Tara VanDerveer, the NCAA’s winningest basketball coach with 1,216 victories throughout 45 years, is retiring, Stanford introduced Tuesday night.
Negotiations are underway for Kate Paye, a former participant below VanDerveer and a longtime member of her workers, to turn out to be her successor, the college added.
VanDerveer, 70, has been one of the illustrious coaches within the sport, successful three nationwide championships (1990, 1992 and 2021) in her 38 seasons at Stanford and guiding them to 14 Remaining Fours. The Naismith and Girls’s Basketball Corridor of Famer beforehand coached at Idaho (1978 to 1980) and Ohio State (1980 to 1985).
“Basketball is the best group venture there may be and I’m so extremely grateful for each one that has supported me and our groups all through my teaching profession,” VanDerveer mentioned in a press release. “I have been spoiled to educate the very best and brightest at one of many world’s foremost establishments for practically 4 a long time. Coupled with my time at Ohio State and Idaho, and as head coach of the US Nationwide Crew, it has been an unforgettable trip. The enjoyment for me was within the journey of every season, seeing a bunch of younger ladies work arduous for one another and type an unbreakable bond. Successful was a byproduct.
“I’ve beloved the sport of basketball since I used to be a little bit woman, and it has given me a lot all through my life. I hope I have been capable of give no less than a little bit bit again.”
VanDerveer, who finishes with an all-time file of 1,216-271 (81.8%), will proceed to work with Stanford and the athletic division in an advisory capability, the college mentioned.
“Tara’s title is synonymous with the game and girls’s basketball wouldn’t be what it’s in the present day with out her pioneering work,” Stanford athletics director Bernard Muir mentioned in a press release. “She has been dedicated to this campus for 40 years and a servant to all of the student-athletes who’ve come via her program. Tara constructed one of many sport’s iconic program’s nearly instantly upon her arrival at Stanford, after which maintained that normal for practically 4 a long time.
“An brisk and constructive instructor, a Corridor of Famer, a trusted buddy and mentor, Tara’s affect is just unmatched, and I do not suppose it is a stretch to characterize her as one of the influential folks to ever be related to this college. We are going to anticipate finding the suitable methods to honor her deep affect and legacy right here at Stanford.”
VanDerveer handed retired Duke and Military coach Mike Krzyzewski’s NCAA file of 1,202 wins Jan. 21, incomes her 1,203rd profession victory with a 65-56 choice at residence in opposition to Oregon State. Her ultimate win got here within the second spherical of the NCAA match at Maples Pavilion as her Cardinal defeated Iowa State. Two-seed Stanford went on to lose within the Portland 4 regional semifinal to eventual Remaining 4 staff NC State.
VanDerveer — a Massachusetts native who grew up in New York — could also be identified for establishing a West Coast stronghold in California, however her affect and excellence had been felt nationally and past. She has guided Stanford to the NCAA match every season since 1988, a streak of 36 consecutive appearances that is second solely to Tennessee. She joins UConn’s Geno Auriemma (136) and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (112) in amassing no less than 100 NCAA match wins, whereas compiling 28 Candy 16 and 21 Elite Eight berths.
Her 14 Remaining 4 appearances are third most behind Auriemma (23) and Summitt (18), and he or she is one in every of 5 coaches with no less than three nationwide titles (alongside Auriemma, Summitt, Baylor/LSU’s Kim Mulkey and South Carolina’s Daybreak Staley).
VanDerveer stepped away from Stanford in the course of the 1995-96 marketing campaign in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Video games, the place she served as the top coach of the U.S. nationwide staff. The staff’s undefeated run in Atlanta — this system’s first of an energetic streak of seven gold medals and counting — is taken into account a large launching off level for the institution of the WNBA in 1997.
It is maybe becoming that VanDerveer will transfer on from teaching upon the disintegration of the Pac-12 convention she helped raise to such unimaginable heights. The previous two years of convention realignment will come to a head this summer time when 10 Pac-12 faculties formally depart for the Large Ten, Large 12 or ACC, the latter of which is the place Stanford is headed subsequent.
For many years Stanford was virtually synonymous with Pac-12 ladies’s basketball, dominating the convention with 27 convention regular-season titles since 1989 in addition to 15 of its 23 match crowns. The usual on and off the court docket that VanDerveer set at Stanford, different Pac-12 coaches have lengthy mentioned, elevated the whole convention from one which was principally an afterthought nationally into one of many premier ladies’s basketball leagues within the nation.
The Pac-12 boasted 5 groups within the Candy 16 this previous match, the product of a collective effort to construct the convention that is been spearheaded by its chief in VanDerveer.
“Tara is a a legend on a world degree, however she can be so impactful for me on a private degree,” longtime UCLA coach Cori Shut advised ESPN. “I used to be a camper at her camps, I performed in opposition to her groups in school and labored her camps and now I’ve coached in opposition to her and have been the beneficiary of her mentorship. She is outstanding in her efficiency, her mentorship and her instance. Our sport can be indebted to her for a really very long time. I want her nothing however the very best. She certain has earned this retirement.”
Previous to the start of the ultimate Pac-12 season, VanDerveer had advised ESPN she was “thrilled” the college discovered a brand new residence within the ACC amid such troublesome circumstances.
“I believe it is going to a superb convention for ladies’s basketball,” VanDerveer advised ESPN in October. “We’re actually grateful the ACC wished Stanford. And the most important factor for us is to proceed to have the ability to compete on the very best degree, and I wish to hold teaching gamers who need that mixture of nice lecturers and nice basketball. We have recruited plenty of youngsters from the East Coast, so our recruiting goes to be high-quality.”
VanDerveer has produced profitable WNBA gamers (akin to former No. 1 picks Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, Jennifer Azzi and Candice Wiggins) for many years, sending 30 in all to the WNBA draft because the league was based — the second most by a head coach. Graduating senior Cameron Brink, lately named Pac-12 Participant of the Yr, is anticipated to be a lottery decide in subsequent week’s draft as nicely.
“She’s critical in regards to the sport, treats it with all of the reverence it deserves as a platform that empowers gamers past our wildest desires … However would not take herself too severely,” Chiney advised ESPN. “Tara will giggle, will dance, will all the time have fun the staff forward of herself.”
VanDerveer’s final official day at Stanford can be Might 8, the thirty ninth anniversary of when she was employed, the college mentioned. A information convention can be held Wednesday on campus.
“I like Tara. She’s superb. We have linked fairly a bit — she’s come to our practices, I’ve seen her down on campus,” mentioned Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr when advised of VanDerveer’s retirement. “I’ve a lot respect and admiration for her. And my preliminary response is I am thrilled for her. She will go water ski. She loves the water.”
Auriemma, who has coached his whole profession at UConn since 1985, will enter the 2023-24 marketing campaign with 1,213 victories, three behind VanDerveer’s file mark.
Paye, who performed for VanDerveer from 1991 to 1995, has spent the final 17 years on VanDerveer’s workers, together with eight as affiliate head coach.
