Cathy Reese hasn’t taken a lot of L’s in her time as Maryland’s women’s lacrosse coach.
The Terps have won three national titles under Reese and made the national title game six times. Combining regular season and postseason, Maryland has won 92 percent of their games with Reese on the sidelines. It is an impressive winning percentage, but how does it compare to some of the all-time great coaches across sports?
Cathy Reese with Maryland: .922 win percentage
Red Auerbach with the Boston Celtics: .660 win percentage
Despite winning the NBA Finals nine times, Red Auerbach failed to win even 70 percent of his regular season and postseason games at the helm of the Celtics. Even with legends like Bill Russell, Auerbach’s win percentage does not even come close to Reese’s total.
Cathy Reese with Maryland: .922 win percentage
Joe Torre with the New York Yankees: .605 win percentage
Joe Torre led the Yankees to four World Series and six American League pennants with players like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. While the likes of Jeter and Rivera did help Torre get four rings, he barely won over 60 percent of his games with the Bronx Bombers in the regular season and postseason. A great manager, but he hardly compares to Reese.
Cathy Reese with Maryland: .922 win percentage
John Wooden with UCLA: .808 win percentage
Wooden comes much closer to matching Reese’s win percentage than some of all the all-time greats in the professional rank. Wooden coached basketball legends like Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabar to 10 NCAA Tournament titles in Los Angeles. Despite that, Reese has still won a higher percentage of her games than the great Wooden.
Cathy Reese with Maryland: .922 win percentage
Pat Summitt with Tennessee: .841 win percentage
Another college coach who comes close to rivalling Reese is the great Pat Summitt. Summitt won over a thousand games in her career with the Volunteers, but she was still unable to win as often as Reese did.
Reese has already passed many of the coaching greats. Maybe she can start giving out some tips?