Jan. 24, 2007

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee tied the record for Division II coaching wins Wednesday night with a 63-56 victory over Holy Family.

Magee, who has been coaching for 40 years, has 828 career victories. He is tied with Winston-Salem (N.C.) State coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines. He can take sole possession of the record with a victory at Post University on Saturday.

"Winning basketball games is really hard to do," said the 65-year-old Magee, who has spent his entire career with Philadelphia. "It's kind of a relief, but you don't think about it while the game is going on. All you think about is trying to win the game.

"When this season is over, from what I'm told by our people at school, there'll be three people ahead of me - Bob Knight, Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith," said Magee, who ranks sixth among men's college coaches. "They're three of the greatest coaches of all time."

With three more victories, Magee can moved into fourth place among coaches in all divisions, behind Knight, Rupp, Smith and Don Meyer, from Division II Northern State in South Dakota.

Magee led the Rams (15-4) to a national championship in 1970. He has won 20 or more games in a season 26 times.

"The way I looked at it all year long was, I was going to break the record unless something happened to me," Magee said.

Philadelphia's only senior, Christian Burns, led the Rams with a game-high 24 points. Burns put the game away with a pair of free throws with 7.2 seconds remaining.

"He's a great guy," Burns said of his coach. "You can talk to him about anything. He's been around for so long and he's just not about basketball."