In a special episode recorded in front of a live audience, Dean Lloyd Minor welcomes Stanford’s legendary women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer for a discussion about her extraordinary 40-year career. They discuss the coaching philosophy that led her teams to three NCAA Championship titles and an Olympic gold medal, along with her approach to developing talent and fostering resilience. They also explore the art of making half-time adjustments, learning as a leader, and the future of women’s athletics.
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(00:00):
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to this specialedition of "The Minor Consult,"
where I speak withleaders shaping our world
in diverse ways.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down
with the legendarywomen's basketball coach,
(00:22):
Tara VanDerveer.
She's one of the winning-est coaches
in NCAA basketball history,
amassing an incredible 1,216 wins.
She led Stanford Cardinalwomen's basketball
to three NCAA championships,
coached the US women's basketball team
to an Olympic gold in1996, and not surprisingly,
(00:46):
has been inducted into theWomen's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Tara shared insightsabout her coaching career,
her approach to building andmotivating winning teams,
and her forecast for the future of one
of the nation's most popular sports.
So without further ado,let's go to our episode.
Congratulations. Thank you for being here.
(01:08):
- Thank you.
I'm glad it was cold outso I could wear my jacket.
You guys could see it, so good morning.
It's great to be here. Thank you, Lloyd.
- Thank you.- Coach Minor.
(Lloyd laughing)
- Exactly. We all are, aren't we?
- Yes, we are.- And I think
that's an importantmessage to discuss, today.
So Tara, can you go backto when you got interested
(01:29):
in basketball, a little bit on the film,
but could you expand onthat a little bit more
and how you decided?
You weren't always sure,
you were gonna be a basketball coach.
I think you thought maybeyou'd be a lawyer at one point.
- I actually thoughtabout medicine one time
until chemistry in college,and that was, I said, no.
(01:50):
I first played basketballin physical education class
when I was in the fifthgrade, and I just loved it.
And my parents are both teachers,
and really, their Fridaynight, Friday night was going
to the Y, jumping on thetrampoline, swimming.
So it was always being very active.
I'm a skier, biker, everything.
(02:10):
But basketball just grabbed me.
But there were no teams for girls.
So it was very frustrating
because, you know, Iwould play with the boys
and, you know, there were girls
and boys when I first started out,
but as I got a little older,
the boys didn't want me to play.
So I bought the best basketball,
and if they wanted to use myball, I got to be in the game.
And that was how I got toplay. So I figured that out.
(02:33):
But it was very challenging
because there weren't teams for girls.
And I was out there playing by myself,
and in the ninth grade,I was taking algebra,
and my mom and dad called me in and said,
"Tara," I'd be out therefor hours and they'd say,
"Tara, come in and doyour algebra homework.
Basketball is nevergonna take you anywhere."
And I'm like, "Algebra'snot taking me anywhere."
(02:53):
So, you know, but I just loved the game
and I didn't see any future in it
because there weren't teams for women.
This was before TitleIX, which was in 1972.
So I think I'm older thaneveryone in this room,
but it was really a very painful thing
to love something and Icouldn't get to do it.
(03:14):
But I then I got to playin college a little bit,
and I went to Indianaand I studied basketball.
Coach Knight was there,and I watched his practice.
I took his coaching class.
It's just been a loveaffair with basketball.
So I've never felt I hadto go to a J-O-B job.
I just woke up and I love watching tape.
I love going to the gym.
(03:34):
I got to work with all these great players
and work at Stanford.
I loved it. So it's just been really fun.
I just have to pinch myself
because I've had such a great life.
- That's fantastic.
Can you talk about yourcoaching philosophy?
You spoke about it before.
- Sure.
(03:54):
- But to continue to besuccessful, and every season,
every game, you have to reinvent yourself.
- Right.
- You have to form a team,keep the team motivated.
But first, maybe from a broad perspective,
coaching philosophy, then personally.
- Okay.
- How you maintain yourstamina, your focus,
your success over a long period of time.
(04:17):
- Well, I kind of chuckled
because I interviewed for a couple jobs.
I've not interviewed for too many,
but I interviewed in Montana
and I was interviewed by theplayers from the Montana team,
and they said the exact same thing.
They said, "Tell us aboutyour coaching philosophy."
And they sat right in frontof me and I said, "Work."
And they kind of looked atme like I had two heads,
(04:38):
and I said, "Would youlike me to elaborate?"
And they said, "Yes."
I said, "Hard work."
So, but I didn't get that job.
(everyone laughing)
But I guess I start with basketball
or, you know, for me, isI just love it so much.
I love to learn about it,
and I wanna share my enthusiasmfor basketball with all
(05:00):
of the players, my staff,
and just every day, justcoming to work with a lot
of enthusiasm, and not being discouraged.
Like, I don't knowexactly what's going on.
I don't think I'm gonnaget replaced by AI,
but maybe I would as a coach.
But you know, all the thingsthat you're dealing with,
(05:22):
I get a little bit of a sense
of maybe anxiety in the room,
a little worry, challenges ahead.
And I just, you know, incoming even to Stanford,
my dad, I called my parents.
I had taken the Stanfordjob. I was at Ohio State.
We had a great team.
I mean, we had kidsthat were just fabulous.
(05:43):
But Stanford, to me, isthe ultimate challenge.
And I had taken the job, mydad had gone to Dartmouth
and I called him, I said,
"Dad, I'm thinking abouttaking the Stanford job.
I kind of fudged."
And he said, "Do not take that job!
It's a graveyard job! Youcan never win at Stanford!
You know, it's impossibleto recruit there."
And so, finally, I let him go on.
I said, "Dad, I've taken thejob," and he hung up the phone.
(06:05):
He said to my mother,
"She'll be unemployed, coming home,
living with us in three months."
So, you know, and I knew taking the job,
like the team had won fivegames the year before.
But I'm like, I like challenges.
So my philosophy is, bring it on.
I'm gonna do the absolute best I can.
I can go home and lookin the mirror every night
and just say, "Yes, I didthe best I could today."
(06:28):
And I'm enthusiastic about basketball.
I have confidence thatI know what I'm doing,
and if I don't, I'mgonna learn or ask people
and just, you know, puttogether a great team.
What I love, the beginning of your segment
with the orchestra, Iuse that with our team,
that everyone, we're part of an orchestra.
I'm the conductor.
(06:48):
Some nights, there'sgonna be different solos,
but everyone's gotta keep the beat.
And, you know, I love working at Stanford
and I told my dad, I said,
"Dad, Stanford's not a graveyard job.
It does involve digging.It's a gold mine job."
- You made it.
- I haven't had to movehome to the basement. Yeah.
(everyone laughing)
(07:11):
- Of course, recruiting is a big part,
- It is.
- Of being a highly successful coach.
- Right.
- What was your philosophy?
How did you identify, develop talent,
and how did, you described it, you know,
you have to have individual talent,
but you also have to have players
that are playing on the team, right,
(07:32):
that really believe in the team
and have that spirit and dedication.
What did you look for asyou were interviewing women
and getting to know theirtalents individually,
and how did you pick the ones
that you knew were bothindividually talented
and were gonna be good team players?
- You know, well just, again,
you said the importance of people
(07:53):
and the people in this room,
and who's in the hospitalback there, anyways?
I'm worried about that.
- There are a few people, still in there.
- Yeah.
You know, again, I'll come back to my dad.
You don't win the KentuckyDerby out of donkey, you know,
you have to have players, youhave to have great talent.
And I met with myassistants when I first got
to Stanford, and I hired,I think great assistants,
(08:15):
and I said, you know, wehave three priorities,
number one< recruit, number two, recruit,
number three, recruit, goodbye.
And that was going outand really identifying.
And one thing is, honestly,
I am not really good atidentifying individual talent.
And so I made sure that Ihired assistants that were,
and they are and like, we would go
and they have, you know, summer basketball
(08:38):
where you can have, Imean, there are thousands
of kids in the Chicago, likeit's a convention center.
There are over a hundredcourts, and you have to go
and watch and, you know, keep a schedule
of watching these different players.
And I said to my assistant one time,
"Oh, I like that player."
And my assistant said,
"Well, we will recruither over my dead body."
(08:58):
And I'm like, "Oh, okay."
So, you know, or anotherplayer I might see,
I said, "Oh, she's really good."
And I said, "What's her name?"
And my assistant said, two point.
I'm like, "Oh, she had atwo point grade point,"
so we weren't recruiting her either.
But, you know, it is really key.
And, you know, on the video, when you saw
(09:18):
that we had like 40something all Americans,
you win with great players,
but people that also are great teammates.
You know, I've been in asituation where, you know,
obviously we like totalk about our successes,
but I've been in a situation with a staff
that were great individual players,
(09:39):
but did not work together.
And I told him, I said, you know,
"As good as you areindividually, this is not working
because we don't have thecollaboration that we need."
And so, I think collaboration
and teamwork are the most important thing.
It's, you know, just getting the best out
(10:00):
of everyone, doing thingstogether, not individually.
And for our team, I usethe analogy of a hand that,
you know, everything's gotta be, you know,
you've got five players out there,
you've gotta work together.
You know, you can't haveone finger going off,
doing the thing it wants to do by itself.
So it's the teamworkand quality of people,
(10:20):
their integrity, their commitment
to your team is really, really important.
- Of course, developing the team,
once you've recruited theplayers, is critical to success.
- Right.
- And that means giving people feedback,
keeping people motivatedby giving people feedback.
And everyone in this room is a manager
(10:41):
of people and of areas in the portfolio.
What was your approach?
You must have needed to figure out,
for individuals, what type
of feedback was gonna be more effective,
given their personality,relative to others.
But what was your generalapproach for, you know,
(11:03):
people are underperforming,to talk about that,
and to keep people motivated,working really, really hard?
Like you said, coming to Stanford,
- Right.
- They have to perform academically
and they've got to be stellar athletes.
How'd you do that?
- Lloyd, I think that's a great question.
I mean, specific, direct feedback is
(11:25):
what helps players improve.
So, and I think thatwhat I would wanna do is,
establish trust first
with the player that I'm working with.
So that in fact, I couldsay to you, you know,
"Lloyd, we gotta work onyour left hand," you know,
or, "Lloyd, I'm sorry,
(11:46):
but we need to make a change in our lineup
and I'm gonna start someone else
and I need you to come off the bench."
And to have conversationwith a player, it's hard.
And sometimes, you know, tohave the relationship first,
and there's a quote that, Maya Angelou,
I might massacre it.
(12:07):
You had John Kennedy's quote, great.
And I love quotes, but,
"It's not what you do,it's not what you say.
People will forget what you do,they'll forget what you say,
but they will never forgethow you make them feel."
And so, you know, likeeveryone in this room,
you know when you had a great teacher.
How many people have had a great teacher?
(12:27):
Everybody's had one great teacher.
Or how many people haveplayed sports maybe
and have had a great coach, you know?
So what does that coach do?
And you wanna be that kindof coach for other people.
And as an example, for me, you know,
I was a head coach whenI was 23 years old,
and I had to learn by kindof the seat of my pants.
(12:47):
I didn't have a whole lot of training,
so I had to learn it by myself.
Thank goodness you doctorsdon't have to do that.
But as an adult,
I wanted to learn how to play the piano.
Does anyone play the piano here?
It is hard, but I thought Icould teach myself in two weeks.
So I had a keyboard, youknow, I'm gonna play.
(13:08):
And I just wanted to sit down and rock.
Like you know, you just havethis fantasy about that.
And after two weeks, Irealized, this is not working.
So I hired, I mean,
I got piano lessons froma fabulous piano teacher.
And as a coach, she was great.
And I was making CDs in one year,
and it wasn't because I wasso good, but she was so good,
(13:31):
but she was able to take me
to a place I couldn't get, by myself.
And so as a coach, that's what I wanna do.
I wanna take players.
I wanna take, you know, ourstaff to a place they can't get
by themselves through feedback,by saying very specifically
and very honestly, and very directly,
this is what I need to do.
Now sometimes, you know,there might be in a game
(13:54):
where I'm like, "Get back on defense!"
You know, it's like loud, you know?
Or, you know, but theyknow it's not hurtful.
And it's, you know, you saw alot of hugging in the video.
I mean, there's a lot ofemotion in basketball,
and there's a lot of emotion in medicine.
(14:14):
You know, this jacket issymbolic of every win.
Well, each of you should havetwo or three of these jackets
because of the lives you've touched
and the maybe lives you've saved.
But feedback is what helps players grow.
And they have to want it, you know?
Hopefully the people
that you're working with come to you
(14:34):
and say, "How can I do a better job?"
Like players would say tome indirectly, you know,
"I wanna play more.
How can I contribute more?"
And so I say, "Well, thisis what you need to do
- That's great. That's great.
- Thank you.
- You know, also, in a career,
being a head coach over 40 years,
(14:57):
you had to maintain personal resilience.
I mean, you're reinventing theteam at least every season,
and to some extent, probably every game.
How did you do that?
And you talked about learningthe piano as an adult, right?
What other things did youdo to keep yourself vibrant,
energetic, positive,and in a winning spirit?
(15:20):
- Well, I think the first thing is,
in order to be someonethat could be a great,
energetic person for our team,
I had to take care of myself, first.
So it might be, you know, working out,
I try to swim every other day.
I either ride the bikeor walk my dog every day.
So it's starting with takingcare of myself, eating right,
(15:43):
and doing all the things
that I'm sure you tellyour patients to do,
but doing it for yourself.
And I would also take sometime, during the summer,
I go to a lake house.
I love to water ski.
In August, I skied 26 outta 28 days.
I mean, you know, I'mexcited about doing things
for myself, but I thinkthat that's the kind
(16:04):
of the foundation for me isthat I'm excited, I'm happy,
you know, and so that I canhelp other people better.
I'm better equipped to be, you know,
a good family person and myfamily, or a good friend,
and then also a good coachfor the people I coach.
- And of course, you've alsocoached and trained leaders.
(16:25):
- Yes.- More than a dozen
of your former assistantcoaches are now head coaches,
including,- Right.
- Your successor ashead coach at Stanford.
How did you identify their talent
and help them alongtheir career progression
and your approach to givingthem feedback and helping them?
And I bet they still callyou to ask for advice.
(16:46):
- They do, they do.
Well with, like, someone like Kate Paye,
she's a person that took over for me.
She was my associatehead coach for 17 years.
And, you know, what Ido is, I'm an observer.
I'm a copier.
So like in basketball coaching,
like I can copy what another coach does,
(17:06):
and I really study what other people do.
And I learn a lot,honestly, from our players.
We had a situation where, you know,
if I could just tell youquickly about three players
that I've really learned from,learned about leadership,
we had a young ladythat played on our team,
and she didn't play very much.
She sat and hugged the water cooler.
(17:27):
Her name was Angela Taylor.
And I asked for everyone to say,
"What do you contribute to our team?"
And she wrote down, "Spread sunshine."
And I'm like, we won anational championship,
and she hardly played.
And like, that to me isleadership, you know,
being positive, being encouraging,being being someone that,
you know, encourages otherpeople and supports people.
(17:49):
And that's something on ourteam that, again, you know,
you're not always gonna be the star,
but you support other people.
Jennifer Azzi was on the same team.
She was one of the starters,
and Jennifer as a leader,I learned about her,
she played on our Olympic team,
and we went to Ukraine,we played in Ukraine,
we called 'em our cousinsbecause we played 'em so much.
But we were leaving at3:30 in the morning to go,
(18:11):
you know, we were leavingUkraine, we were in Kyiv,
and we were coming backto the United States.
And so we're going out on the bus,
and as we were going out onthe bus, it was freezing.
It was in January, and there were 15
or 20 poor women with very thin jackets
and bad teeth, begging outside of our bus.
And everyone got on the bus.
But Jennifer was coming late
(18:33):
and I'm thinking, "Where is Jennifer?"
You know, 3:29, Jennifercomes out and sees the women.
She takes money out of her pockets,
like who is gonna spend Ukraine money back
in the United States, anyway?
And then she opens her suitcase
and gives it to all the women.
And everyone got off thebus and did the same thing.
And you know, these womenwent home very happy.
(18:54):
But to me, that was leadership.
- For sure.- You know,
and everyone saw that thatwas the right thing to do.
And I was so proud of Jennifer,
but at the same time, I waslike, so ashamed of myself.
How come I didn't think of that?
But, you know, we've hadso many young people.
I've been so inspired by one
of our captains of our team,Jamila Wideman, a great player.
(19:16):
We went to the Final Four.
We were a fabulous team, andwe were up 17 in the first half
and lost the game.
And it was, like, thelocker room was devastating.
Players on the team are, youdidn't see this on the film,
they're crying on the floor.
They're distraught.
And I said, I got up in front of the team,
I'm like, "You know, thepress is coming in here
(19:38):
in two minutes, you guys.
Come on," and no reaction.
Jamila Wideman gets upin front of this team
and she goes, "Pick your heads up."
And they all looked at her
and she said, "I wouldrather lose with you than win
with anyone else inany other locker room."
And, you know, it broughteveryone together.
- Yeah, yeah.
(19:58):
- And the last young ladyI'll tell you about is,
she's a doctor.
So this is one of yourpeople. She's in your tribe.
Her name is Chris MacMurdo,
and she came from South Carolina.
She was number one in everything,high school, everything,
all American, everything.
And her mom and dad came out for a visit.
Her mom, I said to my assistants,
(20:20):
her mom would like to go to the mall,
her dad would like to go to Slack.
He was a nuclear physicist.Who would like to go to Slack?
Nobody. I said, who wouldlike to go to the mall?
Three hands shot up.
So I went to Slack withher dad, and he loved it.
It was way over my head. Butshe did come to Stanford.
I picked her up and the very first day,
picked her driving intocampus, into Alm Drive,
(20:41):
looking at the church,beautiful day like today.
And I said to Chris,
"What are you thinking about, right now?"
Here, she's coming in as afreshman, incoming freshman.
I'm driving, you know,the beautiful palm trees.
I thought maybe she would say,
"Oh, what are the dorms like?
What is the food like?What is the team like?
You know, what are you like?"
(21:02):
And instead she turned to me
and she looked at me and she said,
"Tara, I wanna make adifference in this world."
I almost crashed into a palm tree!
I'm like, this is an incomingfreshman at Stanford.
And two years later,she ran into my office
and she goes, "Tara, I wasworking in the emergency room
and I saved someone's life today!"
(21:23):
And I'm like, you have made a difference.
But she is a palliative care doctor.
- Wonderful.- And she is fabulous.
She lives in Nashville,
but like, these are, you know,the people that you meet,
the people that you'rearound, these are people
that I'm inspired by.
And I don't wanna bea weak link, you know?
I don't wanna let them down.
I wanna be there for our team.
(21:45):
So as a leader, I hopethat I am mentoring them
and encouraging them and helping them.
- One more question, then we'll open it up
to the audience for questions.
But you mentioned,
when you were starting to play basketball,
there were just so fewopportunities for women,
- Right.
- And there has been someprogress. 2024 was a big year.
(22:07):
But talk about that journey,
where we are today and that journey,
- Okay.
- And where we shouldbe headed in the future.
- Well, I know one person came to a game.
Is there anyone else
that's ever watched a Stanfordwomen's basketball game?
Oh wow! I'm impressed.
That's awesome.
Right now, it's really a greattime in women's basketball.
(22:29):
We seem to like take two steps forwards
and then one step back.
And like when I was at OhioState, and this was 1985,
and we were playing Iowa, andthe game was at around noon.
And we're going to the, youknow, we go early to the gym
and I said to my assistant,
it was like a traffic jam in Iowa City.
(22:49):
And I said, "What, did church let out?
What's going on here?"
And my assistant said,
"Tara, these people arecoming to our game."
We had 22,157 people at this game.
The fire marshal was mad becausethe gym only holds 15,000.
But that's where we were, 40 years ago.
But now we're back towhere women's basketball
(23:12):
and women's sports are moreencouraged, they're supported.
And it's really excitingto see women's basketball
for the first year last year,outdrew the men's in terms
of ratings on the television.
So there are 18 million viewers,
and we just wanna keep growing the game
and be part of something funfor young girls and young boys.
(23:36):
And when I had a basketballcamp, we had a room
that had about this manypeople of eight year olds,
all eight year old girlsin Kissick Auditorium.
So there were, you know,over a hundred girls there.
And I told my story of notplaying, not going to camp,
not having a scholarship,all these things I didn't do.
And one little girlraised her hand and said,
(23:57):
"Why was it like that?"
And I was like, "Ooh, howdo I answer that question?"
So I said, like any other teacher,
"Well can anyone elseanswer that question?"
And so one of the little otherlittle girls raised her hand.
She goes, "Sexism?"
Like that, you know?
So, you know, we are ina new, exciting world
and it's something that,it's really a great
(24:20):
for young boys and young girls.
And I had a young boy,his mom was a journalist
and the young boy said to me,
"Do boys play basketball too?"
I'm like, "Yes, they do," so.
- That's great.
Well maybe some questionsfrom the audience, please.
We have some microphones circulating
and would love to hear from you.
(24:43):
- I would love to hear alittle bit about the course
that you're teaching, this quarter.
What motivated you to teach the course,
and what are you teachingin your quarter long,
totally oversubscribed class?
- You know, I retired,
but then I decided I didn'twanna totally retire.
And I'm working now more than ever.
Don't retire. Just keepdoing what you're doing.
(25:04):
But I had actually, in thefall, I had hip surgery.
And I'm so naive, I thoughtlast year, I needed hip surgery
and I thought, "Well,I'll just get hip surgery
at Christmas break, youknow, for like the five days
and then I'll be ready to goback on the court and coach."
And my doctor said, "No,that doesn't work that way."
So I had hip surgery,and that has gone great.
But I decided I'd teach a class,
(25:25):
and it's about just likethe history of basketball,
her-story of basketball,my story of basketball,
and X'es and O'es and everything.
And I'm excited to say, itsold out in two hours in-person
and there's like 400 people, 300 on Zoom.
And it's been really fun.
So I just really wanna share my enthusiasm
(25:49):
and maybe some knowledge of the game,
but I'm learning so much by teaching.
And do you find that asteachers that you learn
so much by being the teacher?
'Cause you have to studyjust as much as they do.
So I said, I have a teaching assistant
and I said to her, I said,"Boy, this is a lot of work."
She goes, "But it's fun work."
So I was like, "Yes it is."
(26:09):
So I love it. Thank you.
- Thank you very much forspeaking with us, today.
I wanna follow up on the whole idea
of the transfer portal.
You recruit someone, you nurture them,
and then, you know, that'swhat you do as a coach.
And then as a leader, how do you deal
(26:30):
with the disappointment
of a key player, goinginto the transfer portal?
- It's painful.
You know, it is hard.
But I guess some of it isalso, I just, you know,
I just always try toabsolutely do my best.
And if someone wants somethingelse, I wanna say, you know,
(26:52):
good luck to you and I wish you the best.
But, you know, it's just like anything.
But, you know, you might haveprofessors that you work with
that will leave Stanfordand you're like, "Why?"
You know, I don't thinkthere's any place better
than Stanford.
I love it, but you know,there are just sometimes,
you know, places, youknow, attract other people
and, you know, like rightnow they're using NIL
(27:14):
or money and sometimeson a team, it's hard
for some young players,especially when the portal is
so easy to transfer.
They might not start as a freshman,
or things might not gotheir way, right away.
But I think that ifthey stick with things,
they'll develop the resilience
that they're gonna need,later on down the road.
But, you know, honestly, you know,
(27:37):
there might be some players where,
because we had a player that,you know, just wanted to play,
all they wanna do was playand they weren't good enough.
So I think it was goodthat they went somewhere
where they could play.
So I'm always interested in them,
finding a fit, and them being happy.
But sometimes when, you know, it's someone
(27:57):
that you really want part of your team,
it is painful, I won't lie.
- Really grateful that you're here, today.
So the environments change around us.
And I think you heardLloyd talk a little bit
about that at the beginning.
The very best coaches ofcourse do many things,
one of which is make halftime adjustments.
(28:19):
Whether things are going well
or whether things are going bad,
you make halftime adjustments.
As you think about your career
and you think about the peoplethat you had to work closely
with to get to buy into those adjustments,
when you had 15 or 20 minutesto make those adjustments,
how did you do that?
How did you bring people along
(28:41):
in those really critical moments
when things had to change fast?
- That is a great question. I love it.
You know, I always feltwe always played better
in the second half because I could see
what was happening in the first half.
And sometimes you thinkabout baseball players
where they say that thepitch, you know, comes slow
(29:01):
to them and then they canfigure out what to do.
And you know, as I got older,
what helped me a lot wasI watched so much video.
My nickname was Video VanDerveer.
So I watched so much so thatI could recognize patterns
and I could say, "Well,this is what we need to do."
So I always felt a halftime,
which is probably 10minutes because you get 15,
(29:23):
but you've gotta let 'em warm up for five,
and to be very concise,very specific, very direct,
this is what we need todo in the second half
and these are the changesthat we need to make,
or we might even be doingwell, we need to continue
to do this, this, and this.
And I would ask assistant coachesduring the game, you know,
to chart things for me,to keep track of things.
(29:43):
But I kind of had a sense of,this is what we needed to do.
And if I were to look at my career,
I think that the second half was, like,
my mother used to alwayssay to, you know, friends,
if she was watching, "Don't worry.
Tara's talking to 'em.
They'll come back out andplay a better second half."
And I always felt that we did,
because with our staff, wecould make the adjustments
(30:05):
that were needed, and sometimes you have
to totally change what you're doing.
I'll just tell you one quickstory about second half.
We were playing Notre Dame andyou saw the end of the game
where a woman blocked a shotand everyone was hugging.
In this game, we're down17, we go into halftime,
we're going in the lockerroom, my two assistants
and one of our playersruns by me, Erica McCall,
(30:27):
and she goes, "We're down 17.
We got 'em right where we want 'em!"
And I turned to my assistant and I said,
"What game is she at?"
You know?
And so we got in the locker room
and this one player,she's a fabulous player,
Enrique Gomoale, she has like 20 points,
she's ripping us up.
And so I got in therewith our team, I said,
(30:47):
"We got 'em right where we want 'em!"
You know, because that's what Erica said.
And sure enough, and theteam said, "Yeah, yeah!"
Well, okay I said, "Nowwho's gonna guard Enrique?"
And I said, "Okay,you're gonna guard her,"
and I'm thinking, "Youcan't guard your shadow."
But I said, "Okay, you've got her."
We come out in the second half
and we end up winning this game.
And it was just, you know,
(31:08):
just like we'd made someother little adjustments,
but it was like reallybelieving, you know.
More than anything, it'snot the technical stuff
that you change, but it'sreally believing in your team
and your team feeling that.
And Erica's on our staff now
and we laugh about that, you know,
and she ended up blocking the shot
(31:28):
that would've given them the win.
We went to the final four.
And the funniest thing too waswhen you were with the NCAA,
they charter planes for you.
So we go to the airport,
and Notre Dame was at theairport at the same time,
and they thought they weregetting on their plane first
and they said, "No, Stanford."
(Tara laughing)
That was the most fun thing about it, so.
- That's great.
(31:49):
- You know, honestly,it is such a pleasure
to be here with you today,
and I just wanna say, Ithank you for all that you do
for Stanford and for Stanford Hospital.
I've been to the hospital
and everyone said, "Well, how was it?"
I said, "It was great,they were fabulous."
And they said, "It's'cause they know you."
I said, "No."
It's because they havehigh standards at Stanford
(32:11):
and it's really great to be apart of your retreat, today.
And I'm gonna stick around for lunch.
- Thank you- Anyone that wants to chat,
we chat hoops, and enjoy being here.
Thank you for all that youdo. I really appreciate it.
- All right, thank you very much.
- Thank you, Lloyd.(audience applauding)
(32:33):
Thank you.- Thank you.
Thank you for listeningto "The Minor Consult"
with me, Stanford School ofMedicine, Dean Lloyd Minor.
I hope you enjoyed today's discussion
with legendary basketballcoach, Tara VanDerveer.
Please send your questions by email
to "The Minor Consult"at theminorconsult.com.
And check out our website,theminorconsult.com,
(32:55):
for updates, episodes, and more.
To get the latest episodesof "The Minor Consult,"
subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you listen.
Thank you so much for joining me, today.
I look forward to our next episode.
Until then, stay safe,stay well, and be kind.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to this specialedition of "The Minor Consult,"
where I speak withleaders shaping our world
in diverse ways.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down
with the legendarywomen's basketball coach,
(00:22):
Tara VanDerveer.
She's one of the winning-est coaches
in NCAA basketball history,
amassing an incredible 1,216 wins.
She led Stanford Cardinalwomen's basketball
to three NCAA championships,
coached the US women's basketball team
to an Olympic gold in1996, and not surprisingly,
(00:46):
has been inducted into theWomen's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Tara shared insightsabout her coaching career,
her approach to building andmotivating winning teams,
and her forecast for the future of one
of the nation's most popular sports.
So without further ado,let's go to our episode.
Congratulations. Thank you for being here.
(01:08):
- Thank you.
I'm glad it was cold outso I could wear my jacket.
You guys could see it, so good morning.
It's great to be here. Thank you, Lloyd.
- Thank you.- Coach Minor.
(Lloyd laughing)
- Exactly. We all are, aren't we?
- Yes, we are.- And I think
that's an importantmessage to discuss, today.
So Tara, can you go backto when you got interested
(01:29):
in basketball, a little bit on the film,
but could you expand onthat a little bit more
and how you decided?
You weren't always sure,
you were gonna be a basketball coach.
I think you thought maybeyou'd be a lawyer at one point.
- I actually thoughtabout medicine one time
until chemistry in college,and that was, I said, no.
(01:50):
I first played basketballin physical education class
when I was in the fifthgrade, and I just loved it.
And my parents are both teachers,
and really, their Fridaynight, Friday night was going
to the Y, jumping on thetrampoline, swimming.
So it was always being very active.
I'm a skier, biker, everything.
(02:10):
But basketball just grabbed me.
But there were no teams for girls.
So it was very frustrating
because, you know, Iwould play with the boys
and, you know, there were girls
and boys when I first started out,
but as I got a little older,
the boys didn't want me to play.
So I bought the best basketball,
and if they wanted to use myball, I got to be in the game.
And that was how I got toplay. So I figured that out.
(02:33):
But it was very challenging
because there weren't teams for girls.
And I was out there playing by myself,
and in the ninth grade,I was taking algebra,
and my mom and dad called me in and said,
"Tara," I'd be out therefor hours and they'd say,
"Tara, come in and doyour algebra homework.
Basketball is nevergonna take you anywhere."
And I'm like, "Algebra'snot taking me anywhere."
(02:53):
So, you know, but I just loved the game
and I didn't see any future in it
because there weren't teams for women.
This was before TitleIX, which was in 1972.
So I think I'm older thaneveryone in this room,
but it was really a very painful thing
to love something and Icouldn't get to do it.
(03:14):
But I then I got to playin college a little bit,
and I went to Indianaand I studied basketball.
Coach Knight was there,and I watched his practice.
I took his coaching class.
It's just been a loveaffair with basketball.
So I've never felt I hadto go to a J-O-B job.
I just woke up and I love watching tape.
I love going to the gym.
(03:34):
I got to work with all these great players
and work at Stanford.
I loved it. So it's just been really fun.
I just have to pinch myself
because I've had such a great life.
- That's fantastic.
Can you talk about yourcoaching philosophy?
You spoke about it before.
- Sure.
(03:54):
- But to continue to besuccessful, and every season,
every game, you have to reinvent yourself.
- Right.
- You have to form a team,keep the team motivated.
But first, maybe from a broad perspective,
coaching philosophy, then personally.
- Okay.
- How you maintain yourstamina, your focus,
your success over a long period of time.
(04:17):
- Well, I kind of chuckled
because I interviewed for a couple jobs.
I've not interviewed for too many,
but I interviewed in Montana
and I was interviewed by theplayers from the Montana team,
and they said the exact same thing.
They said, "Tell us aboutyour coaching philosophy."
And they sat right in frontof me and I said, "Work."
And they kind of looked atme like I had two heads,
(04:38):
and I said, "Would youlike me to elaborate?"
And they said, "Yes."
I said, "Hard work."
So, but I didn't get that job.
(everyone laughing)
But I guess I start with basketball
or, you know, for me, isI just love it so much.
I love to learn about it,
and I wanna share my enthusiasmfor basketball with all
(05:00):
of the players, my staff,
and just every day, justcoming to work with a lot
of enthusiasm, and not being discouraged.
Like, I don't knowexactly what's going on.
I don't think I'm gonnaget replaced by AI,
but maybe I would as a coach.
But you know, all the thingsthat you're dealing with,
(05:22):
I get a little bit of a sense
of maybe anxiety in the room,
a little worry, challenges ahead.
And I just, you know, incoming even to Stanford,
my dad, I called my parents.
I had taken the Stanfordjob. I was at Ohio State.
We had a great team.
I mean, we had kidsthat were just fabulous.
(05:43):
But Stanford, to me, isthe ultimate challenge.
And I had taken the job, mydad had gone to Dartmouth
and I called him, I said,
"Dad, I'm thinking abouttaking the Stanford job.
I kind of fudged."
And he said, "Do not take that job!
It's a graveyard job! Youcan never win at Stanford!
You know, it's impossibleto recruit there."
And so, finally, I let him go on.
I said, "Dad, I've taken thejob," and he hung up the phone.
(06:05):
He said to my mother,
"She'll be unemployed, coming home,
living with us in three months."
So, you know, and I knew taking the job,
like the team had won fivegames the year before.
But I'm like, I like challenges.
So my philosophy is, bring it on.
I'm gonna do the absolute best I can.
I can go home and lookin the mirror every night
and just say, "Yes, I didthe best I could today."
(06:28):
And I'm enthusiastic about basketball.
I have confidence thatI know what I'm doing,
and if I don't, I'mgonna learn or ask people
and just, you know, puttogether a great team.
What I love, the beginning of your segment
with the orchestra, Iuse that with our team,
that everyone, we're part of an orchestra.
I'm the conductor.
(06:48):
Some nights, there'sgonna be different solos,
but everyone's gotta keep the beat.
And, you know, I love working at Stanford
and I told my dad, I said,
"Dad, Stanford's not a graveyard job.
It does involve digging.It's a gold mine job."
- You made it.
- I haven't had to movehome to the basement. Yeah.
(everyone laughing)
(07:11):
- Of course, recruiting is a big part,
- It is.
- Of being a highly successful coach.
- Right.
- What was your philosophy?
How did you identify, develop talent,
and how did, you described it, you know,
you have to have individual talent,
but you also have to have players
that are playing on the team, right,
(07:32):
that really believe in the team
and have that spirit and dedication.
What did you look for asyou were interviewing women
and getting to know theirtalents individually,
and how did you pick the ones
that you knew were bothindividually talented
and were gonna be good team players?
- You know, well just, again,
you said the importance of people
(07:53):
and the people in this room,
and who's in the hospitalback there, anyways?
I'm worried about that.
- There are a few people, still in there.
- Yeah.
You know, again, I'll come back to my dad.
You don't win the KentuckyDerby out of donkey, you know,
you have to have players, youhave to have great talent.
And I met with myassistants when I first got
to Stanford, and I hired,I think great assistants,
(08:15):
and I said, you know, wehave three priorities,
number one< recruit, number two, recruit,
number three, recruit, goodbye.
And that was going outand really identifying.
And one thing is, honestly,
I am not really good atidentifying individual talent.
And so I made sure that Ihired assistants that were,
and they are and like, we would go
and they have, you know, summer basketball
(08:38):
where you can have, Imean, there are thousands
of kids in the Chicago, likeit's a convention center.
There are over a hundredcourts, and you have to go
and watch and, you know, keep a schedule
of watching these different players.
And I said to my assistant one time,
"Oh, I like that player."
And my assistant said,
"Well, we will recruither over my dead body."
(08:58):
And I'm like, "Oh, okay."
So, you know, or anotherplayer I might see,
I said, "Oh, she's really good."
And I said, "What's her name?"
And my assistant said, two point.
I'm like, "Oh, she had atwo point grade point,"
so we weren't recruiting her either.
But, you know, it is really key.
And, you know, on the video, when you saw
(09:18):
that we had like 40something all Americans,
you win with great players,
but people that also are great teammates.
You know, I've been in asituation where, you know,
obviously we like totalk about our successes,
but I've been in a situation with a staff
that were great individual players,
(09:39):
but did not work together.
And I told him, I said, you know,
"As good as you areindividually, this is not working
because we don't have thecollaboration that we need."
And so, I think collaboration
and teamwork are the most important thing.
It's, you know, just getting the best out
(10:00):
of everyone, doing thingstogether, not individually.
And for our team, I usethe analogy of a hand that,
you know, everything's gotta be, you know,
you've got five players out there,
you've gotta work together.
You know, you can't haveone finger going off,
doing the thing it wants to do by itself.
So it's the teamworkand quality of people,
(10:20):
their integrity, their commitment
to your team is really, really important.
- Of course, developing the team,
once you've recruited theplayers, is critical to success.
- Right.
- And that means giving people feedback,
keeping people motivatedby giving people feedback.
And everyone in this room is a manager
(10:41):
of people and of areas in the portfolio.
What was your approach?
You must have needed to figure out,
for individuals, what type
of feedback was gonna be more effective,
given their personality,relative to others.
But what was your generalapproach for, you know,
(11:03):
people are underperforming,to talk about that,
and to keep people motivated,working really, really hard?
Like you said, coming to Stanford,
- Right.
- They have to perform academically
and they've got to be stellar athletes.
How'd you do that?
- Lloyd, I think that's a great question.
I mean, specific, direct feedback is
(11:25):
what helps players improve.
So, and I think thatwhat I would wanna do is,
establish trust first
with the player that I'm working with.
So that in fact, I couldsay to you, you know,
"Lloyd, we gotta work onyour left hand," you know,
or, "Lloyd, I'm sorry,
(11:46):
but we need to make a change in our lineup
and I'm gonna start someone else
and I need you to come off the bench."
And to have conversationwith a player, it's hard.
And sometimes, you know, tohave the relationship first,
and there's a quote that, Maya Angelou,
I might massacre it.
(12:07):
You had John Kennedy's quote, great.
And I love quotes, but,
"It's not what you do,it's not what you say.
People will forget what you do,they'll forget what you say,
but they will never forgethow you make them feel."
And so, you know, likeeveryone in this room,
you know when you had a great teacher.
How many people have had a great teacher?
(12:27):
Everybody's had one great teacher.
Or how many people haveplayed sports maybe
and have had a great coach, you know?
So what does that coach do?
And you wanna be that kindof coach for other people.
And as an example, for me, you know,
I was a head coach whenI was 23 years old,
and I had to learn by kindof the seat of my pants.
(12:47):
I didn't have a whole lot of training,
so I had to learn it by myself.
Thank goodness you doctorsdon't have to do that.
But as an adult,
I wanted to learn how to play the piano.
Does anyone play the piano here?
It is hard, but I thought Icould teach myself in two weeks.
So I had a keyboard, youknow, I'm gonna play.
(13:08):
And I just wanted to sit down and rock.
Like you know, you just havethis fantasy about that.
And after two weeks, Irealized, this is not working.
So I hired, I mean,
I got piano lessons froma fabulous piano teacher.
And as a coach, she was great.
And I was making CDs in one year,
and it wasn't because I wasso good, but she was so good,
(13:31):
but she was able to take me
to a place I couldn't get, by myself.
And so as a coach, that's what I wanna do.
I wanna take players.
I wanna take, you know, ourstaff to a place they can't get
by themselves through feedback,by saying very specifically
and very honestly, and very directly,
this is what I need to do.
Now sometimes, you know,there might be in a game
(13:54):
where I'm like, "Get back on defense!"
You know, it's like loud, you know?
Or, you know, but theyknow it's not hurtful.
And it's, you know, you saw alot of hugging in the video.
I mean, there's a lot ofemotion in basketball,
and there's a lot of emotion in medicine.
(14:14):
You know, this jacket issymbolic of every win.
Well, each of you should havetwo or three of these jackets
because of the lives you've touched
and the maybe lives you've saved.
But feedback is what helps players grow.
And they have to want it, you know?
Hopefully the people
that you're working with come to you
(14:34):
and say, "How can I do a better job?"
Like players would say tome indirectly, you know,
"I wanna play more.
How can I contribute more?"
And so I say, "Well, thisis what you need to do
- That's great. That's great.
- Thank you.
- You know, also, in a career,
being a head coach over 40 years,
(14:57):
you had to maintain personal resilience.
I mean, you're reinventing theteam at least every season,
and to some extent, probably every game.
How did you do that?
And you talked about learningthe piano as an adult, right?
What other things did youdo to keep yourself vibrant,
energetic, positive,and in a winning spirit?
(15:20):
- Well, I think the first thing is,
in order to be someonethat could be a great,
energetic person for our team,
I had to take care of myself, first.
So it might be, you know, working out,
I try to swim every other day.
I either ride the bikeor walk my dog every day.
So it's starting with takingcare of myself, eating right,
(15:43):
and doing all the things
that I'm sure you tellyour patients to do,
but doing it for yourself.
And I would also take sometime, during the summer,
I go to a lake house.
I love to water ski.
In August, I skied 26 outta 28 days.
I mean, you know, I'mexcited about doing things
for myself, but I thinkthat that's the kind
(16:04):
of the foundation for me isthat I'm excited, I'm happy,
you know, and so that I canhelp other people better.
I'm better equipped to be, you know,
a good family person and myfamily, or a good friend,
and then also a good coachfor the people I coach.
- And of course, you've alsocoached and trained leaders.
(16:25):
- Yes.- More than a dozen
of your former assistantcoaches are now head coaches,
including,- Right.
- Your successor ashead coach at Stanford.
How did you identify their talent
and help them alongtheir career progression
and your approach to givingthem feedback and helping them?
And I bet they still callyou to ask for advice.
(16:46):
- They do, they do.
Well with, like, someone like Kate Paye,
she's a person that took over for me.
She was my associatehead coach for 17 years.
And, you know, what Ido is, I'm an observer.
I'm a copier.
So like in basketball coaching,
like I can copy what another coach does,
(17:06):
and I really study what other people do.
And I learn a lot,honestly, from our players.
We had a situation where, you know,
if I could just tell youquickly about three players
that I've really learned from,learned about leadership,
we had a young ladythat played on our team,
and she didn't play very much.
She sat and hugged the water cooler.
(17:27):
Her name was Angela Taylor.
And I asked for everyone to say,
"What do you contribute to our team?"
And she wrote down, "Spread sunshine."
And I'm like, we won anational championship,
and she hardly played.
And like, that to me isleadership, you know,
being positive, being encouraging,being being someone that,
you know, encourages otherpeople and supports people.
(17:49):
And that's something on ourteam that, again, you know,
you're not always gonna be the star,
but you support other people.
Jennifer Azzi was on the same team.
She was one of the starters,
and Jennifer as a leader,I learned about her,
she played on our Olympic team,
and we went to Ukraine,we played in Ukraine,
we called 'em our cousinsbecause we played 'em so much.
But we were leaving at3:30 in the morning to go,
(18:11):
you know, we were leavingUkraine, we were in Kyiv,
and we were coming backto the United States.
And so we're going out on the bus,
and as we were going out onthe bus, it was freezing.
It was in January, and there were 15
or 20 poor women with very thin jackets
and bad teeth, begging outside of our bus.
And everyone got on the bus.
But Jennifer was coming late
(18:33):
and I'm thinking, "Where is Jennifer?"
You know, 3:29, Jennifercomes out and sees the women.
She takes money out of her pockets,
like who is gonna spend Ukraine money back
in the United States, anyway?
And then she opens her suitcase
and gives it to all the women.
And everyone got off thebus and did the same thing.
And you know, these womenwent home very happy.
(18:54):
But to me, that was leadership.
- For sure.- You know,
and everyone saw that thatwas the right thing to do.
And I was so proud of Jennifer,
but at the same time, I waslike, so ashamed of myself.
How come I didn't think of that?
But, you know, we've hadso many young people.
I've been so inspired by one
of our captains of our team,Jamila Wideman, a great player.
(19:16):
We went to the Final Four.
We were a fabulous team, andwe were up 17 in the first half
and lost the game.
And it was, like, thelocker room was devastating.
Players on the team are, youdidn't see this on the film,
they're crying on the floor.
They're distraught.
And I said, I got up in front of the team,
I'm like, "You know, thepress is coming in here
(19:38):
in two minutes, you guys.
Come on," and no reaction.
Jamila Wideman gets upin front of this team
and she goes, "Pick your heads up."
And they all looked at her
and she said, "I wouldrather lose with you than win
with anyone else inany other locker room."
And, you know, it broughteveryone together.
- Yeah, yeah.
(19:58):
- And the last young ladyI'll tell you about is,
she's a doctor.
So this is one of yourpeople. She's in your tribe.
Her name is Chris MacMurdo,
and she came from South Carolina.
She was number one in everything,high school, everything,
all American, everything.
And her mom and dad came out for a visit.
Her mom, I said to my assistants,
(20:20):
her mom would like to go to the mall,
her dad would like to go to Slack.
He was a nuclear physicist.Who would like to go to Slack?
Nobody. I said, who wouldlike to go to the mall?
Three hands shot up.
So I went to Slack withher dad, and he loved it.
It was way over my head. Butshe did come to Stanford.
I picked her up and the very first day,
picked her driving intocampus, into Alm Drive,
(20:41):
looking at the church,beautiful day like today.
And I said to Chris,
"What are you thinking about, right now?"
Here, she's coming in as afreshman, incoming freshman.
I'm driving, you know,the beautiful palm trees.
I thought maybe she would say,
"Oh, what are the dorms like?
What is the food like?What is the team like?
You know, what are you like?"
(21:02):
And instead she turned to me
and she looked at me and she said,
"Tara, I wanna make adifference in this world."
I almost crashed into a palm tree!
I'm like, this is an incomingfreshman at Stanford.
And two years later,she ran into my office
and she goes, "Tara, I wasworking in the emergency room
and I saved someone's life today!"
(21:23):
And I'm like, you have made a difference.
But she is a palliative care doctor.
- Wonderful.- And she is fabulous.
She lives in Nashville,
but like, these are, you know,the people that you meet,
the people that you'rearound, these are people
that I'm inspired by.
And I don't wanna bea weak link, you know?
I don't wanna let them down.
I wanna be there for our team.
(21:45):
So as a leader, I hopethat I am mentoring them
and encouraging them and helping them.
- One more question, then we'll open it up
to the audience for questions.
But you mentioned,
when you were starting to play basketball,
there were just so fewopportunities for women,
- Right.
- And there has been someprogress. 2024 was a big year.
(22:07):
But talk about that journey,
where we are today and that journey,
- Okay.
- And where we shouldbe headed in the future.
- Well, I know one person came to a game.
Is there anyone else
that's ever watched a Stanfordwomen's basketball game?
Oh wow! I'm impressed.
That's awesome.
Right now, it's really a greattime in women's basketball.
(22:29):
We seem to like take two steps forwards
and then one step back.
And like when I was at OhioState, and this was 1985,
and we were playing Iowa, andthe game was at around noon.
And we're going to the, youknow, we go early to the gym
and I said to my assistant,
it was like a traffic jam in Iowa City.
(22:49):
And I said, "What, did church let out?
What's going on here?"
And my assistant said,
"Tara, these people arecoming to our game."
We had 22,157 people at this game.
The fire marshal was mad becausethe gym only holds 15,000.
But that's where we were, 40 years ago.
But now we're back towhere women's basketball
(23:12):
and women's sports are moreencouraged, they're supported.
And it's really excitingto see women's basketball
for the first year last year,outdrew the men's in terms
of ratings on the television.
So there are 18 million viewers,
and we just wanna keep growing the game
and be part of something funfor young girls and young boys.
(23:36):
And when I had a basketballcamp, we had a room
that had about this manypeople of eight year olds,
all eight year old girlsin Kissick Auditorium.
So there were, you know,over a hundred girls there.
And I told my story of notplaying, not going to camp,
not having a scholarship,all these things I didn't do.
And one little girlraised her hand and said,
(23:57):
"Why was it like that?"
And I was like, "Ooh, howdo I answer that question?"
So I said, like any other teacher,
"Well can anyone elseanswer that question?"
And so one of the little otherlittle girls raised her hand.
She goes, "Sexism?"
Like that, you know?
So, you know, we are ina new, exciting world
and it's something that,it's really a great
(24:20):
for young boys and young girls.
And I had a young boy,his mom was a journalist
and the young boy said to me,
"Do boys play basketball too?"
I'm like, "Yes, they do," so.
- That's great.
Well maybe some questionsfrom the audience, please.
We have some microphones circulating
and would love to hear from you.
(24:43):
- I would love to hear alittle bit about the course
that you're teaching, this quarter.
What motivated you to teach the course,
and what are you teachingin your quarter long,
totally oversubscribed class?
- You know, I retired,
but then I decided I didn'twanna totally retire.
And I'm working now more than ever.
Don't retire. Just keepdoing what you're doing.
(25:04):
But I had actually, in thefall, I had hip surgery.
And I'm so naive, I thoughtlast year, I needed hip surgery
and I thought, "Well,I'll just get hip surgery
at Christmas break, youknow, for like the five days
and then I'll be ready to goback on the court and coach."
And my doctor said, "No,that doesn't work that way."
So I had hip surgery,and that has gone great.
But I decided I'd teach a class,
(25:25):
and it's about just likethe history of basketball,
her-story of basketball,my story of basketball,
and X'es and O'es and everything.
And I'm excited to say, itsold out in two hours in-person
and there's like 400 people, 300 on Zoom.
And it's been really fun.
So I just really wanna share my enthusiasm
(25:49):
and maybe some knowledge of the game,
but I'm learning so much by teaching.
And do you find that asteachers that you learn
so much by being the teacher?
'Cause you have to studyjust as much as they do.
So I said, I have a teaching assistant
and I said to her, I said,"Boy, this is a lot of work."
She goes, "But it's fun work."
So I was like, "Yes it is."
(26:09):
So I love it. Thank you.
- Thank you very much forspeaking with us, today.
I wanna follow up on the whole idea
of the transfer portal.
You recruit someone, you nurture them,
and then, you know, that'swhat you do as a coach.
And then as a leader, how do you deal
(26:30):
with the disappointment
of a key player, goinginto the transfer portal?
- It's painful.
You know, it is hard.
But I guess some of it isalso, I just, you know,
I just always try toabsolutely do my best.
And if someone wants somethingelse, I wanna say, you know,
(26:52):
good luck to you and I wish you the best.
But, you know, it's just like anything.
But, you know, you might haveprofessors that you work with
that will leave Stanfordand you're like, "Why?"
You know, I don't thinkthere's any place better
than Stanford.
I love it, but you know,there are just sometimes,
you know, places, youknow, attract other people
and, you know, like rightnow they're using NIL
(27:14):
or money and sometimeson a team, it's hard
for some young players,especially when the portal is
so easy to transfer.
They might not start as a freshman,
or things might not gotheir way, right away.
But I think that ifthey stick with things,
they'll develop the resilience
that they're gonna need,later on down the road.
But, you know, honestly, you know,
(27:37):
there might be some players where,
because we had a player that,you know, just wanted to play,
all they wanna do was playand they weren't good enough.
So I think it was goodthat they went somewhere
where they could play.
So I'm always interested in them,
finding a fit, and them being happy.
But sometimes when, you know, it's someone
(27:57):
that you really want part of your team,
it is painful, I won't lie.
- Really grateful that you're here, today.
So the environments change around us.
And I think you heardLloyd talk a little bit
about that at the beginning.
The very best coaches ofcourse do many things,
one of which is make halftime adjustments.
(28:19):
Whether things are going well
or whether things are going bad,
you make halftime adjustments.
As you think about your career
and you think about the peoplethat you had to work closely
with to get to buy into those adjustments,
when you had 15 or 20 minutesto make those adjustments,
how did you do that?
How did you bring people along
(28:41):
in those really critical moments
when things had to change fast?
- That is a great question. I love it.
You know, I always feltwe always played better
in the second half because I could see
what was happening in the first half.
And sometimes you thinkabout baseball players
where they say that thepitch, you know, comes slow
(29:01):
to them and then they canfigure out what to do.
And you know, as I got older,
what helped me a lot wasI watched so much video.
My nickname was Video VanDerveer.
So I watched so much so thatI could recognize patterns
and I could say, "Well,this is what we need to do."
So I always felt a halftime,
which is probably 10minutes because you get 15,
(29:23):
but you've gotta let 'em warm up for five,
and to be very concise,very specific, very direct,
this is what we need todo in the second half
and these are the changesthat we need to make,
or we might even be doingwell, we need to continue
to do this, this, and this.
And I would ask assistant coachesduring the game, you know,
to chart things for me,to keep track of things.
(29:43):
But I kind of had a sense of,this is what we needed to do.
And if I were to look at my career,
I think that the second half was, like,
my mother used to alwayssay to, you know, friends,
if she was watching, "Don't worry.
Tara's talking to 'em.
They'll come back out andplay a better second half."
And I always felt that we did,
because with our staff, wecould make the adjustments
(30:05):
that were needed, and sometimes you have
to totally change what you're doing.
I'll just tell you one quickstory about second half.
We were playing Notre Dame andyou saw the end of the game
where a woman blocked a shotand everyone was hugging.
In this game, we're down17, we go into halftime,
we're going in the lockerroom, my two assistants
and one of our playersruns by me, Erica McCall,
(30:27):
and she goes, "We're down 17.
We got 'em right where we want 'em!"
And I turned to my assistant and I said,
"What game is she at?"
You know?
And so we got in the locker room
and this one player,she's a fabulous player,
Enrique Gomoale, she has like 20 points,
she's ripping us up.
And so I got in therewith our team, I said,
(30:47):
"We got 'em right where we want 'em!"
You know, because that's what Erica said.
And sure enough, and theteam said, "Yeah, yeah!"
Well, okay I said, "Nowwho's gonna guard Enrique?"
And I said, "Okay,you're gonna guard her,"
and I'm thinking, "Youcan't guard your shadow."
But I said, "Okay, you've got her."
We come out in the second half
and we end up winning this game.
And it was just, you know,
(31:08):
just like we'd made someother little adjustments,
but it was like reallybelieving, you know.
More than anything, it'snot the technical stuff
that you change, but it'sreally believing in your team
and your team feeling that.
And Erica's on our staff now
and we laugh about that, you know,
and she ended up blocking the shot
(31:28):
that would've given them the win.
We went to the final four.
And the funniest thing too waswhen you were with the NCAA,
they charter planes for you.
So we go to the airport,
and Notre Dame was at theairport at the same time,
and they thought they weregetting on their plane first
and they said, "No, Stanford."
(Tara laughing)
That was the most fun thing about it, so.
- That's great.
(31:49):
- You know, honestly,it is such a pleasure
to be here with you today,
and I just wanna say, Ithank you for all that you do
for Stanford and for Stanford Hospital.
I've been to the hospital
and everyone said, "Well, how was it?"
I said, "It was great,they were fabulous."
And they said, "It's'cause they know you."
I said, "No."
It's because they havehigh standards at Stanford
(32:11):
and it's really great to be apart of your retreat, today.
And I'm gonna stick around for lunch.
- Thank you- Anyone that wants to chat,
we chat hoops, and enjoy being here.
Thank you for all that youdo. I really appreciate it.
- All right, thank you very much.
- Thank you, Lloyd.(audience applauding)
(32:33):
Thank you.- Thank you.
Thank you for listeningto "The Minor Consult"
with me, Stanford School ofMedicine, Dean Lloyd Minor.
I hope you enjoyed today's discussion
with legendary basketballcoach, Tara VanDerveer.
Please send your questions by email
to "The Minor Consult"at theminorconsult.com.
And check out our website,theminorconsult.com,
(32:55):
for updates, episodes, and more.
To get the latest episodesof "The Minor Consult,"
subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you listen.
Thank you so much for joining me, today.
I look forward to our next episode.
Until then, stay safe,stay well, and be kind.
(upbeat music)
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