Tubby Smith one win away from No. 500

Nov 27, 2012; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton meets with Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Tubby Smith before the game at the Donald L. Tucker Center. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

University of Minnesota Gopher basketball head coach Tubby Smith is one win away from career win No. 500.

Smith won game No. 499 against South Dakota State University and will have a chance to get the landmark win on the road at the University of Southern California on Saturday.

The former Kentucky head coach has a career record of 499-210. He is currently 112-65 in Minnesota but has won more than 260 games in Kentucky, where he was head coach for 10 seasons.

Before Minnesota and Kentucky, Smith coached Tulsa from 1991-95, accumulating a 79-43 record before coaching at Georgia for two years, winning 45 games and losing 19.

Smith has taken his team to the NCAA Tournament 15 times in his career that has spanned 21 seasons. The Gophers under Smith have only been to the NCAA Tournament twice, back-to-back in 2009-10, but the No. 14 Gophers look competitive enough in the non-conference and should be making their third trip to March Madness this spring.