There's not one post in this thread that has suggested that "Tara can't coach anymore." So let's just stop with the straw man arguments.
Head-to-head match-ups between these two coaches doesn't really say a lot about who is the better coach. As I mentioned in another thread, for much the past 20+ years the teams only played if they happened to meet up in the NCAAs. The teams did not play at all between Dec 1997 and March 2005. Those were years in which UConn dominated WCBB and the teams not playing during those years helps Stanford in terms of its overall record against UConn.
I find it ironic that a Stanford fan is claiming that it's easier to recruit to Storrs than Stanford. It seems to me that every time UConn and Stanford go head to head for a recruit, Stanford wins. It's now at the point where we just assume Stanford will win all recruiting battles between the two schools. The reality is that the so-called small pool of players available to Stanford is not a convincing argument when it comes to basketball, particularly women's basketball in which so many good players are also great students. We're talking 15 scholarships over 4 years. (It's more of an issue with football and Stanford's recent football success tells me that Stanford may have slightly lessened its academic standards, at least for football players.) Let's not fixate too much on which coach has recruited more #1s; Diana and Tina weren't going to Stanford even if they had qualified academically. Year in and year out Stanford has great players on its roster and I think had the most talented roster in the country in 2011. That championship was Stanford's to lose...and it did.
I really don't have strong feelings about who's the better coach. They're both great coaches, but obviously I'm partial to Geno. I don't think there is a coach who prepares a team better for an opponent than Tara, but I don't think she's as good as Geno in her "in-game" adjustments.
I was being sarcastic vs. straw man/woman. I agree head to head doesn't say a lot, I was asking what DD thought. I know our history quite well as I've been at most all of the games, minus the last 2 at Storrs. You said yourself we had down years, mostly due to losing King to ACLs and Carey for good. We are never that deep in great talent, and when we lose one or two, it is devastating, especially to pg's.
Sure, many people would pick Stanford over Storrs, but UConn is THE team in town with all fan adulation, private jets, and media following. Stanford flys coach and barely makes the local and evening news. It's easy to see why some kids would want the former.
I think they are both great coaches, but I'm not going to say Geno is better coach than Tara because he has more NCs. They have each shown strengths and weaknesses in games and recruiting. Geno got out coached in Tampa and at Maples. She was out coached at Storrs and other F4s, plus Appel having a broken foot didn't help. We got Appel, Yamasaki, both O sisters over UConn, you got Bird, Lobo, Dee, and Tina. We obviously disagree that there are enough talented players who call get into Stanford. Sure, we get some, but not the number you do.
Yes, we were the best team in 1997 and lost. And we were the best team in 2011 and lost as well, with no true pg, again.
If so, I've love to read them as well. But if you cannot dig them up, I bet you said we were too slow and didn't match up with all your talent and quickness.
