Middle Tennessee State women’s basketball coach Rick Insell is one win away from 500 for his NCAA career.
Insell earned No. 499 with a 68-67 victory at Sam Houston on Jan. 17. Alayna Contreras led MTSU with 22 points.
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Insell could earn the 500th at home when the Lady Raiders (10-8, 5-1 Conference USA) play Delaware on Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m.
A highly successful high school coach at Shelbyville Central (where he won 10 state championships) for almost 30 years, Insell was hired at MTSU in 2005 and has averaged almost 25 wins a season with the Raiders.
He has failed to win at least 20 games just twice during that span, winning 18 in 2017-18 and 17 in 2020-21, in which MTSU played just 25 games in a season affected by COVID-19.
MORE: MTSU women’s basketball coach Rick Insell named to CUSA Hall of Fame 2025 class
Coupled with his time at Shelbyville, Insell has won 1,274 games since beginning his coaching career in 1977. He has been inducted into multiple halls of fame, including the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2017), MTSU Sports (2017), and Conference USA (2025).
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Insell has won 11 conference regular-season titles at MTSU.
Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU women’s basketball coach Rick Insell one win away from 500
