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Tara VanDerveer reached the peak of women’s college basketball coaching ranks Tuesday night when top-ranked Stanford routed the University of the Pacific 104-61 in Stockton in an empty arena.
The victory gave VanDerveer a historic 1,099th victory in 42 seasons of coaching to pass the legendary Pat Summitt as the all-time winningest women’s coach.
After the victory, VanDerveer did her usual post-game routine congratulating her opposing coach and then regrouping with Cardinal players.
But while she has downplayed her past achievements, VanDerveer, 67, acknowledged afterward this time was different.
“They wanted this win for me,” she said of her players. “I felt it from them the whole game, the whole bus ride up here.”
The team presented VanDerveer with a jacket with the name “ T-Dawg” on the back. A dog lover, she said senior Kiana Williams gave her the nickname that has caught on. But Williams was not sure her coach would try on the jacket.
When VanDerveer put it on Williams said her coach exclaimed, “Yeah, this is swag.”
VanDerveer gave high fives to every player with her eyes shining behind her facemask. The players surprised her with confetti in the locker room and party poppers. VanDerveer told them the players the most important thing she could do was show them her love.
“She doesn’t just care about us as basketball players but as people too,” Williams said. “You know genuinely Tara cares about you as a person.”
Wearing black Stanford sweats with a matching facemask, VanDerveer mostly sat on the sideline as the Cardinal (5-0) dominated the second half to assure the record. Six players scored in double figures led by Lexie Hull’s 17 points and six rebounds.
Guard Anna Wilson, who ended with 14 points, led the charge in the third quarter when Stanford built a 79-47 lead.
Williams, who also had 14 points, said the players were nervous beforehand because they understood the magnitude of the moment. VanDerveer sensed their emotions, Williams said. “Before the game, Tara just told us to go out there and play,” Williams said.
Stanford struggled with its outside shooting to allow UOP to make it a game in the first half. Playing their first game of the season, the Tigers got within four points in the second quarter before falling behind 43-32 at halftime.
“Our team hasn’t played a team as physical as Pacific is,” VanDervver said. “We didn’t throw the first punch, they did. I think we just wore them down.”
VanDerveer, in her 35th season at Stanford, said she would celebrate the record by donating $10 for each victory to a Bay Area food bank. But it wasn’t to put the spotlight on the record.
“This is such a hard time for so many people in our country,” VanDerveer said. “We’re playing games and we know people are suffering.”
The Cardinal had to play the milestone game in Stockon because of Santa Clara County’s ban last month on contact sports in an effort to stop the COVID-19 surge.
VanDerveer has six more victories than Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, who won his 1,093rd game Tuesday night. She has the fifth-highest winning percentage (.813) among Division I women’s basketball coaches all-time.
VanDerveer probably would have passed Summitt earlier except for the fact she spent a year coaching the U.S. women’s team to a gold medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Assistants Amy Tucker and Marianne Stanley led Stanford to a 29-3 record and Final Four appearance in her absence.
VanDerveer, a four-time national coach of the year, has said she never would have caught Summitt if not for the Tennessee coach suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Summitt, who was one year older than VanDerveer, left coaching in 2012 and died four years later.
“I hope Pat Summitt is looking down and saying, ‘Good job, Tara, keep going,’ ” the Naismith Hall of Fame coach said on the ESPN broadcast.
VanDerveer arrived at Stanford in 1985 and within two seasons led the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 with a 27-5 record. Her first season at Stanford was the only time she posted a losing record (13-15).
The program soared when VanDerveer got guard Jennifer Azzi from Tennessee to come to the Bay Area in 1986.
Azzi, a college player of the year, led Stanford to its first of two NCAA championships in 1990. VanDerveer won again in 1992 but Stanford has not earned another title despite 10 more trips to the Final Four.
VanDerveer has coached some of the game’s best players, starting with Azzi. But the long list also includes Katy Steding, Kate Starbird, Candice Wiggins, the Ogwuimke sisters, Nneka and Chiney, Jayne Appel, Nicole Powell and Sonja Henning.
VanDerveer grew up in upstate New York playing basketball in her neighborhood in the pre-Title IX era. She once said she tried out for cheerleading just to be close to the court. When VanDerveer didn’t make the cheer squad, she became the school mascot but said she got fired for spending more time watching the games than doing her job.
VanDerveer played at Indiana when women’s college teams had nine-game schedules. She became a coach when her dad insisted she coach her sister’s high school team. VanDerveer got hooked on the idea of coaching, eventually taking over the program at Idaho in 1978 before leading Ohio State to four Big Ten championships.
“I think about basketball 24/7,” VanDerveer said in 2011. “I wake up thinking about it.”
