Tara VanDerveer Seeks Win Record When No. 1 Stanford Comes to Cal

Cardinal coach would tie Pat Summitt's record for career victories by a women's basketball coach with a Sunday night win over Golden Bears, who are coached by Stanford alum Charmin Smith

An interesting and historic collection of events will intersect at Haas Pavilion on Sunday night at 7 p.m.

Stanford, the No. 1-ranked women’s college basketball team in the country, will come to Berkeley that night, and the Cardinal’s coach, Tara VanDerveer, coached Cal head coach Charmin Smith when Smith played at Stanford.

But what makes the game particularly significant is that VanDerveer would tie Pat Summitt’s record for most career wins by a women’s basketball coach if the heavily favored Cardinal (3-0) beats Cal (0-4) on Sunday.

VanDerveer has 1,097 career wins as the coach at Idaho, Ohio State and Stanford. Only the late Pat Summitt, with 1,098 wins, has more career wins among NCAA women’s basketball coaches, and only Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, with 1,159 wins, has more NCAA basketball coaching victories than those two.

“It’s just so much fun for me,” Smith said about facing her alma mater. “Coaching against Tara, for me she’s like the best ever to do it, and I’m just looking forward to building this team and continue to stay positive with this group so that we can have some of the success that they’ve had. So we can get to the history of Cal basketball where it’s been Stanford and Cal neck and neck.”

Smith played four seasons under VanDerveer at Stanford and was a key player in the Cardinal’s three consecutive Final Four berths in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Smith was a starter on Stanford’s 1997 team, which, along with the 1990 national championship squad, are considered the two best Cardinal teams ever. The 1997 team went 34-2, including an overtime loss to No. 2 Old Dominion in the NCAA tournament semifinals. Smith hit two free throws with 12 seconds left to send that game into overtime.

This season's Cardinal team arrived in Berkeley on Saturday following 10 days in Las Vegas, temporarily relocating training and competition due to the emergency directive issued by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department on Nov. 28.

Cover photo of Tara VanDerveer by Richard Brian, USA TODAY Sports

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