Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer passed the late Pat Summitt on Monday for most appearances in the Associated Press women's basketball Top 25 poll. The Cardinal remained at No. 2 this week, which is VanDerveer's 619th appearance with one of her team. She's been in the poll for a total of 592 weeks while coaching Stanford and 27 weeks when she was head coach at Ohio State.
"Fortunate to be here for 36 years. We have great players and have been successful," she told the Associated Press. "I don't pay attention to [records]. People bring it up and I'm like 'OK, great.'"
VanDerveer's list of achievements is a long. She is one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history -- men's or women's -- with only former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski having more victories than her.
The Cardinal are 10-1 this season with the only loss coming against No. 1 South Carolina in a competitive game that went into overtime. Stanford currently has the nation's 7th best scoring margin, averaging 85.6 points per game and holding opponents to 52.5 points per game.
VanDerveer's squad features two All-Americans in Haley Jones and Cameron Brink, as well as the No. 1 recruit of the class of 2022 Lauren Betts. Senior guard Hannah Jump has also been a solid contributor, as she and Brink lead the team in scoring with an average of 12.4 points per game each. The Cardinal's success is a team effort with seven players shooting at 50% from the field or better.
The Cardinal are coming off an 84-63 victory against No. 23 Gonzaga. They are taking on Tennessee on Dec. 18, and their schedule won't get any easier after that as they will be facing a ranked Creighton team on Dec. 20 before starting Pac-12 conference play.
