Tara VanDerveer’s dad used to worry that his oldest daughter was devoting way too much time to basketball, wearing out the family’s driveway court in Schenectady, N.Y.

“Come in and do your algebra, Tara,” Dunbar VanDerveer would call out from the house. “Basketball will never take you anyplace.”

Mr. VanDerveer was a wise man, a teacher, but he failed to take into account the Tara Factor.

His daughter would become a college coach, and over the years, Tara and her teams would play a strong role in elevating women’s college basketball to such a high level that Tara would not only remain gainfully employed, but would become a legend.

Basketball worked out OK for VanDerveer. On Friday night, her Stanford women defeated USC 58-42 at Maples Pavilion. It was college victory No. 1,000 for VanDerveer.

She went crazy for the occasion, dressing up in one of her flashiest gray suits, the type you might wear if you were trying to blend in at a Secret Service convention. She does a weird thing most of the game: She mostly sits and watches.

“My strength as a coach,” VanDerveer said after the game, “is preparation, to get everyone to buy into, ‘This is how we’re going to play.’”

Against USC, VanDerveer stood up about as often as her 89-year-old mom, Rita, seated courtside. Mom studies hoops, too. She once asked seventh-grader Tara, the only kid on an all-women’s rec team, “Why do you dribble the ball into the corner every time?”

Tara thought about it and answered, “I don’t know.” When she went to Indiana University to play basketball, Tara didn’t know what a pick-and-roll was.

She has learned a lot. Now, on the bench, VanDerveer sits and watches. And thinks. All her neurons are shaped like X’s and O’s.

Back to Gallery Milestone doesn’t begin to tell story of Tara... 6 1 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle 2 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle 3 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle 4 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle 2017 5 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle 6 of 6 Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle











The win was her 848th at Stanford, 31 seasons of phenomenally consistent winning basketball.

“She’s really developed a culture, not just of winning, but of being great,” said USC head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dykes, who also spoke of the courage and passion that VanDerveer inspires in her players.

One of VanDerveer’s former players, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, can tell you about the passion. When VanDerveer recruited Gold-Onwude, the coach spent four hours with the family talking basketball, then four hours talking academics.

After the visit, Gold-Onwude’s father explained to her, “If you don’t go to Stanford, I have no daughter.” When Gold-Onwude graduated and got a TV gig, VanDerveer peppered her with helpful tips. Some people have a life coach. VanDerveer’s players have a coach for life.

On Friday, there was a fairly short postgame tribute to VanDerveer. After the final horn, her players dumped a vat of Gatorade on her — except it was confetti instead.

“What hit me was how excited our team was,” VanDerveer said in her news conference.

On the court, VanDerveer told the crowd, “Our team may not believe this, but I am speechless.”

In the days leading to No. 1,000, VanDerveer told someone, “I’m not going to go all goo-goo ga-ga over this,” and she held it together as video tributes from former players rolled across the scoreboard screen.

Maybe the most touching tribute of the ceremony was the collective expression on the faces of the Stanford players as they watched their coach take a bow to the nation.

They were unashamedly beaming at a coach who is no cupcake, who can be as hard and demanding as her mentor, Bobby Knight, who can turn a sloppy practice into a barf-fest, but who has turned out from Stanford a legion of Tara Believers.

Though the 1,000 wins are, as Washington State head coach June Daugherty recently put it, “astronomical,” it’s VanDerveer’s impact on her players that shines through the numbers and trophies from two national championships and 11 trips to the Final Four.

“It’s been a really exciting and fun journey,” VanDerveer said.

It started back in the seventh grade, when young Tara took her first basketball job, as mascot inside a bear costume for the local high school’s boys team.

She was thrilled to be part of the sport that didn’t really have a place then for girls. But instead of cavorting for the crowd, Tara took off the bear’s head and watched the game, transfixed. She was fired.

It was a start, and years later, VanDerveer would persuade her dad that basketball indeed could take her somewhere.

Friday was more about how far VanDerveer has taken basketball.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler