Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer is keeping perspective after the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the NCAA Tournament and scattered members of the team across the country.
This is going to be the strangest offseason in history for Stanford women's basketball and every other team in the country. One thing that feels normal is that a Stanford assistant was hired away to take over a program. Lindy La Rocque played at Stanford and after coaching three seasons on The Farm is the new head coach at her hometown UNLV.
VanDerveer spoke with Cardinal Sports Report recently about La Rocque's development to become a head coach, the search for a replacement and her expectations for the offseason.
The most recent big news out of the program is that Lindy La Rocque took the head coaching job at UNLV. What did you see from Lindy’s journey up to this point that prepared her to take that job at a young age?
“Lindy didn’t know it, but she was destined to be a coach. Her dad is a coach and she grew up in the gym. She tried corporate for I think a couple months and then realized she wanted to coach.
“She was at Oklahoma (as a graduate assistant), she was at Belmont and then she came here. She’s worked with different coaches. We always joked when Lindy was playing and we were doing a drill and couldn’t remember something exactly we’d say, ‘Ask Lindy, she remembers’.
“She has always had a really high basketball IQ. She was valedictorian. She is very smart. She loves the game of basketball. I think she will be a great head coach.
“She has a vision of how she wants to do it. I think she will also realize that the 18 inches of moving from the assistant position (on the bench) to the head coach job is a lot bigger than 18 inches. She’ll learn a lot.
“I think that her ability to learn from her mistakes quickly and not repeat them will be a real key in her success. Everyone is going to make mistakes and she’s making them at a high level, so to speak. She’s at a school with high expectations and she will have her hands full, but I think she’s ready.”
Is there satisfaction on your part to help an assistant coach reach the level where she can become a head coach? You’ve talked about helping women become coaches and increasing the number of female head coaches.
“It’s women’s basketball. I think these are becoming really good jobs. Both men and women want these jobs and it’s really important that we do have a pipeline of qualified women who athletic directors want to hire.
“I hope Lindy is a rising star in the same way that Charmin (Smith) is and the way someone like Charli Turner Thorne, who went to Stanford and played here and is doing such a great job at Arizona State. Obviously there are other coaches out there who have a Stanford connection.
“It’s really important that women get the training to take these jobs and be successful in these jobs.”
How are you handling the process of finding a new assistant coach?
“Well right now Stanford has a hiring freeze. With the number of people who have been let go, you can’t hire anyone. We understand that and respect that. We’re hoping we can hire someone by June.
“I doubt we’re going to have any recruiting (during the summer with AAU basketball). I think summer could be a time to get someone on board and get them acclimated.
“I’m working on it. I’m talking to people and at the time it is open and advertised we’re excited about the quality of people we can attract to Stanford.”
I doubt you’d call it necessary, but is it important to you that it’s someone who in some way is connected to Stanford?
“No, it’s not. I think our staff is kind of like a puzzle. We just have to fit it together. It needs to be someone who would complement my strengths and shortcomings. I know what I’m looking for.
“Some of it is that I talk with Tempie (Brown) and Kate (Paye) about what kind of fit we need. People who have worked at Stanford, understand Stanford, help us. I’ve talked with Bobbie Kelsey, who was at Stanford.
“It’s not that they have to be from Stanford necessarily but to be able to understand the values of Stanford and the goals of our program.”
Is it right to say that like Lindy this will be someone who works with perimeter players? Or is there a possibility of changing responsibilities?
“We’ll wait and see what happens. Stay tuned. We just want to find the very best person. It’s not restricted to anything. Who would be the best fit for our program?”
Have you and the staff worked out what this offseason is going to look like to make the best of the situation?
“This is an interesting time. The No. 1 priority is that this is a life-and-death situation, so basketball is clearly on the backburner. When we met (for the last time when the NCAA Tournament was cancelled) I told our team, ‘Go home, get to where you want to be, because you’re going to stay there for a while’.
“For different people there are different situations but the No. 1 thing is to be healthy. I think it’s a time of reflection. We have a lot of deep kids on our team. They’re with their families. I’m sure every one of them is going stir crazy in the house. We all are.
“What they have to do is how to maximize their individual situations because we’re hoping we’ll be back in the summer or the fall. We have games in November, so six months from now we’re going to be practicing, we hope. A lot can happen.
“Each player has to take ownership of their own improvement. There is no coach telling you what to do. You have to run. You have to get a ball and go to a hoop by yourself. Do ball-handling drills.
“(Sports performance coach) Ali (Kershner) has sent them stuff to work on. As a team we’re setting up a weekly Zoom session to check in with everybody. I’ve called everybody to talk with them and see how they’re doing. Some kids have Peloton bikes, which is great.
“Anna (Wilson) is where her brother is and he’s training. She has a court and a football field to run on. Fran (Belibi) has an indoor court where her parents work at their clinic. Everyone’s situation is different but maximize your situation.
“For me, one example is with my mom. Every day for two hours I play bridge with my mom. It’s something that I normally wouldn’t do because I’d be at the Final Four or I’d go skiing in the spring or going to meetings.
“Each person on the team is connecting with their families in ways that are really positive. I just always remember what Peter Ogwumike always said is, ‘Every disappointment is a blessing’. We have to maximize the time we have with what we’re able to do.”
