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From Idaho to Iconic Titles: Top 10 Tara VanDerveer Moments as Stanford Coach Closes in on All-Time Wins Record

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It's impossible to tell the story of the past four decades of college basketball without Tara VanDerveer. The Stanford icon, USA Basketball coach and overall standard-bearer for West Coast basketball has been an integral figure in the growth of women's soccer since Title IX. And with two more wins, VanDerveer will stand alone as the winningest college coach, men's or women's, and pass former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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In anticipation of her potential record-breaking victory this weekend, we'll be publishing stories this week focusing on her esteemed career. Here's a look back at some of VanDerveer's monumental wins:

1. Win #1

December 1, 1978: Idaho 70, Northern Montana 68 (OT)

Before win No. 1,201, there was win No. 1. As Idaho's head coach, VanDerveer faced Northern Montana College (now known as Montana State-Northern) in her opening game. It was the fifth season of the program's existence — the Vandals weren't even part of a conference yet — and they had asked a 25-year-old who had been an Ohio State assistant for two seasons to lead them.

Idaho had one possession left, but the Vandals fouled and went to 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's like 10 seconds left in the game or something like that. I said, 'Okay guys, look, we got this game, don't make a mistake.' We went out, the girl shot, we fouled her and I said, 'This is going to be hard.' I'm thinking, 'Boy, this coaching thing isn't going to be easy.'

2. Sold out crowd, memorable Iowa win

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 their first NCAA tournament in 1982 and returned to the Big Dance in 1984, when they landed in the AP Top 25 for the first time in her tenure.

On its way to a fourth straight Big Ten title, Ohio State played Iowa – then coached by C. Vivian Stringer – near the end of conference play. In what would become a precursor for record-breaking crowds in the state decades later, the teams played in front of 22,157 people at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That obliterated the previous attendance record for an NCAA women's basketball game of 10,622 set two years earlier. Team officials originally listed attendance at 18,500, reportedly to avoid problems with the firefighters because the arena's capacity was 15,450; fans even had to stand in the aisles during the game.

3. Sign a game changer

1986: Stanford signs Jennifer Azzi

VanDerveer returned West after five seasons with the Buckeyes to lead a Stanford team that had gone 9-19 the season before. Her first order of business was recruiting Jennifer Azzi, a point guard from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Cardinal had been so bad that VanDerveer told Sports Illustrated she didn't let Azzi watch practices or game film during her recruitment, but the Stanford pedigree academic helped convince Azzi to follow her to the Pacific Coast and become the team's first real star become a program.

Azzi helped the Cardinal to the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore in 1988, beginning a string of performances that continues to this day. She was the Pac-10 Player of the Year as a junior when Stanford reached the Elite Eight and then the National Player of the Year in 1990 when the Cardinal won their first national championship. Azzi remains the program's all-time leader in 3-point percentage, ranks second in total assists and is third in steals. The line of greats that came through Palo Alto, including Sonja Henning, Val Whiting, Kate Starbird, Candice Wiggins, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, leading up to Cameron Brink, starts with Azzi. She was VanDerveer's biggest victory off the field.

4. Reaching the climax

April 4, 1990: Stanford 88, Auburn 80

VanDerveer won her first national championship at Thompson-Boling Arena in Tennessee, 20 minutes away from where Azzi played high school basketball. The Cardinal were fairly dominant throughout the tournament, winning their five games by an average of 15 points. The title game was more of a back and forth as they went up by 11 early and were down by 11 later in the first half. It took a superlative shooting performance from Katy Steding, who hit six 3-pointers to beat Auburn, handing the Tigers their third straight loss in the championship game.

By her twelfth season as head coach, VanDerveer had reached the pinnacle and established Stanford as a national powerhouse, only the sixth team to ever win an NCAA title. Oddly enough, the Cardinal never achieved a No. 1 AP poll ranking during the season, but that would come soon enough. Although Azzi was graduating, Henning and Whiting continued to carry the torch.

5. Become 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 more than thirty years since this game, only a handful of programs have won multiple championships (UConn, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Baylor and South Carolina), and the coaches of those teams became legends in their own right.

The 1992 season was the Cardinal's third consecutive Final Four trip, but they had to replace three starters from the previous season. Still, they went 30-3 and dominated Western Kentucky in the finals, led by freshman Rachel Hemmer's 18 points and 15 rebounds. Their toughest game came in the Final Four, when they held out 66-65 against Dawn Staley and Virginia.

6. Taking down Tennessee

December 15, 1996: Stanford 82, Tennessee 65

VanDerveer took the 1995-96 season off to coach Team USA leading up to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the program continued to thrive in her absence. The combination of Marianne Stanley and Amy Tucker led Stanford to an undefeated Pac-10 record and to the Final Four again. Still, VanDerveer's return set a new milestone.

The Lady Vols had won the national title the previous season – which would ultimately become the first of a three-peat series – and a total of four championships in the past decade. They were the sport's gold standard under Pat Summitt, and Stanford had yet to beat them on their home court at Thompson-Boling Arena, including a 36-point defeat in Knoxville two years earlier. Not this time. The Cardinal entered as the No. 1 team in the country, taking care of No. 5 Tennessee. Starbird was the team's highest scorer with 26 points, beating Tamika Catchings, who had 24 on 11-of-28 shooting. The teams both made the Final Four that year, but Stanford lost in the semifinals before a possible rematch in the title game.

This was a short-lived highlight for the Cardinal, who wouldn't win again at 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. End a drought

March 31, 2008: Stanford 98, Maryland 87

VanDerveer and Stanford entered this tournament after a 10-season Final Four drought. The Cardinal had won or tied the PAC-10 title in eight of those years, but they did not experience the NCAA Tournament success they had become accustomed to. The drought finally ended in 2008, when the Candice Wiggins-led team broke through against Maryland. Wiggins scored 41 points in the win, reaching the national semifinals as a senior after two previous losses in the Elite Eight. This was a return to the mountaintop for VanDerveer, as Stanford would advance to the Final Four each of the next four seasons.

8. UConn streakbusters

December 30, 2010: Stanford 71, Connecticut 59

Connecticut came to Maples Pavilion having won 90 straight games, including two national championships. Stanford emphatically ended what was at the time the longest winning streak in NCAA history. Point guard Jeanette Pohlen had 31 points and six assists as the Cardinal exacted a little revenge for the 2010 national championship loss. They finally snapped UConn's streak after handing the Huskies their most recent loss in the 2008 Final Four inflicted.

9. T-Dawg wins again

December 16, 2020: Stanford 104, Pacific 61

VanDerveer became the winningest coach in women's basketball history, passing Summitt with her 1,099th victory, all but 176 at Stanford. The pandemic meant no fans were present for her milestone, but the players presented VanDerveer with a swim jacket that read “T-Dawg” after the final buzzer to mark the occasion. Cameron Brink, a freshman on that roster, told the story The Athletics that the Cardinal has something 'funny' planned for the upcoming record.


VanDerveer holds the trophy after beating Arizona for another national championship. (Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)

10. Achieving elite status

April 4, 2021: Stanford 54, Arizona 53

More than three decades after winning her first national championship, VanDerveer collected her third, joining a list that includes only Summitt, Geno Auriemma and Kim Mulkey. This one had the added significance of another PAC-12 team (Arizona) playing in the title game. After years of carrying the conference on their backs, the Cardinal got some company on the West Coast on the final weekend and final game of the season.

(Top photo of Tara VanDerveer: Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

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