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| Holding the game ball, Tara is cheered by the team. (Stanford Athletics) |
After tying Pat Summitt's record of 1,098 wins with a victory over Cal, head coach Tara VanDerveer guided the Stanford team to victory over Pacific. Thus she topped the late Tennessee coach’s record with 1,099 wins and becoming the winningest women’s basketball coach.
First the No. 1 nationally ranked team prevailed at
Cal 83-38 on Dec. 13. Then it traveled to University of the Pacific in Stockton
to notch a 104-61 win on Dec. 15.
After that game, Pacific head coach Bradley Davis gave
Tara the game ball.
Team
gives Tara a personalized jacket
Clustering around her, the team gave her a black
quilted jacket with T-DAWG, the players' nickname for her, on the back. It was big enough that
one of her three dogs could have joined her in it, had they been there.
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| Tara tries on her new jacket. (Stanford Athletics) |
She then high-fived the entire team, followed by a
squirt of hand sanitizer.
Zoomed tributes came in from some well-known
admirers: Condoleezza Rice, Billie Jean King, Steve Kerr, John Elway, Nneka
Ogwumike and Lisa Leslie.
Interviewed after the game, Tara deflected praise,
instead saying, “I’ve learned from all my players.”
She also said that she is giving the local food bank $10 for every win she has amassed over the years and will continue to do so through the season.
Celebration is low-key
Since fans weren’t allowed because of coronavirus
restrictions, everything was low-key. If it had been at home in Maples, the
crowd would be roaring, the band playing and the Tree dancing in appreciation
of all she has accomplished.
The starting lineup for both the Cal and Pacific
games was the same as it has been so far this 5-0 season: senior guard Kiana Williams,
fifth-year guard Anna Wilson, junior guard Lexie Hull, sophomore guard Hailey
Jones and sophomore forward Fran Belibi.
All 12 Stanford players contributed in some way to
the win over Cal, while Cal was limited with only eight available players. Head
coach Charmin Smith went with a starting lineup of three freshmen, a sophomore
and a walk-on. She, her staff and players all wore T-shirts reading, “Racism is
a pandemic.”
Fran
dunks in a game for the first time
In addition to Tara’s tying with Pat, the game was
highlighted by Fran’s dunk after a steal late in the second quarter, much to everyone’s
delight. It was the first time she had dunked in a game, but she routinely
dunks just as the team finishes its pre-game warmups.
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| Trailed by Cameron (22) and Jana (4), Fran dunks. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle) |
With no Cardinal playing more than 24 minutes, four
players were in double figures: freshman forward Cameron Brink with 16,
sophomore guard Hannah Jump with 15, Fran with 14 and Kiana with 11.
Hannah’s points came from her five 3’s. Also scoring
from long range were Kiana, Cameron and junior guard Lacie Hull, each with one.
Commenting during the game, Pac-12 Networks analyst
Mary Murphy said of the team, “They're the real deal.”
Slow
start against Pacific
The Pacific game started slowly, perhaps because
traffic had delayed the team bus, which delivered the players only 90 minutes
before tipoff.
The first quarter ended 26-12, a 14-point margin.
The second quarter finished with an 11-point margin, 43-32 even though this was
Pacific’s first game of the season.
After halftime, though, Stanford turned on the jets,
scoring 36 points in the third quarter, giving it a 79-47 lead. More high
scoring led to the final of 104-61, a 43-point margin.
Six
players reach double figures
Among the more impressive takeaways from this game
was the balanced scoring. All five starters were in double figures: Lexie with
17; Fran, 15; and Hailey, Kiana and Anna with 14 each.
On top of that, Cameron pitched in with 12 points.
Moreover, all 12 players scored.
The team shot 3’s at a 33.3 percent rate, leading to
nine from beyond the arc. Lexie had three; Kiana and Anna had two each; and
Hannah and freshman guard Jana Van Gytenbeek had one each.
Free-throw shooting was a respectable 78.9 percent,
with 15 of 19 made. Also of note: only 10 fouls and 10 turnovers.
Road
to get rougher
Although the team looked good as it coasted through
its first five wins, a tougher schedule lies ahead. The team is scheduled to play at USC at 6 p.m. Dec. 19 and at UCLA at noon Dec.
21. The Pac-12 Networks will televise
both games.
The players will have a holiday break, but as
associate head coach Kate Paye said earlier, they won’t go home. Instead,
they’ll get ready for the rest of the Pac-12
gamut, starting at Arizona on New Year’s Day.
Now fans can only hope that the games will actually
be played, given the changes that have been wrought by the pandemic.
In the meantime, they can bask in knowing that this
is a great team with a great coach. And had she not taken off a year to coach
the U.S. team to its first Olympic gold, she would have reached the record a
lot sooner.
Moreover, as Mary Murphy said, “This is a team with
a lot of room to grow.”
