Three-Double-O

We've had a bunch of congratulations in the blog today, and we've got one more to close out the night.

In a successful career spanning 16 years as a head coach, Kevin Stallings added one more milestone to the list when he notched his 300th career victory as the Commodores defeated South Florida Tuesday night.

During the postgame press conference, Stallings was asked to reflect on what number 300 meant to him. This was his response:

When I was a high school kid, my coach (Vergil Fletcher) had won over 700 games. You would go in his basement and it was very intimidating because I played for his last year and he coached 32 years. I said today that I've kind of always held the distinction as being the guy that ran him out of coaching.

He's in the National High School Basketball Hall of Fame and he's my idol to this day. He's 93 years old. He's that kind of coach and that kind of human being.

When I'd go into his basement you'd see victory 100 on a ball, victory 200, victory 300, victory 400, victory 500, victory 600. I got to play in a lot of those late victories.

I used to think how cool it was that he had those basketballs that had those numbers on them. And now I realize that all that made him was old. I've only got 300 but all that makes me is old. Other than having those balls somewhere in a office or basement, that's about the only significance to it really.

After his press conference concluded and A.J. Ogilvy and Jermaine Beal were getting ready to answer questions, Stallings pointed to his players and said, "Guys like this are the reason I have 300."