SAN ANTONIO – Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer makes her team play for a national championship Sunday against Arizona. But he admitted for the first time on Saturday that he was wondering how even the cardinal would get after the improved COVID-19 guidelines in Santa Clara County forced them on the road for nine weeks.
The odyssey began in early December and lasted until early February, going through six states and a temporary “home” in Santa Cruz before receiving permission to return home to Stanford to play the regular season.
“There was a time when, I don’t even know I should admit it, but it was like we didn’t know how to keep doing this in terms of going to Santa Cruz,” VanDerveer said in a Zoom call with reporters. “Trying as we tried. There were a few days when I said, ‘Wow, that might be too much.’ We might have to take a break, ourselves.
“But we have great leadership. We have women motivated by competition, talented, very strong in our team and they have deepened. I think the off-track experience has made us tougher, stronger and more determined. We will not let that happen. “COVID makes us fall, either by trying or zooming in. We’ll be the best Stanford basketball team we can be, and I’m proud of our team for that.”
There was nothing perfect on stage. Stanford striker Cameron Brink detailed a few times where power was turned off at a gym where they managed to practice.
“We were practicing in the dark,” he said. “I was freezing in that gym, but we’re grateful to have a gym to practice. It made it harder for us. We had very difficult practices in that gym and I think those practices are one of the reasons we’re here today.”
He also attributes the bubble created by Stanford during his long road trip that has helped the cardinal manage the bubble they went through during the San Antonio NCAA tournament.
“I think it’s kind of an advantage for us,” Brink said. “When we were on the road for almost two months in a row, other teams were at home and when they got to the San Antonio bubble, they didn’t really know what to expect and we knew how to get stuck” in hotels like for weeks, so I think that we are lucky to have experienced it. “
Beyond the bubble experience, there is also familiarity with Sunday’s opponent: Arizona, a team the Cardinal won twice this season. This is the first basketball game of the Pac-12 total championship in history, both male and female.
Stanford is trying to win its first title in 29 years, while Arizona is playing for the first national championship in school history. Regardless of who wins, it would be the first Pac-12 women’s basketball championship since Stanford last won it in 1992.
“Honestly, this is a dream come true for us at Pac-12 because for a long time the conference hasn’t gotten the respect I think it deserves,” VanDerveer said.
Arizona coach Adia Barnes agreed.
“For me to constantly see that the Pac-12 has no respect, it’s continuously and it’s always happening,” Barnes said. “So now I hope that with both of them in the championship game, the Pac-12 gets more respect and the east coast bias will stop. It won’t stop overnight, but I think we have to respect the Pac-12 much more. “