At the Stanford Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, California, on Friday, Stanford University’s Tara VanDerveer—the all-time winningest women’s college basketball coach—tied the NCAA record for career wins with the Cardinals’ 88-63 victory over Oregon.
With this win, VanDerveer has tied Mike Krzyzewski, a fellow member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the head coach of Duke men’s basketball, with 1,202 career victories during her 45-year coaching career.
When asked what the milestone meant to her after the game, VanDerveer told the Pac-12 Network, “It’s just a tribute to the great teams I had, the great places I’ve worked.” “I think it’s great for women’s basketball that there’s a lot of attention and we’re having just a super season.”
At Stanford, Vanderveer, 70, is in her 38th season. She joined the university in 1985 and stayed on until 1996. At Stanford, she was voted national coach of the year five times and won three national titles.
She was a coach at Ohio State and the University of Idaho as well. Her induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame took place in 2011.
She would surpass Krzyzewski as the all-time winningest college basketball coach with 1,203 victories if she were to defeat Oregon State at home on Sunday.