Foley onward after elusive win

It finally arrived.

It took five attempts and a futile two-week period for his team, but it finally arrived.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock women's basketball Coach Joe Foley won the 800th game of his career on Saturday in Mobile, Ala., as the Trojans beat South Alabama 69-58 to snap their four-game losing streak.

That made Foley the 13th coach all time, and seventh who is currently active, in NCAA Division 1 women's basketball history to have reached the 800 wins club.

Now Foley can finally do the one thing he's wanted to the most since he started creeping up on No. 800 earlier this season -- stop having to talk about it.

"I'm glad it's over. I'm glad I got it, don't get me wrong," Foley told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday. "I think you know enough to say any coach that's been in it a long time, you don't set that kind of goal, but when it happens, it just shows that you've been very fortunate to be in the business that long. You've been very fortunate to be able to coach that many good players and that many good teams.

"You just look back and say, 'Man, this has been a great ride,' and it has, and so I'm very fortunate to be in that situation."

Foley conceded he grew tired of talking about the milestone that continued to elude him over the last two weeks. He had to take questions on it in interviews and during his appearance last Tuesday at the Downtown Tip Off Club in North Little Rock.

Foley reached career win No. 799 on Feb. 6 with UALR's 65-49 road victory over Georgia Southern. UALR lost two days later at Georgia State in Foley's first crack at 800, but with it came a huge silver lining -- the Trojans would have two chances at home against Texas State and Texas-Arlington in the ensuing week for him to notch the milestone in front of the friendly confines of the Jack Stephens Center.

But that didn't happen.

Then came Thursday night's 18-point loss at Troy, a team tied for first in the Sun Belt, only adding to the Trojans' recent woes. To make matters worse, freshman forward Nicole Hemphill went down with a knee injury in the third quarter and had to be helped off the floor. Hemphill will undergo an MRI today, but her season is expected to be over, Foley said.

Four games with a chance to reach 800 went by, with four losses to show for it. All the while the Trojans fell out of serious Sun Belt regular season championship contention and are now vying for a good seed in the conference tournament next month.

But then No. 800 finally arrived Saturday in Mobile, more than 500 miles from where Foley first began coaching back in 1987 at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.

Foley predictably downplayed any potential celebration that ensued following the win. Besides, the coaching veteran of more than 40 years wouldn't have wanted his team to do anything out of the ordinary for him.

"It was a celebration because we [came] out of a slump a little bit," Foley said. "We played really good basketball, and we were more excited about that than we were about what I did."

There was surely plenty of time for reflection on the seven-plus-hour bus ride back to Little Rock from Mobile on Saturday night. By this time the congratulatory texts were pouring in.

Foley said he had received around 50 texts, with more coming in Sunday. Among them, he heard from Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair -- who Foley is close with and who reached 800 career wins back in December -- as well as Texas Coach Karen Aston and Texas Tech men's Coach Chris Beard, who Foley developed a close relationship with while Beard coached the UALR men's team during his lone season in Little Rock in 2015-16.

"When you've been coaching 41 years, you meet a lot of people," Foley said.

UALR men's coach Darrell Walker also paid tribute to his colleague in a tweet late Saturday night.

"An amazing coach. One of the best of all time," Walker wrote.

Of his 800 career wins, 344 have come during his 17-year run in Little Rock. This season, the Trojans are 11-15 overall and 9-6 in the Sun Belt.

Three games remain before the conference tournament, and that's all Foley cares about at the moment -- getting his team positioned well in hopes of a potential trip to the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, the site of the Sun Belt tournament championship game and where an NCAA Tournament berth is awarded.

But the questions about that elusive career milestone are finally over.

No. 800 has finally arrived.

"I'd rather focus on what we need to be doing this time of year. It's an important time of year," Foley said. "To keep answering questions about something [with] me, that's not my cup of tea.

"But I know it's important for everybody. It's part of it. Not many people have the opportunity, and I'm thankful for that and [have] coached a lot of great kids."

Sports on 02/24/2020