Scranton’s Mike Strong became only the second Division III women’s basketball coach to reach the 700-victory milestone, following a pair of victories over the weekend by his Lady Royals.

He becomes the only active women’s coach in the division with 700 wins, following the retirement last year of St. John Fisher’s Phil Kahler.

Scranton boosted Strong to the milestone victory with Sunday’s win over Drew. He is only the 12th women’s coach in any NCAA division to win 700 games.

Strong was told that by reaching the milestone in just 835 career games through 28 seasons, he achieved the mark more quickly than Tennessee’s Pat Summit (who is closing in on her 1,000th win), Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer, Texas’ Jody Conradt and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer.

“To be in the same sentence, paragraph or group with those people is kind of overwhelming,” he told the Scranton Times-Tribune. “I am a kid from Hawley, Pennsylvania, who was a phys ed major in college. What am I doing in this group? But it’s an honor to be there.”

Strong has coached eight teams at least as far as the semifinals of the Division III Women’s Basketball Championship, including the 1984-85 team that won the title. Scranton has appeared 21 times in the Division III tournament.

An associate professor in Scranton’s exercise science and sport department, Strong also is a former men’s and women’s tennis coach at the school.