It’s unimaginable to inform the story of the previous 4 many years of faculty basketball with out Tara VanDerveer. The Stanford icon, USA Basketball coach, and general standard-bearer for West Coast basketball is an integral character within the development of the ladies’s recreation since Title IX. And with two extra wins, VanDerveer will stand alone as the winningest coach in school, males’s or ladies’s, passing former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
GO DEEPER
The summer season of solitude that sustained a training icon
In anticipation of her potential record-breaking win this weekend, we’ll publish tales this week that concentrate on her esteemed profession. Here is a glance again at a few of VanDerveer’s monumental victories:
1. Win No. 1
Dec. 1, 1978: Idaho 70, Northern Montana 68 (OT)
Before win No. 1,201 there was win No. 1. As the top coach of Idaho, VanDerveer confronted Northern Montana College (now recognized as Montana State-Northern) in her opening recreation. It was this system’s fifth season of existence — the Vandals didn’t even belong to a convention but — they usually had tapped a 25-year-old who had been an Ohio State assistant for 2 seasons to guide them.
Idaho was up with one possession to play, however the Vandals dedicated a foul and went to time beyond regulation, the place they edged out the Polar Bears by two. As VanDerveer advised the Stanford Daily in 2020, “Before we went into overtime, we were up three and there’s like 10 seconds left in the game or something. I said, ‘OK you guys look, we got this game, just don’t foul.’ We went out, the girl hit the shot, and we fouled her and I said, ‘This is going to be hard.’ I’m thinking, ‘Boy, this coaching thing is not going to be easy.’”
Tara VanDerveer –
Winningest Coach in Women’s College Basketball
1978-80 Idaho Women’s Basketball Head Coach
3 NCAA Championships
4 NCAA Final Four Appearances
16 NCAA Tournament AppearancesTara is our first 50 for 50 honoree this week as we have fun 50 years of #TitleIX pic.twitter.com/GeeQ8oLS7a
— Idaho Vandals (@Idaho_Vandals) (*10*)
2. Sellout crowd, momentous win in Iowa
Feb. 3, 1985: Ohio State 56, Iowa 47
After two seasons at Idaho, together with a 25-6 record in Year 2, VanDerveer returned to Columbus as the top coach. She led the Buckeyes to the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1982 and returned to the Big Dance in 1984, once they landed within the AP Top 25 for the primary time in her tenure.
En path to a fourth straight Big Ten title, Ohio State performed at Iowa — then coached by C. Vivian Stringer — close to the top of convention play. In what would turn out to be a precursor for record-breaking crowds within the state many years later, the groups performed in entrance of twenty-two,157 individuals at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That obliterated the earlier attendance record for an NCAA ladies’s basketball recreation of 10,622 set two years earlier. Team officers initially listed the attendance at 18,500, reportedly to keep away from bother with the hearth marshals as a result of the world’s capability was 15,450; followers even needed to stand within the aisles in the course of the recreation.
3. Signing a game-changer
1986: Stanford indicators Jennifer Azzi
VanDerveer returned to the West after 5 seasons with the Buckeyes to helm a Stanford workforce that had gone 9-19 the season earlier than. Her first merchandise of enterprise was to recruit Jennifer Azzi, a degree guard from Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Cardinal had been so unhealthy that VanDerveer advised Sports Illustrated she didn’t let Azzi watch any practices or recreation movie throughout her recruitment, however Stanford’s tutorial pedigree helped persuade Azzi to comply with her to the Pacific coast and turn out to be this system’s first true star.
T » B » T #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/ZolRKZn5kl
— Stanford WBB 🤓🏀 (@StanfordWBB) March 17, 2016
Azzi helped lead the Cardinal to the NCAA Tournament in 1988 as a sophomore, beginning a streak of appearances that continues to at the present time. She was the Pac-10 participant of the yr as a junior when Stanford made the Elite Eight after which the nationwide participant of the yr in 1990 when the Cardinal received their first nationwide championship. Azzi stays this system’s all-time chief in 3-point proportion, ranks second in complete assists and locations third in steals. The line of greats which have come by means of Palo Alto, together with Sonja Henning, Val Whiting, Kate Starbird, Candice Wiggins, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, main as much as Cameron Brink begins with Azzi. She was VanDerveer’s largest off-court win.
4. Reaching the top
April 4, 1990: Stanford 88, Auburn 80
VanDerveer received her first nationwide championship at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena, 20 minutes away from the place Azzi performed highschool basketball. The Cardinal have been pretty dominant all through the event, successful their 5 video games by a mean of 15 factors. The title recreation was extra back-and-forth, as they went up by 11 early, then trailed by 11 later within the first half. It took a superlative capturing efficiency from Katy Steding, who hit six 3-pointers to defeat Auburn, sending the Tigers to their third-straight defeat within the championship recreation.
In her twelfth season as a head coach, VanDerveer had reached the top and established Stanford as a nationwide powerhouse, solely the sixth workforce to ever win an NCAA title. Oddly sufficient, the Cardinal by no means earned a No. 1 AP ballot rating in the course of the season, however that will come quickly sufficient. Even although Azzi was graduating, Henning and Whiting remained to hold the torch.
5. Becoming an icon
April 5, 1992: Stanford 78, Western Kentucky 62
One title put VanDerveer on the map. Two titles made her an icon. In the 30-plus years since this recreation, solely 4 extra packages have received a number of championships (UConn, Notre Dame, Baylor and South Carolina), and people groups’ coaches have turn out to be legends in their very own proper.
The 1992 season was the third consecutive Final Four journey for the Cardinal, however they needed to change three starters from the earlier season. Even so, they went 30-3 and dominated Western Kentucky within the remaining, led by freshman Rachel Hemmer’s 18 factors and 15 rebounds. Their hardest matchup got here within the Final Four once they held on 66-65 in opposition to Dawn Staley and Virginia.
6. Taking down Tennessee
Dec. 15, 1996: Stanford 82, Tennessee 65
VanDerveer took the 1995-1996 season off to coach Team USA main as much as the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and this system continued to thrive in her absence. The mixture of Marianne Stanley and Amy Tucker led Stanford to an undefeated Pac-10 record and one other journey to the Final Four. Still, VanDerveer’s return resulted in one other milestone.
The Lady Vols had received the nationwide title the earlier season — what would find yourself being the primary of a three-peat — and 4 complete championships prior to now decade. They have been the gold normal of the game beneath Pat Summitt, and Stanford had but to beat them on their house courtroom in Thompson-Boling Arena, together with a 36-point defeat in Knoxville two years prior. Not this time. The Cardinal went in as the nation’s No. 1 workforce and took care of No. 5 Tennessee. Starbird was the workforce’s excessive scorer with 26 factors, outdueling Tamika Catchings, who had 24 on 11-of-28 capturing. The groups each made the Final Four that yr, however Stanford misplaced within the semifinal earlier than a possible rematch within the title recreation.
This was a short-lived peak for the Cardinal, who wouldn’t win at Tennessee once more till 2012 regardless of enjoying there each different yr.
VanDerveer discovered the components for consistency within the 2008 season. (Matt Marriott / NCAA Photos by way of Getty Images)
7. Ending a drought
March 31, 2008: Stanford 98, Maryland 87
VanDerveer and Stanford entered this event after a 10-season Final Four drought. The Cardinal had received or tied for the PAC-10 title in eight of these years, however they weren’t experiencing the NCAA Tournament success to which they’d grown accustomed. The drought lastly led to 2008, as the Candice Wiggins-led squad broke by means of in opposition to Maryland. Wiggins scored 41 factors within the win, making it to the nationwide semifinals as a senior after two earlier losses within the Elite Eight. This was a return to the mountaintop for VanDerveer, as Stanford would advance to the Final Four every of the following 4 seasons.
8. UConn streak-busters
Dec. 30, 2010: Stanford 71, Connecticut 59
Connecticut got here into Maples Pavilion having received 90 video games in a row, together with two nationwide championships. Stanford emphatically put an finish to what was then the longest successful streak in NCAA historical past. Point guard Jeanette Pohlen had 31 factors and 6 assists as the Cardinal exacted minor revenge for dropping within the 2010 nationwide championship. They ended up bookending UConn’s streak, having handed the Huskies their most up-to-date loss within the 2008 Final Four.
9. T-Dawg wins once more
Dec. 16, 2020: Stanford 104, Pacific 61
VanDerveer turned the winningest coach in ladies’s school basketball historical past, passing Summitt together with her 1,099th win, all however 176 coming at Stanford. The pandemic meant no followers have been in attendance for her milestone, however the gamers introduced VanDerveer with a swim jacket that learn “T-Dawg” after the ultimate buzzer to mark the event. Cameron Brink, who was a freshman on that roster, advised The Athletic that the Cardinal have one thing “funny” deliberate for the upcoming record.
VanDerveer holds the trophy after beating Arizona for an additional nationwide championship. (Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports)
10. Reaching elite standing
April 4, 2021: Stanford 54, Arizona 53
More than three many years after successful her first nationwide championship, VanDerveer collected her third, becoming a member of a listing that features solely Summitt, Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey. This one had the additional significance of that includes one other PAC-12 workforce (Arizona) within the title recreation. After years of carrying the convention on their again, the Cardinal had some West Coast firm within the remaining weekend and remaining recreation of the season.
(Top picture of Tara VanDerveer: Jack Dempsey / NCAA Photos by way of Getty Images)
Discussion about this post