Stanford coach quietly nears alltime wins mark
Sometime soon, if all goes according to plan — something hard to predict in these pandemic days — Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer will ascend to the top of a mountain she’s been climbing for more than four decades.
She will pass Pat Summitt, becoming the alltime winningest coach in women’s college basketball.
The achievement will take place without fans, without family, with masks and muted celebration.
“I think if that’s the way it happens that will be just perfect for Tara,” said her younger sister Heidi VanDerveer, the head coach at UC San Diego.
VanDerveer needs four wins to tie and five to surpass the Tennessee legend’s victory mark of 1,098. Hot on VanDerveer’s heels is the University of Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma, who is three victories behind her. Only Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski has more Division I college basketball wins.
As her sister noted, VanDerveer is fine with the moment passing without fanfare.
“It’s nothing I ever set out to do, nothing that motivates me,” said VanDerveer, whose team is ranked second in the nation and opens its season Wednesday against Cal Poly. “It’s just a reflection of the great players I’ve had, the great teams and great staff.”
On the face of it, VanDerveer and Summitt — two of the most important figures in American sports history — couldn’t be more different. Summitt, who died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, with her bright orange suits and stiletto heels, her dramatic eye makeup, her withering stares and legions of passionate fans, was a largerthanlife persona.
“They’re opposites in terms of personality,” said Jennifer Azzi, the Tennessee native who led VanDerveer’s first national championship team in 1990. “Very, very different stylistically. But in terms of drive and work ethic and intensity they are very similar.”
Azzi grew up in Oak Ridge, 30 minutes from Knoxville in a state where girls were crazy for basketball in large part due to Summitt’s looming shadow. But Summitt didn’t recruit her and Azzi became VanDerveer’s first big signing in 1986. It was because of Azzi’s presence that VanDerveer reached out to Tennessee about playing an early season nonconference game.
“Pat was like, ‘ Sure we’ll play you,’ ” VanDerveer said.
In the small world of women’s college basketball, the two women already knew each other. Though Summitt was only a year older than VanDerveer, she was already the dominant figure in the sport.
“We were contemporaries, but she became a head coach when she was just 22,” VanDerveer said. “She had such a huge presence in women’s basketball.”
Their teams had played each other when VanDerveer coached at Ohio State. And when Heidi VanDerveer, 10 years younger than her older sister, wanted to pivot from law school to coaching, VanDerveer told her to either go work for Summitt or for Jody Conradt at Texas. Heidi worked under Summitt at Tennessee for three years, during which time the Vols won their first NCAA championship.
The first time Stanford played Tennessee, in Knoxville in 1988, it wasn’t close.
“I went back to the hotel room and was laying on the bed, having a breakdown and Heidi said, ‘ Tara, let’s watch the video and figure out how to beat them,’ ” VanDerveer said.
The next year, on the Stanford campus, the Cardinal beat Tennessee.
“That was when I knew our program was here to stay,” Azzi said.
Four months later, on Summitt’s court in Knoxville, which hosted the Final Four, Stanford won its first national championship.
Even without Azzi, the series with Tennessee continued. Every December for 31 years, taking turns hosting, the teams have played each other. Stanford is 1225 against Tennessee; the series includes some preseason tournaments and three postseason matches.
“We don’t have a signed contract, it’s just always on the schedule,” VanDerveer said. “It’s always a winwin, because even if you don’t win you learn so much about your team when you play Tennessee.
“In a lot of ways, Pat helped me be a better coach.”
VanDerveer felt she really got to know Summitt when she coached two Tennessee players, Carla McGhee and Nikki McCray, on the 1996 Olympic team. They told funny stories about Summitt and parroted her sayings. Summitt, who had led the U. S. team to its first gold medal in 1984, also shared her insight into the international game with VanDerveer.
Over the years, their friendship grew. They would get together for a meal or a talk. VanDerveer remembers going to Summitt’s house for dinner on one trip to Knoxville.
“They’re cut from the same cloth,” Heidi VanDerveer said. “They are both extremely passionate about what they do and are innovative and hardworking and entrust their coaches to help them be successful.”
But the two trailblazers were different, both in personality and environment.
“Not everything Tara does is a story,” Heidi said. “But everything Pat did was a story and her persona added fuel to that fire, to that inferno. Tara burns hot in a different way. ... Her passion comes through more analytically. She’s not going to try to fit a square peg in a round hole, but Pat would push it through.”
As VanDerveer is on the verge of passing Summitt, this will be the first year Stanford does not face Tennessee in an early season game. The pandemic will eliminate the normal nonconference schedule.
But VanDerveer will never forget the last time she coached against Summitt.
Summitt had already been diagnosed and there was a sense that she was in her last season. On the court before the game, as the band blared Rocky Top and the packed stands quivered with orange pompoms, VanDerveer and Summitt chatted.
“I looked around and I said, ‘ Pat, look at what you have built here,’ ” VanDerveer said. “And she looks at me and says, ‘ Tara, I love you.’
“It caught me so offguard. I think she just knew.”
When Summitt died in 2016 at age 64, VanDerveer seemed to become more reflective, mentioning how she wished she had more time to ski and leading some to wonder if she was contemplating retirement.
“I did see how it affected her,” Heidi VanDerveer said. “I think it changed her to be, like, enjoy the day. Tara’s always had that bigpicture perspective, but I think it reemphasized it.”
VanDerveer said Summitt’s death did make an impact.
“You might think, ‘ Is there more to life than this?’ ” VanDerveer said. “But what motivates me is being around my team.”
On the precipice of a mindblowing achievement — with 1,094 victories, VanDerveer has more career wins than 342 of the 349 NCAA women’s basketball programs — she is keeping things in perspective.
“I just so badly want some normalcy,” she said. “Just playing one game would be great.”