Tara VanDerveer built up the Pac-12 into a power and held down an entire coast for generations, providing a beacon for anyone who was looking.
Michael Voepel covers the WNBA, women's college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women's basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
She leaves with 1,216 career victories, more than any men's or women's coach in NCAA history. She won three NCAA titles, the last coming 29 years after the second, a testament both to her longevity and ability to evolve with the game. And she steps away after holding down an entire coast for her sport for generations, lifting up her peers to help build the Pac-12 into the nation's top conference this past season.As much as fans might miss VanDerveer, basketball will miss her more.
VanDerveer said last fall that the idea of playing in the ACC, which Stanford will join for 2024-25, wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker for her -- despite the travel demands, especially for someone who turned 70 last summer. But it seems fitting that VanDerveer, who for nearly four decades kept the Pac-12 prominent in the national conversation about women's basketball, says goodbye at the same time the league disintegrates.
First college coaching stop: a graduate assistant at Ohio State. Then she got a head-coaching job at Idaho. She thought at the time that she could stay there the rest of her life. But Ohio State came calling, then Stanford. In 1985, the VanDerveer era began on the Farm, and the success was almost immediate and sustained.
The hardships of that championship season made the celebration more meaningful to VanDerveer, who could put it all in perspective.
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