Montana’s Selvig joins 800-win club with Lady Griz’s 68-61 win over Portland

By Associated Press, Published: November 18

MISSOULA, Mont. — Montana’s Robin Selvig became the eighth women’s basketball coach to reach 800 career victories with the Lady Griz’s 68-61 victory over Portland on Monday night.
Selvig has been at the school for 36 years and produced 33 winning seasons, including 20 trips to the NCAA tournament.

The 61-year-old coach joined Pat Summitt, Sylvia Hatchell, C. Vivian Stringer, Tara VanDerveer, Geno Auriemma, Jody Conradt and Andy Landers in the 800-victory club. He has never beaten any of them, going 0-5 against the other members with all those games coming in the NCAA tournament.
“I’m really happy we got it the first try. I didn’t want to have to listen to, When are you going to get 800? When are you going to get 800? Now we can focus on getting better and winning No. 801,” Selvig said. “What’s really nice about it is we beat a really good team tonight. I didn’t know where we were at this point in the year, but now I think we’re going to have a pretty good team.”
Selvig, who has only lost 255 games in his career, went to Montana and played for the men’s basketball team in the early 1970s. He spent three years coaching high school basketball before taking over as the Lady Griz’s coach in 1978.
He reached the milestone in fewer games then all but Auriemma, Summitt and VanDerveer.
“He’s done a great job and congratulations to him,” VanDerveer said after Stanford’s win Sunday. “That’s a lot of games.”
Montana presented Selvig with a ball after the game.
Kellie Cole and Torry Hill each scored 16 points to lead Montana (2-0).
Jasmine Wooton scored 20 points for Portland (2-2).