I’ve never seen some things, like:
- Stanford losing two games in a row. It’s happened, but I’ve never seen it.
- Stanford playing poorly in three straight games. Maybe this has happened, but I’ve never seen it.
- Kate Paye as the head coach of the Stanford women’s basketball team.
I hate to think it*. You hate to think it. It’s not unthinkable.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Coach VanDerveer retired after winning the NCAA championship in 2021. That would’ve been a storybook moment, when she’s done everything a coach can do, and then some.
Neither was I surprised when she came back for 2022, and darn if Stanford didn’t have me thinking they were going to repeat.
What if this is the year Coach VanDerveer decides she can’t get through to the Cardinal like she used to. That might not even be true — it could be that this group just isn’t as talented or cohesive as the last few Cardinal teams with the Hull sisters and Anna Wilson — but let’s say Coach figures that it’s time. (She could then write the sequel to her 1998 memoir Shooting from the Outside , though that’s just me — I always think it’s time for someone to write something.)
That time could be at the buzzer when the Cardinal is eliminated from — or after they win — the 2023 NCAA tournament. It could also be this weekend.
The Cardinal looked bad against UCLA, but they survived, because very good teams do that. They looked bad against USC — never had the lead in that game — and they lost to the Trojans for the first time in a long while. Utah’s better than those Big 10 teams — don’t take it from me; the NET metrics and Associated Press said so.
Stanford prepares most thoroughly for Utah, and there’s immeasurable team pride driving their practices this week — heaven forbid they play three bad games in a row — but things and Alissa Pili happen.
* I don’t like the thought of Coach VanDerveer retiring, but I like the thought of Coach Paye making that 18-inch move to the chair on her left.