Is Tara VanDerveer the most underrated great coach in America?

[Carnac]

From an Article written Feb 2017 -
They give no trophies or parades or rings as big as headlights for such things, and they don’t put it on plaques or the covers of media guides, but it can fairly be said that Tara VanDerveer is the most underrated great coach in America. In any sport.

VanDerveer is a chunk of the weekend away from winning her 1,000th college basketball game, either Friday against Southern California or Monday against UCLA. It would make her the third coach in history after Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski to achieve that well-rounded milestone, and you may bet hard American currency that she will answer the hackneyed, “What does this mean to you?” question with a dismissive “It means I’ve been around for a long time.”

Is Tara VanDerveer the most underrated great coach in America?

Which is part of why she is so underrated. She’s been around for a very long time – next year will be her 40th – and between Idaho (two years), Ohio State (five), Stanford (30) and the U.S. Olympic Team (one), a very long time in this culture is an excuse to overlook, and overlooking leads to dismissing, and dismissing leads to underrating.

Next, she’s done most of her work on the West Coast, which due to the curvature of the earth, has always been undervalued by the opinion makers in the East and Midwest by virtue of that traditional cultural defining point, bedtime.

 

[CL82]

They give no trophies or parades or rings as big as headlights for such things, and they don’t put it on plaques or the covers of media guides, but it can fairly be said that Tara VanDerveer is the most underrated great coach in America. In any sport.

VanDerveer is a chunk of the weekend away from winning her 1,000th college basketball game, either Friday against Southern California or Monday against UCLA. It would make her the third coach in history after Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski to achieve that well-rounded milestone, and you may bet hard American currency that she will answer the hackneyed, “What does this mean to you?” question with a dismissive “It means I’ve been around for a long time.”

Is Tara VanDerveer the most underrated great coach in America?

Which is part of why she is so underrated. She’s been around for a very long time – next year will be her 40th – and between Idaho (two years), Ohio State (five), Stanford (30) and the U.S. Olympic Team (one), a very long time in this culture is an excuse to overlook, and overlooking leads to dismissing, and dismissing leads to underrating.

Next, she’s done most of her work on the West Coast, which due to the curvature of the earth, has always been undervalued by the opinion makers in the East and Midwest by virtue of that traditional cultural defining point, bedtime.

You realize the linked article is from 2017 right?

Here is the current woman's basketball 1000 win club. Haven't check to see if this is current, but since CViv is in there it may be.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Wow it's crazy how much more successful Geno has been compared to the others. Look at the years, losses, and pct. columns. That's absolutely nuts.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

This desire to publish @Scoop has to be moderated by a sense of time, place and audience. In other words, I might, very modestly and with all respect for your ability with a key board , suggest that your post is either ill timed or better on a Trees board.

 

[lanieer]

Tara is under appreciated

 

[hoopsfan22]

Tara is under appreciated

What's her compensation package? Something like $1.5m per year last I heard? Hard to argue she's underappreciated when you're one of the highest paid in your field.

 

[bballnut90]

I don't think she's underrated...I think most people on here would consider her a consensus top 5 coach in the country. Until April, many here ripped on Muffet for not being able to win another title despite being in the hunt almost every year, but Tara's track record the last 25 years has been far worse, yet no one seems to criticize her or her teams when they've come up short. I'd probably rank her as the 3rd or 4th best coach in the nation along with Vic Schaefer.

 

[Golden Husky]

Wow it's crazy how much more successful Geno has been compared to the others. Look at the years, losses, and pct. columns. That's absolutely nuts.

Look at the years, losses, and pct. columns.
And what isn't on the chart: 11 national titles.

 

[Carnac]

You realize the linked article is from 2017 right?

Here is the current woman's basketball 1000 win club. Haven't check to see if this is current, but since CViv is in there it may be.

View attachment 36827

Yes, but it's still current, just as an article written about Geno's greatness and achievements at that time would still be current today. Nothing about her approach or program goals have changed since this was written except for the additional games she has won, and the outlook for 2019 with the addition of Jones. Thanks for providing the update in their wins/losses.

Geno is not going to gain much ground on her this year. Neither figure to lose more than 1-2 games.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I don't think Tara is underrated. I think she's one of the top 3 active coaches and a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame. Maybe people overlook her because her teams haven't won an NCAA championship in 25+ years, but they have been very, very close.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Yes, but it's still current, just as an article written about Geno's greatness and achievements at that time would still be current today. Nothing about her approach or program goals have changed since this was written except for the additional games she has won, and the outlook for 2019 with the addition of Jones. Thanks for providing the update in their wins/losses.

Geno is not going to gain much ground on her this year. Neither figure to lose more than 1-2 games.

Yeah, the years in which Geno gained substantial ground in terms of wins just came to a screeching halt.

 

[Hayven]

Tara is not underrated, her teams have beat ND and UConn on multiple occasions within the past few years, despite the talent of their counterparts. Tara just does not get any attention because women’s west coast basketball does not get much attention

 

[CL82]

Yes, but it's still current, just as an article written about Geno's greatness and achievements at that time would still be current today. Nothing about her approach or program goals have changed since this was written except for the additional games she has won, and the outlook for 2019 with the addition of Jones. Thanks for providing the update in their wins/losses.

Geno is not going to gain much ground on her this year. Neither figure to lose more than 1-2 games.

Not so confident of that. She lost some head scratchers last year. How far do you anticipate her going in the tournament?

 

[VAUConnFan]

No, she is not underrated. Plus, Coach VanDerveer has the very difficult job of recruiting top level ballplayers who can qualify academically; No easy task. The entire athletic department at Stanford deserves praise, but Coach VanDerveer most of all.

Coach VanDerveer also benefits greatly being out on the west coast come tournament time.

 

[bballnut90]

No, she is not underrated. Plus, Coach VanDerveer has the very difficult job of recruiting top level ballplayers who can qualify academically; No easy task. The entire athletic department at Stanford deserves praise, but Coach VanDerveer most of all.

Coach VanDerveer also benefits greatly being out on the west coast come tournament time.

The academic threshold definitely limits your talent pool, but I can't think of an easier school to recruit to than Stanford. Location, academics, reputation, diversity and a fantastic athletic department make it pretty much the ultimate destination IMO. I'd also take a stab and guess that most top 10-20 recruits for girl's basketball are better students than the top 10-20 recruits for boy's basketball or football, since the payoff for putting your heart and soul into basketball over academics isn't the same as it is for the guys.

 

[Carnac]

Not so confident of that. She lost some head scratchers last year. How far do you anticipate her going in the tournament?

She'll make the 2nd weekend, but not the third. No FF's for Tara tis year.

 

[Carnac]

Tara is not underrated, her teams have beat ND and UConn on multiple occasions within the past few years, despite the talent of their counterparts. Tara just does not get any attention because women’s west coast basketball does not get much attention

Tell me about it!!!

 

[TheFarmFan]

Longtime Stanford fan here. I do think Tara is underrated, but only in the sense that the admissions challenges at Stanford limit who she can recruit, and therefore what the ceiling for her teams is. Tara has said in the past that in any given year, only roughly 5-10 of the ESPN Top 100 are admissible, so depending on where in the spectrum they fall in any given year, she's very lucky to get a top 10 recruiting class. Our senior class is a good example of this - no ESPN top 30 players and our leading scorer, Alanna Smith, is an Aussie who was completely under the radar for American universities until she signed with Stanford.

Over the past 4-5 seasons, there have only been a handful of Top 10 recruits admissible, and we didn't get KLS, so that's kind of meant we're haven't been a realistic championship contender since Chiney left. That's part of why so many Stanford fans have such ennui about Lou - we admire the heck out of her and the Samuelson clan, but she significantly altered what our trajectory has been over the past three years - in essence, "the one that got away." That, plus the third ACL injury to Aly Beebe, a lower top 10 recruit who committed to Stanford but whose injuries ended her career early before her freshman season, meant that we had zero top 10 commits on the court between Chiney (#1) in 2010 and Kiana Williams (#7) in 2017 (I believe Erica McCall was #11, by far our highest rated recruit during this stretch). Given that pool of players, that we've been a consistent low top 10 to high top 20 team is pretty dang good, IMHO.

That being said, y'all are right that recruiting is probably easier once they are admissible, so a lot of the work that Tara and especially the assistant coaches do is to reach out to prospects early, around 8th or 9th grade, and make them aware of exactly what they need to do to be in the running to be admitted (# of APs, SAT, etc.). Kate Paye, our associate head coach, literally tweets out PSAT dates and deadlines! So in a sense, a lot of the recruiting for Stanford is focused on finding athletically and academically promising youngsters and encouraging them to keep at the academics and know the targets they need to hit.

FWIW, the two big "what if?" recruits for us were Skylar Diggins and KLS - those two plus Mikayla Pivec of Oregon State are the three recent top recruits that were admitted to Stanford and went elsewhere. There's maybe one other top recruit over the past decade who was admitted and declined. We're exceptionally fortunate to get approx. 80-90% of the recruits admitted, but it means that in some years we can literally only focus on 5-6 of the top 100. It's just such a different ball game (pardon the pun) than a lot of schools where basketball is the whole enchilada. And it's why Jones was such a huge, huge win for us - she's the first top recruit who has been admitted since Chiney.

 

[JordyG]

Is Tara the most underrated great coach in America? Not in this household, and I think generally around The Boneyard as well. Has been that way for years.

You realize the linked article is from 2017 right?

Here is the current woman's basketball 1000 win club. Haven't check to see if this is current, but since CViv is in there it may be.

View attachment 36827

'Nuff said.

 

[shizam]

Not so confident of that. She lost some head scratchers last year. How far do you anticipate her going in the tournament?

L’ville killed Stanford last year in the Sweet 16. By about 30 points. Stanford was really down last year especially in the beginning. They improved as the year went on but didn’t have a strong squad and were exposed and still made a Sweet 16. Nice coaching

 

[CompSci87]

Tara (along with her staff) is severely underrated by Boneyard posts like #57 in this thread: Haley Jones to Stanford

 

[nwhoopfan]

those two plus Mikayla Pivec of Oregon State are the three recent top recruits that were admitted to Stanford and went elsewhere

Didn't realize Pivec was a Stanford target. OSU has been very happy to have her.

 

[Waquoit]

She's properly rated. She received loads of press back when her teams were regularly in the title chase. She goes back so far I remember a Cardinal fan calling her Charlie's 4th Angel.

 

[UConnCat]

Tara (along with her staff) is severely underrated by Boneyard posts like #57 in this thread: Haley Jones to Stanford

Yes. Post #57 in thread Haley Jones to Stanford does seem to underrate Tara but I don't think severely. Good find, though.

 

[JellyBean]

Is Tara VanDerveer the most underrated coach in America? Good Lord, NO! She is properly rated...if we are rating coaches now.