The Guru Report: Longtime Hall of Fame Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer Announces Retirement

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The women’s basketball world was hit with a nationwide tremor Tuesday night with the news from Stanford that Tara VanDerveer, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, has decided to retire after an overall career of 45 years and 38 guiding the Cardinal.

The team was told Tuesday night – “It all came pretty quick,” said a source – and a press conference is scheduled Wednesday afternoon at Stanford.

The university indicated that negotiations for VanDerveer’s successor were underway with Kate Paye, a 17-year member of her staff who played for the Cardinal from 1991-95.

“It’s hard for me to imagine the game without Tara VanDerveer, and there’s no question the women’s game wouldn’t be in the great place it is without her,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey texted the Guru. “Everything she did to grow the game, and the impact she had inspiring countless young women she coached and mentored, will be missed forever.”

The news, which broke just before 11 p.m. in the East, came on a day of history in the sport with final TV ratings numbers showing the women’s championship won by South Carolina over Iowa on ABC Sunday afternoon outdrew Monday night’s men’s championship, which was between repeat champion Connecticut and Purdue, for the first time – the women with a record 18.9 million viewers and peaking with 24 million while the men pulled in 14.82 million on the telecast on TBS and TNT.

Earlier in the day in Knoxville, Marshall’s Kim Caldwell, an outsider two coaches in the Lady Vol family removed from the late Pat Summitt, was introduced as the new coach at Tennessee.

Summitt built the program into a national powerhouse but was forced to step down in 2012 to battle dementia, which claimed the Hall of Famer’s life four years later.

She had been the women’s leader in wins at 1,098 at the time of her retirement.

VanDerveer’s continued success on the Farm that includes three NCAA titles and 14 Final Fours, the most recent title after ’90 and ’92 in the COVID-19 bubble format in 2021, enabled her to pass the Tennessee legend in December 2020 and last January she passed retired Duke men’s coach Mike Krezyzewski (1202) to become the all-time collegiate leader.

The 2021 title came against PAC-12 rival Arizona ending a season in which Stanford underwent a nine-week road trip due to local government restrictions during the pandemic.

She leaves with 1,216 victories but the 70-year-old VanDerveer won’t be the leader for long soon after the 2024-25 season gets under way.

UConn’s Geno Auriemma, with a record 11 titles who turned 70 last month on the day the Huskies won their NCAA opener, reached 2013 when they advanced to the Women’s Final Four.

On Monday, when the Associated Press for the first time released a final women’s poll after the NCAA championship, Auriemma tied Summitt for second with 618 appearances overall and at the same school behind VanDerveer, who leads with 654 overall and 627 at Stanford.

VanDerveer previously coached at Idaho and at Ohio State before she was lured to the Bay Area.

“Basketball is the greatest group project there is and I am so incredibly thankful for every person who has supported me and our teams throughout my coaching career,” she said in a statement. “I’ve been spoiled to coach the best and brightest at one of the world’s foremost institutions for nearly four decades.”

In 1995-96 VanDerveer took a year off to guide the U.S. Women’s Olympic team on a nationwide and international exhibition tour leading to the Atlanta Games winning the first of an ongoing string of seven straight gold medals heading into the Paris Games this summer.

One of her players was North Philadelphia’s Dawn Staley, who coached South Carolina to their third national title Sunday.

The impetus from that Olympic team and her Stanford program spawned the short-lived American Basketball League from wealthy organizers within Stanford’s fan base and the long-lasting WNBA, whose start was influenced by the growing popularity of UConn in the East.

“Coupled with my time at Ohio State and Idaho, and as head coach of the United States National Team, it has been an unforgettable ride,” VanDerveer said.

 “The joy for me was in the journey of each season, seeing a group of young women work hard for each other and form an unbreakable bond. Winning was a byproduct. I’ve loved the game of basketball since I was a little girl, and it has given me so much throughout my life. I hope I’ve been able to give at least a little bit back.”

Her Stanford teams dominated the PAC-12 until recent seasons though part of the increased competition comes from the mentoring she has done in the profession.

The Cardinal won 27 regular season conference crowns since 1989 and 15 of 23 tournament titles.

Both a Naismith and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, VanDerveer, born in Massachusetts and raised in New York, has 100 wins in the NCAA tournament, third behind Auriemma (136) and Summitt (112).

Her departure is the latest among coaches with ties to the early days of modern competition in the sport who have stepped down in recent seasons such as C. Vivian Stringer at Rutgers; Gary Blair at Texas A&M; Sylvia Hatchell at North Carolina; Charli Turner-Thorne at Arizona State; Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame; and Sherri Coale at Oklahoma, to name a few.

In some quarters, while the timing has surprised — VanDerveer’s last game was the Sweet 16 upset loss to NC State after beating Iowa State at home in Maples Pavilion in an overtime thriller — the move has not.

Early in the season not long after Stanford was accepted into the Atlantic Coast Conference, a quiet whisper was spouting that VanDerveer might be ready to step down and not deal with all the travel involved.

But the Cardinal coach Tuesday night told Michelle Smith of The Next who has covered VanDerveer’s teams for decades at various publications in the Bay Area, “That was not it all. I love the PAC-12 and that situation is disappointing, but I would have been excited about the competition,” she said.

“I love working at Stanford. And I want to use some of the skills I’ve learned about lesdership and teamwork in a different way, like an ambassadorship. I love Stanford and I want to figure out how to serve in a different role.”

The university said VanDerveer will continue to work with the school and athletic department as an adviser, which is comparable to how retired Villanova men’s coach Jay Wright has done with the Wildcats after his surprise announcement at the time.

“Tara’s name is synonymous with the sport and women’s basketball would not be what it is today without her work,” said Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir, who held a similar role at Delaware, in the release announcing VanDerveer’s departure. “Tara built one of the sports iconic programs almost immediately upon her arrival at Stanford and then maintained that standard for nearly four decades. … We will look forward to finding the appropriate ways to honor her deep impact and legacy here at Stanford.”

Her last day will be May 8, which is the 39th anniversary of her original hire, meaning she will be off the payroll in her present capacity ahead of the end of the PAC-12 as it currently exists.