Tara VanDerveer

The second-winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, Tara VanDerveer cemented herself as one of the top coaches in the sport, both collegiately and internationally, and is a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2011) and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2002). She announced her retirement on April 9, 2024.
 


A five-time national coach of the year (1988, 1989, 1990, 2011, 2021) and 18-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, VanDerveer, who prior to coming to Stanford served as head coach for a combined seven seasons at Idaho (1978-80) and Ohio State (1980-85), accumulated an impressive 1,216-271 (.818) record in her 45 years as a collegiate head coach and a 1,064-220 (.829) record over 38 seasons at Stanford.



VanDerveer won her 1,000th career game on Feb. 3, 2017, passed Pat Summitt (1,098) to become the then-winningest coach in women's college basketball history on Dec. 15, 2020, and surpassed Mike Krzyzewski (1,202) to become the then-winningest coach in NCAA basketball history on Jan. 21, 2024. 



In 2020-21, VanDerveer led the Cardinal back atop the collegiate mountaintop, all while maneuvering a global pandemic. Stanford finished the year 31-2, won both the Pac-12 regular season and tournament championships, earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and claimed the national championship for the first time since 1992.
 


VanDerveer led her Stanford teams to three NCAA Championships (1990, 1992, 2021), one of four coaches in the history of the sport to win three titles. She advanced the Cardinal to 14 NCAA Final Four appearances, 26 Pac-12 regular-season titles, 15 Pac-12 Tournament crowns and 35 trips to the NCAA Tournament. She also guided Idaho to one AIAW Tournament appearance and Ohio State to a pair of NCAA Tournaments while twice being named Big Ten Coach of the Year.
 


Her teams won 20 or more games 39 times (an NCAA college basketball record), including each of her final 23 seasons, and collected at least 30 victories 18 times. VanDerveer built Stanford into a national power almost immediately upon arrival and maintained an unparalleled level of success for over three and a half decades. On Feb. 26, 2016 the Cardinal won its 1,000th game in program history, becoming the seventh Division I institution to reach the milestone, and did so in fewer games than all but two other schools. Upon her retirement, VanDerveer accounted for 1,064 of Stanford’s 1,240 total victories since its first varsity season in 1975 (85.8 percent).
 


Perhaps one of VanDerveer’s most notable attributes was her ability to connect with student-athletes and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of college athletics. Considered one of the nation’s premier recruiters, VanDerveer and her staff routinely brought top classes to The Farm. The Stanford staff brought in the likes of Jennifer Azzi and Kate Starbird, both of whom won women’s basketball’s highest individual honor - the James Naismith National Player of the Year Award (Azzi 1990; Starbird 1997) - as well as Candice Wiggins, who in 2008 joined Azzi (1990) as Stanford’s second recipient of the State Farm/WBCA Wade Trophy Player of the Year Award.
 


First-team All-Americans that flourished under VanDerveer’s guidance include Cameron Brink (2022-24), Haley Jones (2022), Kiana Williams (2021), Alanna Smith (2019), Chiney Ogwumike (2012, 2013, 2014), Nneka Ogwumike (2010, 2011, 2012), Jeanette Pohlen (2011), Jayne Appel (2009, 2010), Wiggins (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008), the program’s only four-time All-American to date, Nicole Powell (2002, 2003, 2004), Kristin Folkl (1998), Starbird (1996, 1997), Val Whiting (1992, 1993), Sonja Henning (1991) and Azzi (1989, 1990).
 


Overall, VanDerveer  guided her players to two Wade Trophy Player of the Year honors, two Naismith Player of the Year honors, a WBCA Defensive Player of the Year and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, 38 first-team All-America honors (WBCA and Associated Press), 20 Pac-12 Player of the Year awards, 88 first team All-Pac-12 selections and nearly 40 appointments to USA Basketball teams.
 


Many of those players went on to have success at the professional level. During VanDerveer's tenure, Stanford had 34 players play in a regular-season WNBA game. Her program also boasted 15 first-round draft picks out of its 31 all-time selections, including 2016 WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike, and had seven players win a total of eight WNBA titles.
 


In 1995-96 VanDerveer served as head coach of the USA Basketball National Team, leading the team to a 52-0 exhibition record and then to the Olympic gold medal with a perfect 8-0 run at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
 
VanDerveer is a 1975 graduate of Indiana University, where she was a dean's list scholar for three years and a sociology major. While at Indiana, VanDerveer held one of the starting guard positions for three years on the women's basketball team. For her efforts at Indiana and her accomplishments after leaving the Hoosiers, VanDerveer was inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1995.
 


An avid piano player in her spare time, VanDerveer was born June 26, 1953. A Boston native who grew up in upstate New York, she is also a published author. Her book Shooting From The Outside, which chronicled her 1996 Olympic and National Team experience, was released in September 1997.