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It’s impossible to tell the story of the last four decades of college basketball without Tara VanDerveer. The Stanford icon, USA Basketball coach and overall standard-bearer for West Coast basketball is an integral character in the development of the women’s game since Title IX. And with two more wins, VanDerveer will surpass former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as the winningest coach in college, men or women.
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In anticipation of his potential record-breaking victory this weekend, we’ll be publishing stories this week that focus on his esteemed career. Here’s a look at some of VanDerveer’s monumental wins:
1. Win Number 1
December 1, 1978: Idaho 70, Northern Montana 68 (OT)
Win No. 1 was Win No. 1 before Win No. 1,201. As head coach of Idaho, VanDerveer faced Northern Montana College (now known as Montana State–Northern) in his opening game. It was the program’s fifth season of existence – the Vandals did not yet belong to any conference – and they had chosen to lead them, a 25-year-old who had been an Ohio State assistant for two seasons.
Idaho was up with one possession to play, but the Vandals fouled and went into overtime, where they defeated the Polar Bears by two. As VanDerveer told the Stanford Daily in 2020, “Before we went into overtime, we were up by three and there were about 10 seconds left in the game or something. I said, ‘Okay you guys look, we’ve 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 tough.’ I’m thinking, ‘Boy, this coaching job 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 appearancesThis week Tara is our first 50-50 honoree as we celebrate 50 years #TitleIX pic.twitter.com/GeeQ8oLS7a
-Idaho Vandals (@Idaho_Vandals) 8 March 2023
2. Sellout crowd, important win in Iowa
February 3, 1985: Ohio State 56, Iowa 47
After two seasons at Idaho, including a 25–6 record in Year 2, VanDerveer returned to Columbus as head coach. She led the Buckeyes to the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1982 and returned to the Big Dance in 1984, when they reached the AP Top 25 for the first time during her tenure.
En route to a fourth consecutive Big Ten title, Ohio State played Iowa – then coached by C. Vivian Stringer – near the end of conference play. Decades later the teams played in front of 22,157 people at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, becoming a precursor to record-breaking crowds in the state. This obliterated the previous attendance record of 10,622 at an NCAA women’s basketball game two years earlier. Team officials originally listed attendance at 18,500, reportedly to avoid trouble with fire marshals because the arena’s capacity was 15,450; Fans also had to stand in the aisles during the game.
3. Signing a game-changer
1986: Stanford signs Jennifer Azzi
Vanderveer returned west after five seasons with the Buckeyes to lead a Stanford team that went 9–19 the season before. His first objective of business was to recruit Jennifer Azzi, a point guard from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Cardinal was so bad that VanDerveer told Sports Illustrated that he didn’t let Azzi watch any practice or game film during his recruitment, but Stanford’s academic pedigree convinced Azzi to follow him to the Pacific Coast and become the program’s first true star. Helped to persuade.
t » b » t #gostanford pic.twitter.com/ZolRKZn5kl
– Stanford WBB 🤓🏀 (@StanfordWBB) 17 March 2016
Eazy helped lead the Cardinal to the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore in 1988, starting a string of performances that continues to this day. She was the Pac-10 Player of the Year as a junior when Stanford made the Elite Eight and again in 1990 when the Cardinal won its first national championship. Azzi remains the program’s all-time leader in 3-point percentage, second in total assists and third in steals. The line of greats that has made its way through Palo Alto to Cameron Brink, including Sonja Henning, Val Whiting, Kate Starbird, Candice Wiggins, Nneka and China Ogwumike, starts with Azzi. That was VanDerveer’s biggest off-court victory.
4. Reaching the top
April 4, 1990: Stanford 88, Auburn 80
VanDerveer won his first national championship at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena, 20 minutes from where Azzi played high school basketball. The Cardinals were quite dominant throughout the tournament, winning their five games by an average of 15 points. The title game was more back-and-forth, as they started by 11 in the first half, then trailed by 11 late. It featured a stellar shooting performance from Katie Steading, who hit six 3-pointers to defeat Auburn, handing the Tigers their third consecutive loss in the championship game.
In his 12th season as head coach, VanDerveer had reached the pinnacle and established Stanford as a national powerhouse, becoming only the sixth team to win an NCAA title. Strangely, the Cardinal never earned a No. 1 AP Poll ranking during the season, but that would come soon. Even as Azzi was graduating, Henning and Whiting were carrying the torch.
5. Becoming an icon
April 5, 1992: Stanford 78, Western Kentucky 62
A title put VanDerveer on the map. The two titles made him an icon. In the more than 30 years since the game, only a few programs have won multiple championships (UConn, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor, and South Carolina), and the coaches on those teams have become legends in their own right.
The 1992 season was the third consecutive Final Four trip for the Cardinal, but they had to replace three starters from the previous season. Nevertheless, they went 30–3 and dominated Western Kentucky in the finals, led by freshman Rachel Hemmer with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Their toughest matchup came in the Final Four when they were tied 66–65 against Don Staley and Virginia.
6. Beating Tennessee
December 15, 1996: Stanford 82, Tennessee 65
VanDerveer took the 1995–1996 season off to coach Team USA until the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the program continued in his absence. The combination of Marianne Stanley and Amy Tucker led Stanford to an undefeated Pac-10 record and another trip to the Final Four. Still, VanDerveer’s return marked another milestone.
The Lady Vols won the national title last season – which would be the first of a three-peat and four total championships in the last decade. Under Pat Summitt they were the game’s gold standard, and Stanford had yet to beat them on their home court at Thompson–Boling Arena, including a 36-point loss in Knoxville two years earlier. not this time. The Cardinal went in as the No. 1 team in the country and took care of No. 5 Tennessee. Starbird was the team’s top scorer with 26 points, surpassing Tamika Catchings, who had 24 points on 11 of 28 shooting. Both teams made the Final Four that year, but Stanford lost in the semi-finals before a possible rematch in the title game.
It was a short-lived peak for the Cardinal, who did not win again in Tennessee until 2012, despite playing there every other year.
VanDerveer found the formula for consistency in the 2008 season. (Matt Marriott/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
7. Ending the drought
March 31, 2008: Stanford 98, Maryland 87
VanDerveer and Stanford entered the tournament after a 10-season Final Four drought. The Cardinal won or tied for the Pac-10 title in each of those eight years, but were not experiencing the NCAA Tournament success they had become accustomed to. The drought finally ended in 2008, when the Candice Wiggins-led team won against Maryland. Wiggins scored 41 points in the win, clinching a national semifinal appearance as a senior after two previous losses in the Elite Eight. It was a return to the top of the mountain for VanDerveer, as Stanford would advance to the Final Four in each of the next four seasons.
8. UConn Streak-Busters
December 30, 2010: Stanford 71, Connecticut 59
Connecticut came to Maples Pavilion having won 90 consecutive games, including two national championships. Stanford emphatically ended the longest winning streak in NCAA history. Point guard Janet Poehlen had 31 points and six assists as the Cardinal got slight revenge for their 2010 national championship loss. They ended UConn’s streak, handing the Huskies their most recent loss in the 2008 Final Four.
9. T-Dog wins again
December 16, 2020: Stanford 104, Pacific 61
VanDerveer became the winningest coach in women’s college basketball history, surpassing Summitt with her 1,099th win, surpassing all but 176 at Stanford. The pandemic meant there were no fans in attendance for his milestone, but players presented VanDerveer with a swim jacket with “T-Dog” written on it after the final buzzer to mark the occasion. Cameron Brink, a new addition to the roster, told athletic That Cardinal has something “fun” planned for the upcoming record.
VanDerveer retained the trophy by defeating Arizona for another national championship. (Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)
10. Reaching elite status
April 4, 2021: Stanford 54, Arizona 53
More than three decades after winning her first national championship, VanDerveer won her third, joining a list that only includes Summitt, Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey. It had the added significance of including another Pac-12 team (Arizona) in the title game. After leading the conference for years, the Cardinal had some company from West Coast on the final weekend and final game of the season.
(Top photo of Tara VanDerveer: Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
