It’s a number only a handful of coaches in Division I basketball have reached, and none of them has done it at the same rate, or with as many national championships.

But according to one of his first bosses, it was easy to see early on that Geno Auriemma was something different, and someone special. When Debbie Ryan hired Auriemma to work as an assistant at Virginia in 1981, she had a feeling he was going to be good. Still, no one had any idea that Auriemma, an immigrant from Montella, Italy, who didn’t even play college basketball, would go on to be one of the most dominant coaches in all of sports.

Tuesday night, with a 88-64 win against Oklahoma, Auriemma picked up his 1,000th career win. The victory puts him in an elite class: The only other Division I coaches to hit that elusive number are the late Pat Summitt, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell.

Hatchell also hit the 1,000-win mark Tuesday with a 79-63 win against Grambling State; the difference is that 272 of her wins came at the Division II level. Hatchell is 728-286 with the Tar Heels.

Auriemma’s overall record is now 1,000-135 over 33 years in Storrs. (Summitt, the first NCAA basketball coach to record 1,000 wins, did it with a record of 1,000-187.) That’s an astonishing 30.3 wins per season for the Huskies, who have won 11 national titles.

“It’s a number that’s significant because so few people have been able to do that," Auriemma said to reporters postgame about hitting 1,000 wins.

"...There are just so few opportunities to coach that many games. You feel incredibly fortunate that you’re one of a very, very select few and some of the great coaches that ever have coached.”

Many believe Auriemma’s success transcends women’s basketball. Charles Barkley, who went into the Naismith Hall of Fame with Auriemma in 2006 and remains good friends with the UConn coach, says “the reason people watch sports is for excellence, and Geno epitomizes excellence.”

“I know how many years I killed myself to try to win a championship, and I never did it, so I know how hard it is to win,” Barkley told USA TODAY Sports. “If you’re able to win consistently, you’re a different breed.”

Winning is pretty much all Auriemma does. The Huskies are one of the most dominant programs in any sport in the modern era: 18 Final Fours, six perfect seasons, winning streaks of 90 and 111 games and dozens of All-Americans.

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But talk to those who know Auriemma best — his assistants, his friends, his players and his colleagues — and numbers are usually the last thing they bring up. They praise Auriemma for his work ethic, his wit, his heart and his ability to assess situations better than anyone else they know.

“I think what surprises people when they see inside our program is that he’s in control, but he’s not a control freak,” says Chris Dailey, UConn’s associate head coach who has been with Auriemma for each of his 1,000 victories. “That’s why it’s easy to work with him. He gives his staff a lot of leeway … he’s not afraid of anything, and he lets everyone have responsibility and ownership in our success, which is why our staff stays together so long.”

Dailey herself has drawn praise from multiple people in the basketball world, most notably from Stanford's VanDerveer, who recorded her 1,000th win last season.

“CD is a real big part of it, too,” VanDerveer said. “You don’t win 1,000 games by yourself — trust me.”

Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of USA Basketball who served as President Obama’s military adviser and was the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also thinks it important to mention Auriemma’s wife, Kathy, referring to her as the “secret sauce” in Auriemma’s success.

Everyone who knows Auriemma best always comes back to the same characteristic: It’s not about how much he wins, but about how he treats people. He’s a brilliant storyteller, gifted with magnetic charisma. Dailey says he loves when someone “gets a good one on him,” and loves to get the last word on people. People in his circle rave about Auriemma’s generosity.

Jen Rizzotti, the starting point guard on Connecticut’s first national championship team in 1995, has spent most of her adult life working with Auriemma in one capacity or another. Shortly after graduating from UConn in 1996, Rizzotti became a coaching colleague of Auriemma’s when she took the head job at Hartford University in Hartford, Conn. In 19 seasons as a college coach — which includes a stint as a USA Basketball assistant — she’s been hard-pressed to find someone as inclusive as Auriemma.

“He makes time for people in a way I see a lot of other coaches not do,” says Rizzotti, now in her second season at George Washington. “He makes you want to give back and work hard because he’s so quick to include others in his success. He makes you feel important and valued as a member of his team. As I’ve gotten older, that’s become one of my favorite things about him.”

Sue Bird, an All-American under Auriemma who is widely regarded as the best point guard in the women’s game, says it’s easy to watch Auriemma holler at his players on TV and interpret that as him being mean and not caring. That’s as off base as anyone can get, Bird says.

“There’s a depth there in terms of how much he cares and how much he wants people to be successful — in his program and outside of it,” Bird says.

Auriemma, of course, will be remembered for much more than wins, and his legacy goes far beyond a win-loss record. But it’s staggering to think about how many more victories he could pile up before he retires.

After all, Auriemma is only 63. And, as usual, Connecticut has signed the top-ranked player in next year’s recruiting class. If the past is any indication, she and her teammates are destined for a lot of future Ws.