For two Wisconsin women’s basketball coaches, Sunday’s win over SIU-Edwardsville was a little sweeter than just any old triumph.
One day after men’s basketball head coach Bo Ryan registered his 200th victory at UW earlier in the day, women’s head coach Lisa Stone entered the triple digits herself, notching her 100th UW win in a 68-38 rout at the Kohl Center.
And for assistant coach Ty Margenthaler, it was the opponent itself that made the game special — Margenthaler is a 1997 graduate of SIU-E, a school at which his father, Jack, coached the men’s basketball squad for 11 seasons before recently retiring.
The 100th win for Stone made UW the second school at which she has reached that plateau, as she compiled a 277-59 record at UW-Eau Claire from 1988 to 2000, including at least 22 victories in each of her last nine seasons.
In her time at UW, Stone — who inherited a program that went 7-21 in the season prior to her arrival — has led the Badgers to three WNIT appearances, including a runner-up finish and a program-best 23 wins in 2006-07.
When asked about the achievement, though, Stone deflected praise all around.
“The credit goes to my players and my staff — I have the best job in the world,” Stone said. “My players first of all, they do the work. And my staff is very gifted, very talented, and I thank all my assistant coaches throughout the time I’ve been here certainly, as well as my current staff — they’re just absolutely outstanding. And our support staff — I work for a wonderful university, and I’m just grateful to be here.”
Interestingly, Stone’s landmark win wasn’t her only milestone of the day. With 14:12 remaining in the contest, Stone was charged with a technical foul, her first in 25 years as a coach.
“I’ve deserved a technical many more times than the one I did today,” Stone said to muffled laughter from junior forward Tara Steinbauer and freshman guard Taylor Wurtz. “I just said, ‘You gotta call that foul!’ and that’s all I said. … But we went on an 8-0 run after that, so my players are actually proud of the fact that that happened.”
Stone, who now has a 100-94 record at Wisconsin, joins Edwina Qualls (131-141 from 1976 to 1986) and Jane Albright (161-107 from 1994 to 2003) as the only women’s basketball coaches to reach 100 victories in school history.
Unlike Stone, the game was unique for Margenthaler simply for his extensive ties to the SIU-E basketball program. In addition to his father’s legacy at the school with the men’s team and the younger Margenthaler obtaining his degree in physical education/kinesiology there, the UW assistant coach played at SIU-E for his dad from 1994 to 1996, starting every game in that span.
Margenthaler served as an assistant for the Cougars from 1997 to 1999.
“There’s no question I have a special place for SIU,” said Margenthaler, who focuses on recruiting and coaching the post for the Badgers. “I played there, of course, and then I coached there, so that’s a school that I always think back to. I’m alumni, so it’s always going to be a special place for me.”
Currently, the women’s program that Wisconsin defeated Sunday is in the second year of a five-year transition to Division I, after joining the Ohio Valley Conference last season.
“It’s really neat to see SIU going from Division II now to Division I,” Margenthaler said. “I’m proud of that also. Now I get to see them on the ESPN ticker and check out the scores, so it’s kind of fun.”
Although the blowout victory for the Badgers topped a memorable Sunday for the two coaches, Stone cited a small anecdote regarding walk-on freshman Aly Bucierka, who scored her first point of the year on a free throw with 41 seconds left, as a moment that stuck out in her mind as one capturing what coaching is all about.
“[Bucierka] gets in the game and she looked and she goes, ‘Coach, I promise I’ll work hard. I’m not sure what to do on offense, but I’ll do the best I can,'” recalled Stone. “When you can have something like that shine as well, it makes the day special.”
