Basketball <\/p>\n
The NCAA held its first official postseason tournament for Division I women\u2019s college basketball in 1982. Every tournament, including that one and since, has been played with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in it.<\/p>\n
Stanford owns the second-longest streak for appearances in the NCAA Tournament with 36. The Cardinal missed the field in Tara VanDerveer\u2019s first two seasons at the helm in 1986 and 1987, and then the tournament was never played again without Stanford in it. As she became the winningest coach in the history of college basketball, Stanford appeared in every Big Dance from 1988 through 2024. Along the way, she went to 13 Final Fours and won three national titles in a stretch spanning nearly four decades.<\/p>\n
Like Pat Summitt did with Tennessee, like Geno Auriemma did with UConn<\/a>, like Muffet McGraw did with Notre Dame<\/a>, and like Kim Mulkey did with Baylor, VanDerveer made Stanford synonymous with the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament. As the sport grew in popularity, the Cardinal became one its signature programs.<\/p>\n \u201cTara is the best coach in the history of the game,\u201d said VanDerveer\u2019s longtime understudy, Kate Paye.<\/p>\n And then, a few weeks after last season ended, VanDerveer called it quits, retiring at the age of 70. She went out with the Pac-12, a conference she helped turn into a great league for women\u2019s college basketball.<\/p>\n Her former player and assistant coach for 17 years, Paye, took the reins of the program as it embarked on a new era of Cardinal women\u2019s basketball: On July 1, 2024, Stanford \u2013 along with Cal and SMU \u2013 officially joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. As the Pac-12 dissolved because of greed and mismanagement over TV revenue from football, Stanford and Cal jumped aboard the first real lifeboat that came their way, even if it was coming from a conference largely based multiple time zones away. The choice was joining the ACC, or suffering the fate of Oregon State<\/a> and Washington State<\/a>, left behind and forced to scrabble together partnerships with mid-major conferences.<\/p>\n These two big changes for Stanford \u2013 VanDerveer\u2019s retirement and the dissolution of the Pac-12 leading to Paye\u2019s elevation and joining the ACC \u2013 also coincided with some of the best players leaving the program. All-American and two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Cameron Brink became the second overall pick in the WNBA<\/a> Draft, and Katrina McClain Award-winner Kiki Iriafen transferred to USC. Brink and Iriafen both averaged double-doubles last season as Stanford went to the Sweet 16. Also gone after exhausting her eligibility was Hannah Jump, an All-Pac-12 guard who started 71 games in the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n Still, folks were optimistic that Stanford would be successful in the ACC. The Cardinal were picked to finish seventh in the league in the preseason poll and even received a first-place vote. Surely, at the very least \u2013 many thought \u2013 Stanford would make the NCAA Tournament field.<\/p>\n But that prediction may not come to fruition. More importantly, Stanford\u2019s streak of NCAA Tournament appearances may be coming to an end.<\/p>\n Entering the ACC Tournament<\/a> this week as the No. 11 seed, the Cardinal finds itself on the wrong side of the tournament bubble. In his latest bracketology<\/a> at ESPN, Charlie Creme projects Stanford among the so-called \u201cnext four out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is going to take a lot (to make the NCAA Tournament),\u201d Creme told SB Nation of Stanford\u2019s outlook. \u201cThey are quite a ways from the actual field. They would need two impactful wins at the ACC Tournament and then losing from (other bubble teams).\u201d<\/p>\n Her Hoop Stats bracketologist Megan Gauer<\/a> agrees.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re about to see their tournament streak end,\u201d Gauer told SB Nation. \u201cStanford has a couple good wins… but not enough to compensate for the 13 losses and a sub-.500 conference record.\u201d<\/p>\n But Paye enters the ACC Tournament this week in Greensboro, North Carolina with renewed optimism in her squad.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team is very confident. We\u2019re playing really well and our team loves playing together,\u201d Paye said. \u201cIt\u2019s March, so as a basketball player, this is the most exciting time of year. What we\u2019ve learned over the years is that the teams that are peaking going into tournament time are the teams that really love each other and just want to play more games together. I feel like our team has that.\u201d<\/p>\n Stanford has won five of its last six games, giving them a 16-13 overall record and an 8-10 mark in ACC play. One of those wins was over an AP-ranked team in Georgia Tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the reasons for Stanford\u2019s late-season surge are changes Paye made was to the rotation. She inserted Chloe Clardy into the starting lineup and gave more minutes to off-the-bench contributors in Tess Heal and Courtney Ogden.<\/p>\n Heal, a junior transfer from Santa Clara, is the only player in the country shooting better than 50 percent from the floor, 50 percent from 3-point range, and 85 percent from the free throw line. Ogden is averaging 16.5 points, five rebounds and four assists over her last four games, and Clardy scored a career-high 30 points to help Stanford win at Virginia Tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team is playing well and with a lot of confidence,\u201d Paye said. \u201cI\u2019m just really excited and proud of the incredible improvement to our team. When I think back to our first road trip, I feel like we\u2019re a totally different team. We\u2019re much improved\u2026 People are feeling very comfortable in their roles.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cardinal are 48th in the NET rankings, ahead of fellow bubble teams like Princeton, Saint Joseph\u2019s, Arizona and Colorado. They have just one Quad 1 win, but are 7-4 combined against Quad 2 and 3 teams.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a chance for Stanford to make a run to the NCAA Tournament and keep its streak alive, but the road there could be bumpy. Should the Cardinal beat Clemson on Wednesday night, they\u2019ll have to then defeat Louisville and Duke \u2013 both of which would be Quad 1 victories \u2013 to feel comfortable about getting into the NCAA Tournament. Stanford lost to both the Cardinals and the Blue Devils on the road this season by an average margin of 17 points.<\/p>\n Again, indeed, it won\u2019t be easy for Stanford. The Cardinal went 2-7 in ACC road games this year and the tournament in Greensboro will probably feel a lot like a true road game for the Californians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re traveling a heck of a lot less than Stanford is,\u201d Clemson coach Shawn Poppie said of the upcoming matchup. <\/p>\n Paye says that her players haven\u2019t complained about the travel, but Stanford\u2019s road record shows that playing a few timezones away will be another obstacle as it has been for most of the season for the ACC newcomers. However the tournament plays out though, Paye has taken the ups and downs of her first year in-stride and hopes that it helps her build in years to come.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s been a really fun journey,\u201d Paye said. \u201cThis is not about me \u2013 it\u2019s about the incredible women on our team who have been extremely unselfish, extremely hardworking, extremely coachable through a lot of adversity. They\u2019ve really stuck together. I\u2019m really proud of them. It\u2019s been challenging, but in a good way. I know that I have grown as a coach and I\u2019ve learned a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n