning percentage as a head coach in Division 1 history at 0.707, which placed him ahead of coaching greats Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams and Homer Drew, all of whom have more than 600 career coaching victories.

In his 19 years as a head coach at Incarnate Word and SFA, Kaspar's record now stands at 400-163, boosting his career winning percentage to 0.710.

Sure, the wins may not have come at the big-time basketball schools, but I say 14 seasons with 20 wins or more and only three losing seasons is a successful career, no matter where you coach.

While he led the Lumberjacks to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament last year, it was not his first time in the big dance as a coach. In 1981, he was an assistant with the Lamar Cardinals under Billy Tubbs that reached the Sweet Sixteen.

As a senior in college working for our newspaper, The Pine Log, I was lucky enough to be assigned as the men's basketball beat writer. In this time, I was able to speak with Coach Kaspar on numerous occasions.

He is more than just a great coach, he is a great man who is very modest and holds a high priority on family and respect.

He may not have the name recognition of a Roy Williams or Jim Boeheim, but with the victory tonight, he has put himself alongside one of the best, and longest-tenured coaches in NCAA basketball history.

Hopefully, Kaspar will be able to lead SFA to back-to-back Southland Conference titles on Saturday (at the time this was written, Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana were still playing in the other semifinal), and with some extra luck and a Cinderella slipper, be celebrating an NCAA Tournament victory next weekend.

Congratulations again Coach Kaspar, and "Go Jacks!"