Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford benefits from early tests
Nearly every week this season, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer has gathered her team at some point and conveyed this message: “Every disappointment is a blessing.”
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VanDerveer knew Stanford would take some lumps early playing an ambitious schedule. She knew there would be growing pains as the Cardinal tried to find their identity and adjust to new roles.
But VanDerveer was excited about the potential of her young team and wanted her players to keep the bigger picture in mind.
“No one likes losing, but I think we see it as a building sort of thing,” Stanford junior forward Alanna Smith told The Summitt. “We are learning from our mistakes, and the losses just show us what we need to work on and makes us work even harder.”
Stanford is showing signs of development.
The Cardinal entered Pac-12 Conference play with their worst 12-game start since the 1998-99 season, including an upset loss to Western Illinois at home.
They dropped from the AP poll last week for the first time since 2001, ending a streak of 312 consecutive weeks in the rankings.
But Stanford (8-6) rebounded to open conference play with a sweep of the Los Angeles schools. The Cardinal beat No. 11 UCLA on Friday night and USC on Sunday to quickly vault back into the rankings at No. 24.
“We are a young team and a very unselfish team and a hard-working team. We have a lot of upside,” VanDerveer said. “We are playing an extremely demanding schedule and our team is embracing that and really working hard. By the end of the year, I am hoping this is one of the most improved teams we have ever had.”
Stanford returned two starters from a team that reached the Final Four last season. The roster includes eight underclassmen, and junior Marta Sniezek was the only player that had averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career.
Rather than playing an easier non-conference schedule to help ease the transition, VanDerveer didn’t lower the program’s standards.
Stanford is the only school in the nation that has played five AP Top-10 opponents. By comparison, Stanford played five Top-10 opponents all of last year.
VanDerveer wanted her team to embrace the challenge. It’s why players come to Stanford, a program that has won 23 regular-season conference titles and two NCAA championships.
“We are going to get better and better. It might be a steep learning curve, but we are not wasting time playing teams like Baylor or Connecticut or Ohio State,” VanDerveer said. “You learn about your team against those teams. You learn you have to play defense and rebound and do the right things or you are not going to win.”
Injuries further complicated Stanford’s ability to gel during the rugged beginning.
Senior guard Brittany McPhee missed nine games with a right foot injury. She has scored 74 points in the three games since returning.
Sophomore DiJonai Carrington returned against UCLA to help bolster Stanford’s backcourt depth. A former middle school tackle football player, Carrington took an elbow during practice that sidelined her for three games.
Stanford’s heralded freshmen have received a baptism by fire. Forward Maya Dodson and guard Kiana Williams arrived in Palo Alto as McDonald’s and Jordan Brand Classic All-Americans.
“Even though we are young and fairly inexperienced, we work really hard,” Smith said. “Our practices are always competitive and high energy no matter what the result was the week before or the night before. To me, what is really good about our team is that we don’t let it get to us and we stay together.”
Smith’s role has expanded for Stanford this season, her first as a full-time starter. The 6-foot-4 Australian is averaging 14.1 points and 8.6 rebounds.
In a rematch of the season opener against then-No. 9 Ohio State, Smith had 33 points and 16 rebounds in an overtime loss at the Play4Kay Showcase in Las Vegas.
“The responsibility is a bit more on my shoulders,” Smith said. “I definitely think as an upperclassman in general, I need to be more of a leader and lead by example and just be there for my younger teammates.”
Smith was the first international recruit for Stanford in program history. She comes from a high-level basketball-playing family, and grew up in a gym watching her dad and uncle play.
She didn’t start playing the sport until she was 13 because her parents didn’t want to push Smith onto the hardwood. They wanted her to find what she was passionate about on her own.
“I tried tennis and soccer. I was just this tall, lanky kid running around on the soccer field and everyone was like ‘What is she doing?’” Smith said. “They were like, ‘She is two heads taller than the other kids. Get her out on a basketball court.’ So I started playing basketball and loved it.”
Smith’s uncle, Jason Smith, played at Cal Lutheran University, a Division III school in Thousand Oaks, California.
“He was the one who really instilled the dream in me of coming to college and playing,” Smith said. “I thought if he can do it, I can do it. Once I found he had been in college over here, I knew it was something I could do.”
Playing for VanDerveer was a big selling point for Smith in signing with Stanford.
No matter how long she coaches or how many wins she accumulates, VanDerveer’s thirst for learning doesn’t dissipate.
Teaching is her passion and her life’s mission. She never settles for complacency, and continually looks for ways to grow as a coach and a person.
VanDerveer has attended a few Golden State Warriors practices the last few years to try and find wrinkles to add to her program.
“I like trying new things, and obviously working with new teams you get to really work hard to try and fit what we do to our personnel,” said VanDerveer, in her 32nd season on The Farm. “We try not to just do the same thing and fit a round peg in a square hole. We try to look at what we have and maximize our team’s strengths and minimize the weaknesses. It’s fun when you have players who love basketball and really play hard for each other.”
VanDerveer’s first team at Stanford finished 1-7 in conference play. Three years later, the Cardinal were 18-0 to match the conference record in VanDerveer’s final season at Ohio State in 1984-85.
The building process invigorated VanDerveer back then, and it still does. Each season provides different dynamics to piece together for success.
It may seem intimidating to young coaches entering the business, but VanDerveer provides sage advice.
“You just have to be yourself. You can’t try to be like another coach,” said VanDerveer, one of four women’s Division I coaches to reach 1,000 career wins. “Just have integrity and try to really do things right and with no shortcuts, and be the same person win or lose. Just enjoy and respect the game.”
Come March, Stanford hopes to look back on the early-season challenges and be grateful for how the schedule helped mold and strengthen the team. The Cardinal believe they will discover the disappointments were truly blessings.
“It just takes time. We are still learning to play with each other,” Smith said. “You can see glimpses of it, and it’s awesome. I can’t wait to get there.”