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 beneath VanDerveer and a longtime member of her workers, to change into her successor, the varsity added.
VanDerveer, 70, has been probably the most illustrious coaches within the sport, successful three nationwide championships (1990, 1992 and 2021) in her 38 seasons at Stanford and guiding them to 14 Ultimate 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 undertaking there may be and I’m so extremely grateful for each one who has supported me and our groups all through my teaching profession,” VanDerveer mentioned in an announcement. “I have been spoiled to teach one of the 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 america Nationwide Crew, it has been an unforgettable experience. The enjoyment for me was within the journey of every season, seeing a gaggle of younger girls work onerous for one another and type an unbreakable bond. Profitable was a byproduct.
“I’ve liked the sport of basketball since I used to be a bit of woman, and it has given me a lot all through my life. I hope I have been in a position to give at the very least a bit of bit again.”
VanDerveer, who finishes with an all-time report of 1,216-271 (81.8%), will proceed to work with Stanford and the athletic division in an advisory capability, the varsity mentioned.
“Tara’s title is synonymous with the game and girls’s basketball wouldn’t be what it’s as we speak with out her pioneering work,” Stanford athletics director Bernard Muir mentioned in an announcement. “She has been dedicated to this campus for 40 years and a servant to all of the student-athletes who’ve come by her program. Tara constructed one of many sport’s iconic program’s nearly instantly upon her arrival at Stanford, after which maintained that customary for practically 4 a long time.
“An lively and constructive instructor, a Corridor of Famer, a trusted buddy and mentor, Tara’s impression is solely unmatched, and I do not assume it is a stretch to characterize her as probably the most influential individuals to ever be related to this college. We’ll expect to find the suitable methods to honor her deep impression and legacy right here at Stanford.”
VanDerveer handed retired Duke and Military coach Mike Krzyzewski’s NCAA report of 1,202 wins Jan. 21, incomes her 1,203rd profession victory with a 65-56 resolution at house in opposition to Oregon State. Her closing win got here within the second spherical of the NCAA event at Maples Pavilion as her Cardinal defeated Iowa State. Two-seed Stanford went on to lose within the Portland 4 regional semifinal to eventual Ultimate 4 workforce NC State.
VanDerveer — a Massachusetts native who grew up in New York — could also be recognized for establishing a West Coast stronghold in California, however her impression and excellence have been felt nationally and past. She has guided Stanford to the NCAA event 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 at the very least 100 NCAA event wins, whereas compiling 28 Candy 16 and 21 Elite Eight berths.
Her 14 Ultimate 4 appearances are third most behind Auriemma (23) and Summitt (18), and he or she is considered one of 5 coaches with at the very least three nationwide titles (alongside Auriemma, Summitt, Baylor/LSU’s Kim Mulkey and South Carolina’s Daybreak Staley).
“Clearly, it is a monumental day in girls’s basketball, and in basketball normally,” Auriemma mentioned in an announcement. “While you’ve coached for this prolonged time frame and you have completed what Tara’s completed, it has an unimaginable impact on the basketball neighborhood. The variety of wins, the nationwide championships, the Corridor of Fame. She’s had an unimaginable profession and he or she’s left an incredible impression on the game. It has been thrilling to compete in opposition to her all these years. Congratulations to Tara, and I am certain she’ll benefit from the subsequent part of her life.”
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 workforce. The workforce’s undefeated run in Atlanta — this system’s first of an lively streak of seven gold medals and counting — is taken into account an enormous 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 carry to such unimaginable heights. The previous two years of convention realignment will come to a head this summer season when 10 Pac-12 colleges formally depart for the Huge Ten, Huge 12 or ACC, the latter of which is the place Stanford is headed subsequent.
For many years Stanford was virtually synonymous with Pac-12 girls’s basketball, dominating the convention with 27 convention regular-season titles since 1989 in addition to 15 of its 23 event crowns. The usual on and off the court docket that VanDerveer set at Stanford, different Pac-12 coaches have lengthy mentioned, elevated your entire convention from one which was largely an afterthought nationally into one of many premier girls’s basketball leagues within the nation.
The Pac-12 boasted 5 groups within the Candy 16 this previous event, 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 also 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 shall be indebted to her for a really very long time. I want her nothing however one of the 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 varsity discovered a brand new house within the ACC amid such troublesome circumstances.
“I believe it should a wonderful convention for girls’s basketball,” VanDerveer advised ESPN in October. “We’re actually grateful the ACC wished Stanford. And the largest factor for us is to proceed to have the ability to compete on the very best degree, and I need to preserve teaching gamers who need that mixture of nice teachers and nice basketball. We have recruited a whole lot of youngsters from the East Coast, so our recruiting goes to be positive.”
VanDerveer has produced profitable WNBA gamers (equivalent 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, not too long ago named Pac-12 Participant of the Yr, is predicted to be a lottery decide in subsequent week’s draft as nicely.
“She’s severe concerning the sport, treats it with all of the reverence it deserves as a platform that empowers gamers past our wildest desires … However does not take herself too critically,” Chiney advised ESPN. “Tara will snigger, will dance, will at all times rejoice the workforce forward of herself.”
VanDerveer’s final official day at Stanford shall be Might 8, the thirty ninth anniversary of when she was employed, the varsity mentioned. A information convention shall be held Wednesday on campus.
“I really like Tara. She’s superb. We have related 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 total profession at UConn since 1985, will enter the 2023-24 marketing campaign with 1,213 victories, three behind VanDerveer’s report 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.