Staley no stranger to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley is no stranger to her counterpart for Friday’s Final Four game against Stanford.
Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer was the head coach when Stanford beat Virginia in the 1990 Final Four during Staley’s playing days for the Cavaliers.
And VanDerveer coached Staley in the 1996 Olympics as Team USA won the gold medal. The two have remained friends.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Dawn,” VanDerveer said Thursday. “I always have respected Dawn’s competitiveness, her work ethic, her absolute passion for the game of basketball. She’s everything you could look for in a coach and a friend.”
After South Carolina defeated Florida State in the Elite Eight to reach the Final Four and advance to face Stanford, VanDerveer reached out to Staley.
“I texted her ‘Congratulations’ after the Florida State win. We had been in communication because of her being announced as the national team coach,” VanDerveer said. “I said, ‘I have just one problem, I can’t cheer for you on Friday night.’ ”
Staley, who is making her second Final Four appearance as a coach, said she has learned a great deal from playing under and facing off against VanDerveer.
Stanford is in the Final Four for the 13th time under VanDerveer. She will be trying to win her third national championship. It’s Stanford’s first trip to the national semifinals since 2014, when the Cardinal were eliminated by UConn.
Staley is 0-5 all-time as a coach against VanDerveer, including one matchup when Staley was the head coach at Temple. This is their second meeting in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford beat South Carolina in the 2012 Sweet 16.
“(1996) opened my eyes to seeing basketball coached and played at a different level,” Staley said. “I feel like, from my experiences with her, she taught me how to approach the game, how to approach pressure situations, and how to execute while being under that amount of pressure.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Staley no stranger to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer."