VanDerveer said after Sunday’s win that Stanford’s annual game against Tennessee — they have played every season since 1988-89 — had helped her as a coach.

“I liked the idea of competing against great coaches to get better,” said VanDerveer, who appreciated Summitt’s passion for basketball and how hard her teams played. “If I tied this record, she helped me do it by playing against her teams.”

For years, Stanford was a foil for the national championship ambitions of Connecticut and Tennessee, but the Cardinal in recent years have slipped slightly in stature — in part through the ascendance of Oregon and Oregon State, which have each reached a Final Four in the past five seasons. Stanford, which had won 14 consecutive Pac-12 regular-season titles from 2001-14, has not won one since.

But a resurgence coincided last season with the arrival of Haley Jones, the first time in nearly a decade that the nation’s top recruit went to Stanford. The Cardinal began this season ranked second before climbing to the top spot with three lopsided victories. The Cardinal scored the game’s first 14 points against Cal, though there was at least one dramatic moment — sophomore forward Francesca Belibi threw down a one-handed breakaway dunk just before halftime. It was the first dunk in a women’s college game since 2013.

Source: New York Times

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