Tara VanDerveer, Who Came Up in a Different World of College Basketball, Is Your New All Time Wins Leader

Stanford’s ​​Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history on Sunday, surpassing Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski.

VanDerveer earned her 1,203th win in a home victory over Oregon State. She’s won the national title three times, including most recently in 2021, and she has been named the country’s top coach five times. She won a gold medal coaching the 1996 Olympic team, and has held the record for the most wins for an NCAA women’s basketball coach since 2020, when she overtook Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who held the overall title before Krzyzewski.

The 70-year-old VanDerveer began her head coaching career at Idaho in 1978. She also coached at Ohio State before taking the helm at Stanford in 1985. She coached sisters Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike who both went first-overall in the WNBA draft, and national players of the year Jennifer Azzi and Kate Starbird. Her No. 8 Cardinal currently sit atop the Pac-12 with a 17-2 record.

VanDerveer coached college basketball before many elements that define the women’s game today: cell phones and social media, NIL deals and collectives, and even the WNBA.

She’s also adapted as women’s sports have grown, from record-breaking attendance and viewership to her players becoming social media stars. One of her best players, Cameron Brink, has more than 500,000 combined followers on Instagram and TikTok, plus endorsement deals with companies including New Balance, CVS, and Buick.

VanDerveer’s annual salary sat around $2.3 million in 2016, the last time the figure was published publicly. That number is below more recent salary postings for elite women’s basketball coaches such as Kim Mulkey, Geno Auriemma, and Dawn Staley, and it’s far behind the coach she just eclipsed—Krzyzewski took home $13.7 million in 2020.