COEUR d'ALENE - The road to 300 wins had a few bumps, but considerably more smooth sailing for North Idaho College women's basketball coach Chris Carlson.

Carlson earned his 300th coaching win Dec. 30, 2011, when the Cardinals beat Yakima Valley in the championship game of the Longview Holiday Classic in Longview, Wash.

"I didn't even realize I was that close," Carlson said. "After looking at it last year, I knew I'd get it at some point this year."

Carlson began his head coaching career in 1992 at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, posting a 117-102 record in eight seasons, and winning the first Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges Eastern Region championship for the women's program in 1999-2000. That season, he was voted Eastern Region Coach of the Year.

"There were a few ironic things about getting 300 against Yakima," Carlson said. "I first met (my wife) Carey while at Yakima. They also had a player (Simone Jordan) that played here in 2007 and had signed with Gonzaga."

He is in his eighth season at NIC, where he has gone 190-61. In 2005-06, the Cardinals won the Scenic West Athletic Conference and Carlson has been named the SWAC Coach of the Year. The team has played in four of the last five Region 18 tournament championship games, winning the previous three.

"You see a lot of coaches getting 300, 400, 500 wins and they're considered good coaches," Carlson said. "To me, it's just a milestone along the way. Just to be able to share this with Carey, with all the support she's given me has been great. She's been around all those wins. All those players that went to battle for us - we just had some great kids."

Carlson has led his team to three straight top-10 national finishes, including last year's NJCAA championship. For his efforts, he was named the national coach of the year.

His current Cardinal team is 16-2 overall and 5-0 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play after wins at Utah State University-Eastern Utah and Colorado Northwestern last weekend.

“It was great to get two road wins,” Carlson said. “It felt great to get a win against the No. 2 team in our conference (Eastern Utah).”

NIC returns to Utah this weekend to face Salt Lake on Friday and Snow on Saturday.

“Now we’re going to have a bigger target on our backs,” Carlson said. “As if it wasn’t big enough after winning the national title — now we’ve got a bigger one. We need to prepare to be consistent and continue to build to play our best at the right time.”

Carlson was also a men’s and women’s assistant coach at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Ore., prior to coaching at Big Bend and was the top assistant at Idaho in 2000-01 and Eastern Washington from 2001-04.

For the team’s last home game against the College of Southern Idaho on Jan. 14, Carlson was suspended after an incident about the webcasting of NIC games and availability to other teams in the SWAC.

“It was just a difference of opinion,” Carlson said. “I voiced my opinions, perhaps a little too strongly. Looking back, I should have been more clear at different times. But I thought Colorado Northwestern was very well prepared for us. There’s an element that teams can have to prepare, but it’s hard to measure. What I said was inappropriate, but I’d just like to be considered.”

Unable to attend, Carlson instead coached his son’s AAU basketball game.

“Since I could, I coached his game,” Carlson said. “I watched bits and pieces of the second half (of the NIC game) once I got home.”

Women: During last season’s NJCAA title run, it was this trip that gave the Cardinals two of their three losses on the season.

“This is a mean road trip,” Carlson said. “We only had three losses — and two of them were on this road trip. To be able to go into these environments, we’re going to find out a lot about this team this weekend.”

Freshman Katie Buskey leads the SWAC in 3-point field goal percentage, hitting 28 of 59 for .475 and is 10th in scoring at 11.1 points per game.

Sophomore Korina Baker leads the conference in steals at 3.6 per game.

“We’re going to have to do everything we can to prepare the team the best we can,” Carlson said. “Now that we’ve been through the league, I think we can make some quality adjustments.”

NIC lost both games in Salt Lake (10-8, 1-4) last season.

“They might be the best team in our league,” Carlson said. “They’re always tough on their home court. With regionals down there, I want our players to get down there and have that experience before regionals.”

Men: Coming off its first conference loss to Colorado Northwestern in Rangely, Colo., on Saturday, the 12th-ranked Cardinals are looking forward to facing Salt Lake on Friday.

“We’ve had a good week of practice,” NIC coach Jared Phay said. “That was a good wakeup call for us.”

NIC is tied with Southern Idaho for the conference lead at 4-1, with Salt Lake (16-4, 3-2) winning its previous three games.

“It’s going to be a lot tougher,” said Phay of traveling Salt Lake and Snow. “I’m sure they’re going to be hungry to beat us after we got them up here. We just need to focus on the little things and play a full 40 minutes.”

Sophomore Petar Joksimovic is doubtful for the weekend after injuring his achilles in practice Tuesday.

“We’re not sure right now about him,” Phay said. “It doesn’t look good right now, but we’re going to bring him on the trip in case he’s feeling alright.”

NIC beat Snow 63-60 and Salt Lake 74-66 at Rolly Williams Court earlier this month.