[81alum]

No specifics given.  She was previously signed through next year.  At age 60, one would hope this would lock her up for the rest of her career.

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basket...w-contract

Also of interest in the article, the team leaves for a tour of Italy in August.  What a great way to welcome all those new frosh and build team community.  Knowing that the team does those sorts of things probably helps some with recruiting.

[81alum]

No specifics given.  She was previously signed through next year.  At age 60, one would hope this would lock her up for the rest of her career.

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basket...w-contract

Also of interest in the article, the team leaves for a tour of Italy in August.  What a great way to welcome all those new frosh and build team community.  Knowing that the team does those sorts of things probably helps some with recruiting.

[yvonne]

The ESPN headline:

Stanford's Tara Vanderveer Re-signs

and some people say punctuation isn't important.

[yvonne]

The ESPN headline:

Stanford's Tara Vanderveer Re-signs

and some people say punctuation isn't important.

[Ferris_Bueller]

DARN!

[Ferris_Bueller]

DARN!

[washingtonismoney]

DARN!

Guess this is a bad time to reveal to you, Lurck, that Stanford's actually figured out an anti-aging/immortality machine whose first patient is Tara VanDerveer.

[washingtonismoney]

DARN!

Guess this is a bad time to reveal to you, Lurck, that Stanford's actually figured out an anti-aging/immortality machine whose first patient is Tara VanDerveer.

[Redrum]

Do any of you think that maybe Tara's age works against her in the recruiting world?  She's certainly not getting dumber from a on-court coaching standpoint,  but rival coaches who are younger might come across as more energetic and charismatic when dealing with teenage women.

Women's basketball has changed.  Colleges invest more and high school women's basketball has developed in parallel.  The player population has expanded in raw numbers and I daresay, athleticism and skill.  And there are more programs competing for the same elite kids.  This is a good thing in the larger picture,  but maybe not so great for Stanford.

Stanford will always have the elite academics card to play, but maybe it takes more than that to draw the truly elite players.  FWIW,  my first thoughts about the age issue were about Mark Marquess, who has had quite a run at Stanford both as a player and a coach.  Anyway, I understand the counterarguments to any age-related
speculation.  Tara is in any sane list of elite college coaches.  But the women's college basketball scene is changing (for the better) and I wondered what others thought about Stanford's future and Tara's part in it.

[Redrum]

Do any of you think that maybe Tara's age works against her in the recruiting world?  She's certainly not getting dumber from a on-court coaching standpoint,  but rival coaches who are younger might come across as more energetic and charismatic when dealing with teenage women.

Women's basketball has changed.  Colleges invest more and high school women's basketball has developed in parallel.  The player population has expanded in raw numbers and I daresay, athleticism and skill.  And there are more programs competing for the same elite kids.  This is a good thing in the larger picture,  but maybe not so great for Stanford.

Stanford will always have the elite academics card to play, but maybe it takes more than that to draw the truly elite players.  FWIW,  my first thoughts about the age issue were about Mark Marquess, who has had quite a run at Stanford both as a player and a coach.  Anyway, I understand the counterarguments to any age-related
speculation.  Tara is in any sane list of elite college coaches.  But the women's college basketball scene is changing (for the better) and I wondered what others thought about Stanford's future and Tara's part in it.

[81alum]

Do any of you think that maybe Tara's age works against her in the recruiting world?  She's certainly not getting dumber from a on-court coaching standpoint,  but rival coaches who are younger might come across as more energetic and charismatic when dealing with teenage women.

I only think it would work against her if recruits thought she might retire before their time at Stanford was over.  This contract helps to ease any such worries.

I do think it important for the staff to have some younger coaches.  That may be one of the reasons they hired Tempie Brown.  Brown and Kate Paye are in their 30s, at least.

But age was certainly not an issue for Pat Summit, and Tara is only 1 year older than Geno.  While I think it would be hard to come into a new job and try to build a program at an advanced age, it does not seem to hurt a coach who is watching over a long established program. 

In WBB I think that parents are of vital importance in recruiting decisions, and they are more likely to trust their daughter to Tara's ethics and expertise  than to someone who is less well known.  A coach who seems like a Professor of basketball seems to fit the bill perfectly for our kind of recruits, who are all academic stars in their own right too.  Plus, Tara is quite youthful compared with others in her age cohort.

[81alum]

Do any of you think that maybe Tara's age works against her in the recruiting world?  She's certainly not getting dumber from a on-court coaching standpoint,  but rival coaches who are younger might come across as more energetic and charismatic when dealing with teenage women.

I only think it would work against her if recruits thought she might retire before their time at Stanford was over.  This contract helps to ease any such worries.

I do think it important for the staff to have some younger coaches.  That may be one of the reasons they hired Tempie Brown.  Brown and Kate Paye are in their 30s, at least.

But age was certainly not an issue for Pat Summit, and Tara is only 1 year older than Geno.  While I think it would be hard to come into a new job and try to build a program at an advanced age, it does not seem to hurt a coach who is watching over a long established program. 

In WBB I think that parents are of vital importance in recruiting decisions, and they are more likely to trust their daughter to Tara's ethics and expertise  than to someone who is less well known.  A coach who seems like a Professor of basketball seems to fit the bill perfectly for our kind of recruits, who are all academic stars in their own right too.  Plus, Tara is quite youthful compared with others in her age cohort.

[WAcard]

Redrum has a point and it's difficult to compare her to Geno as Geno has won how many NCs in the last several years!

[WAcard]

Redrum has a point and it's difficult to compare her to Geno as Geno has won how many NCs in the last several years!

[81alum]

Then let's talk specifics.  Which recruits have we actually lost to anyone over the last couple of years?  And if/when we have lost them, have we lost them to younger coaches?  Once Tara finds a recruit she wants, if that recruit gets past admissions then I think we are batting close to 100%. 

For that matter, we always seem to beat UConn if the recruit is Stanford admissible.  This year we have Karlie Samuelson and Erica McCall coming in, who were each coveted by Geno at various stages.  As was Chiney.  Our pool is quite limited because not all of the top talent has a reasonable prospect of getting admitted.  This also leads to some self-selection, I imagine.  But I am not aware of a single prospect that we recruited, admitted, and who turned us down to go to a younger coach.

It is an interesting hypothesis that oldsters like me would find plausible, but I don't actually think it is true.

[81alum]

Then let's talk specifics.  Which recruits have we actually lost to anyone over the last couple of years?  And if/when we have lost them, have we lost them to younger coaches?  Once Tara finds a recruit she wants, if that recruit gets past admissions then I think we are batting close to 100%. 

For that matter, we always seem to beat UConn if the recruit is Stanford admissible.  This year we have Karlie Samuelson and Erica McCall coming in, who were each coveted by Geno at various stages.  As was Chiney.  Our pool is quite limited because not all of the top talent has a reasonable prospect of getting admitted.  This also leads to some self-selection, I imagine.  But I am not aware of a single prospect that we recruited, admitted, and who turned us down to go to a younger coach.

It is an interesting hypothesis that oldsters like me would find plausible, but I don't actually think it is true.

[WAcard]

Age would not be an issue if you were winning national championships but when you don't I think it is!

[WAcard]

Age would not be an issue if you were winning national championships but when you don't I think it is!