Defeat presents chance to learn

Going into Sunday’s titanic showdown between No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 Stanford, Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer was about the only coach/manager in the Bay Area who wasn’t on the hot seat.

The wolves have been howling at the Stanford and Cal football and basketball coaches, at Giants’ skipper Gabe Kapler and A’s manager Mark Kotsay, at the San Francisco 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan, and of course at the Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr.

Did VanDerveer join the Bay Area Hot Seat Club on Sunday when her team blew an early 12point lead, stumbled down the stretch and in overtime, and lost to the Gamecocks, 76-71? In the packed-to-the-rafters Maples Pavilion yet?

Nah. Just kidding. This is VanDerveer’s 36th season at Stanford and she is fireproof. She is at the top of her game, coaching and recruiting. The team Van

Derveer has assembled for another seemingly inevitable run to the Final Four looks as strong as any Stanford squad in recent memory, which is saying a lot.

Even though Stanford should be kicking itself hard for rookie mistakes Sunday and a lack of poise down the stretch, VanDerveer wasn’t doing any of the kicking (although Monday’s practice might not be a picnic). The ol’ professor knows the value of her students learning from failure, or at least hard battles. That’s why she stacks Stanford’s non-conference schedule with the best teams she can find.

So she took Sunday’s loss calmly. Outwardly, at least. With VanDerveer, especially in early-season games, it’s hard to tell whether her team won or lost, based on her postgame demeanor.

“Maybe it’s a team not ready to be No. 1,” VanDerveer said, evenly, “so we have to be hungry as No. 2.”

Even though the game went into overtime, the Gamecocks administered a definitive buttkicking. Playing in front of a sea of red-clad fans, on a court where Stanford had won 17 in a row, South Carolina out-poised Stanford. Stanford had 22 turnovers, to South Carolina’s 11, and two of Stanford’s were huge.

With 10 seconds left in overtime and trailing by two, Stanford’s All-Everything veteran Haley Jones failed to inbound the ball, a five-second violation. And when Kiki Iriafen got a defensive rebound with about five seconds left, she called timeout, but the Cardinal was out of timeouts. Oops.

Last season South Carolina came from 18 down to beat Stanford 65-61, in South Carolina. Stanford then went on a 24game winning streak, before losing in the Final Four to UConn.

“Last year, our point guard (Anna Wilson) struggled” in that game, VanDerveer said. “I didn’t think (freshman point guard) Talana (Lepolo) struggled.”

If anything, this was a win for South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who made key strategic changes, simplifying her offense when it struggled in the first half, saving superstar forward Aliyah Boston for late-game minutes after she got into foul trouble, and going to her bench to find more favorable matchups.

If Staley has built a powerhouse program, VanDerveer gets an assist. She coached Staley on the 1996 U.S. Olympic gold-medal squad. They bumped heads at times, both coming out wiser for the experience. Back in 2010, Stanford crushed South Carolina 70-32, and afterward Staley had VanDerveer come into the locker room and give the Gamecocks a few words of inspiration. All the while Staley has been taking notes. She has been a good student and is now a full professor.

VanDerveer, meanwhile, seems intent on staying at the top of her game. Forgetting Sunday’s game for a moment, when the Stanford bench was outscored 34-9, this team has depth.

And it has superstars. Probably no team in the country can match the one-two (or two-one) punch of junior All-Americans Jones and Cameron Brink. Jones is expected to turn pro after this season and is considered the likely No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft, behind South Carolina’s Boston.

Brink, who plans to stay for her senior season, has added touches to her game that make her a truly frightening opponent. Always strong in the low post and a great shot-blocker (four Sunday), she has added a 3-point shot to her arsenal. She hit her first two threes Sunday, before missing three, but she looks comfortable, and eager, from behind the arc.

At one point in the second quarter, Brink scored 11 of Stanford’s 12 points, on a variety of shots, including a nifty backcut, taking a slick skip pass from Jones and scoring on a lefty layup.

So don’t worry too much about Stanford, especially if the Cardinal builds off the lessons learned Sunday.

“We have to be hungrier,” said VanDerveer, who, in four decades, has learned how to channel that hunger.