Tara VanDerveer’s journey to become college basketball’s winningest coach

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The head coach of the Stanford women's basketball team, Tara VanDerveer, made history last night as she became the winningest coach in college basketball history, surpassing former Duke men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

  VanDerveer has now won 1,203 games in her 45 seasons as a head coach, 38 of them at Stanford. She has won three national championships, most recently in 2021. She has also led the U.S. team to Olympic gold and has been national coach of the year five times. More than 30 of her players have gone on to the WNBA.

  To discuss the impact VanDerveer has had on the game, we are joined now by Christine Brennan of USA Today.

  Christine, always good to see you.

  Just give us a sense of how big a moment this is for Coach VanDerveer, but also just for women's basketball.

• Christine Brennan, USA Today:

  Well, absolutely, Amna.

  And because we are now in the absolute pinnacle of women's basketball in terms of interest, talent, of course, Caitlin Clark, LSU, the stories that people know so well, it is absolutely fitting that one of the great people in the game, one of the smartest coaches ever, male or female, great strategist, self-effacing, someone who would rather read a book than look at anything online, who is not on social media, works out every day, plays bridge, Tara VanDerveer, a legend, a pillar of the game, again, men's and women's.

  You don't have to have the adjective women's in many ways with her, but the reality is, it is women's basketball. She has been leading women throughout the entirety of Title IX, as we have watched this wonderful law, 51-and-a-half years old, working its way through our country and changing women, changing girls' opportunities, women's opportunities.

  Tara VanDerveer is one of those great historical figures, but she is still among us. She is still coaching. And, as you said, it is just a fantastic day for women's sports and for sports in general, when we can say that she has passed the great coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke men's basketball coach, and that maybe there's a couple of people out there who don't want to give a woman her due, but my goodness, the nation has.

  And it's wonderful to see the acclaim that she is getting for this incredible feat.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You mentioned the self-effacing style. She has really evolved, adapted her game. She's been coaching since she was 24, but her players also describe this calmness about her.

  Tell us about VanDerveer as a coach, as a leader.

• Christine Brennan:

  I covered her during the Olympics in 1996, which you referred to, the Olympic gold medal.

  I have covered her at a couple of NCAA tournaments. And, of course, again, the important thing here is, she won in 1990 the national title, she won in 1992, and then again in 2021. So talk about longevity and the ability to adapt with the game.

  And I think it is — the fact that she takes breaks, she works out, she is all consumed in one way, Amna — as we know, a great coach has to be. But in another way, she disengages, and she really wants to have kind of an old-school life, where she loves to read or just get away from it all.

  And I think, because of that, she has stayed sharp, she stayed fresh, the fact that she still loves it. Her — of course, her players still love her. And she's doing this at Stanford, one of our great academic institutions in the country. And think about that. You just can't get any player into Stanford. So she's doing this with the cream of the crop, both athletically and academically, at the most competitive time in the history of the sport.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You mentioned that 1996 Olympic team. That was — for me, that was the dream team to watch. They won the Olympic gold that had superstars like Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes and Dawn Staley and Rebecca Lobo on it.

  The impact of that team and their win and the fan base and the enthusiasm, that is what paved the way for the WNBA to be formed. I mean, talk about the impact VanDerveer has had, not just on the Olympic team, the national team, but on basketball and the actual establishment of a league.

• Christine Brennan:

  Well, you're right.

  And that was the Atlanta Games, 1996. A lot of pressure on that team that Tara VanDerveer took over and actually took a year sabbatical from Stanford to coach that, as you said, that dream team, because, in 1992, the U.S. women had won the bronze medal. They did not win every game. They lost and didn't win the gold.

  And so, therefore, the pressure's on, home Olympics in Atlanta. And what was riding on it? Only the future of women's professional basketball. There were actually two leagues that came out of those Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 after VanDerveer's team won the gold. And one of them, of course, exists to this day. It's the WNBA, so the professional opportunities for women, another huge piece of the puzzle of Title IX, those athletic opportunities.

  You can actually then become a professional athlete and make money as a woman. Those also came out of the victory that Tara VanDerveer's team had.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And just when you look at the game today, Christine, we saw that a new broadcast deal was just announced between the NCAA and ESPN for over $900 million over eight years. Most of that deal, most of that deal is made up of women's basketball games.

  What does that say to you about where the game is today?

• Christine Brennan:

  I think if anyone has watched Caitlin Clark, and we know that she is selling out every arena she goes to, kind of like a latter-day Harlem Globetrotter situation, but it's a woman's basketball player that the nation has fallen in love with.

  Of course, LSU winning that national title game against Iowa, the TV ratings for that, Amna, were so close to the men's ratings. We have never seen more people watch a woman's basketball college game and then also — and, actually, frankly, college or pro — and then also the fact that it was really just a couple million short of what the men had.

  And so I think that's where we are, that here we are, as we are now the second 50 years of Title IX, and we are watching that the nation has fallen in love with what it has created, the girl next door, the girl you see in the kitchen every morning, and the support now is there.

  And for years, we knew that, as we found out, that March Madness, the title that was given to the men's game, was not being allowed for the women's game to use and market itself. That all changed a few years ago, and now the women are getting their due, and they're getting those big contracts, and we see the fans.

  It all works in conjunction with everything else, all these pieces of the puzzle coming together to show us just how much the country has fallen in love with basketball and with women's basketball and these wonderful women's stars that we have watched literally grow up in our neighborhoods.

• Amna Nawaz:

  It's a great time for the game, a great time for Coach VanDerveer. Congratulations to her.

  And, Christine Brennan, thank you to you. Always great to talk to you.

• Christine Brennan:

  You too, Amna. Thank you.