STANFORD, Calif.—Legendary women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer said Wednesday that her retirement announcement the night before wasn’t the first time she had thought about making that decision.
“Just felt I am ready,” Ms. VanDerveer said during an afternoon news conference at Stanford, citing some changes to the college basketball landscape.
Over her 45-year coaching career, all but the first seven at Stanford, Ms. VanDerveer’s teams finished with a 1,216–271 record, including 14 trips to the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four, and national championships in 1990, 1992, and 2021.
She began her coaching career at Idaho from 1978 to 1980, and also coached at Ohio State from 1980 to 1985. The Cardinal’s season ended with a 77–67 loss to North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 on March 29 in Portland, Ore.
During the news conference in the Arrillaga Family Sports Center on the Stanford campus, Ms. VanDerveer said she previously thought about stepping down a decade ago. That time, however, mega-donor John Arrillaga, for whom the auditorium was named, talked her out of it. Arrillaga, a billionaire real estate developer and philanthropist, died in 2022.
“I just want to do other things,” said Ms. VanDerveer, who mentioned improving her bridge game. “I have a lot of interests, and you just don’t know how much time you have.”
Ms. VanDerveer, 70, said Stanford’s decision to join the Atlantic Coast Conference next season in the wake of the demise of the Pacific-12 Conference was not a factor in her decision.
“[The conference change] was a motivator to want to stay, to play that competition, because I think it’s going to be a great, great league,” Ms. VanDerveer said.
Ms. VanDerveer said name, image, and likeness endorsements for players and the “24-7 job” of recruiting were more significant factors in her decision to step away from the program.
Ms. VanDerveer leaves as the NCAA’s all-time winningest basketball coach, among men’s or women’s coaches, although Connecticut women’s Coach Geno Auriemma is only three wins behind her. She said she will “be excited for him” when he surpasses her mark.
“I never went into it thinking about a record,” Ms. VanDerveer said. “He does a great job, and records are meant to be broken.”
