VanDerveer stepping down after 38 seasons at Stanford

Tara VanDerveer, the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, announced her retirement late Tuesday night after 38 seasons leading the Stanford women’s team and 45 overall.

VanDerveer, 70, surpassed Mike Krzyzewski for the wins record earlier this year. The Hall of Famer departs with 1,216 victories at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford.

And as has been the plan for years, top Cardinal assistant Kate Paye is set to take over the program.

VanDerveer’s Stanford teams won NCAA titles in 1990, ’92 and 2021 and reached the Final Four 14 times.

More college basketball

The women’s NCAA title game drew a bigger TV audience than the men’s title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The Sunday afternoon game on ABC and ESPN outdrew Monday’s men’s final between UConn and Purdue by four million. The Huskies’ 75-60 victory averaged 14.82 million on TBS and TNT.

• Iowa’s Caitlin Clark won the John R. Wooden Award for the second straight year as the nation’s top women’s player. Clark led the Hawkeyes to their second straight appearance in the NCAA title game after leading the nation in scoring (31.6 ppg) and assists (8.9).

Soccer

Liverpool of the English Premier League and one of the premier club teams in the world will play Real Betis of Spain’s La Liga at 7:30 p.m. July 26 at Acrisure Stadium as part of its preseason tour. Tickets will go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. Thursday via Ticketmaster.