Onepoint victory sends Stanford to women’s title game against Arizona.
Longawaited return to final gives way to appreciation
A perfect pointblank look by South Carolina didn’t go. And then another. The last second ticked off the clock, the ball fell into Cameron Brink’s hands and it was abruptly over Friday.
One frantic moment to put the end to a very long era:
Stanford is back in the national championship game.
After 11 long years, Tara VanDerveer and her team have a chance for another title. After 11 years of shots that did go in, balls that didn’t rim out, of players who lost their poise at clutch time, of untimely injuries and foul trouble, of teams that weren’t cohesive enough, deep enough, strong enough, Stanford will play once again for a national title.
“It’s surreal,” said Cardinal
sophomore Haley Jones. “I’m so blessed to be here with this team.”
After their heartstopping 6665 win over South Carolina in San Antonio, Stanford will refocus. Saturday, the team members will gather to watch video. They will practice. They will know that everything they do is for the last time.
“We only have two days left of our season,” Jones said. “So, we’re just trying to take every moment, not take anything for granted. Just kind of be here, sit in it, love it and give what we have.”
Sit in it. Love it. Teams at the end of seasons often have perspective, but this Cardinal team is bathing in understanding of the moment. This group has had such a strange journey, has forged such tight bonds and has succeeded in such a way, every single team member knows they are experiencing something extraordinary that will change their lives.
On Friday, Jones was the personification of Stanford’s 202021 effort: poised, unrattled, focused. She said that one of Stanford’s seniors from last year, Nadia Fingall, who didn’t get the chance to play in the tournament her senior year because of the pandemic, told the team before the game to “be poised and patient. To keep your composure. To know your role.”
Stanford did all that. When asked about the wild final moments, Jones shrugged.
“There was no time to hang your head, get mad at yourself; all you could do was get back,” she said. “It was very hectic.”
And it was very thrilling. Compelling. One of the great games in a fabulous tournament that is intersecting with a moment of awareness. People are realizing the game’s worth. And the game and the players on the court are seizing the moment.
This is Stanford’s fifth trip to the final. The Cardinal won the title twice, in 1990 and 1992. The closest it got since was making the final game twice in three years, in 2008 and again in 2010. Each of those stops was at a very different point in the development of women’s basketball. But at each point in history, VanDerveer has been there.
Stanford’s last national championship appearance was at the Alamodome, too. The opponent in the last game was UConn. Some of the greats in Stanford history were on the court: Nneka Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Ros GoldOnwude, Kayla Pederson. Chiney Ogwumike was in the building because the high school senior had played in the McDonald’s AllAmerican Game. So was thenvice president Joe Biden and his wife Jill.
But the game was ugly. Appel was playing on a stress fracture and went 0for12. UConn was a disaster in the first half, scoring just 12 points, and Stanford took a 2012 lead at half. But in the second half, Maya Moore led her team to victory. It was a heartbreaking ending.
“I don’t have any skeletons in my closet, or ghosts, whatever,” VanDerveer said Friday. “This is a team I have confidence in and has confidence in themselves and really plays hard for each other.”
And if you know VanDerveer you believe her. She is very good at not hanging onto the past, except for mining whatever basketball lessons it provides. She’s been so close before, taking 14 teams to the Final Four. She’s had great teams in the past three decades. They haven’t gotten over the hump, but in many ways that has just fueled her. Taken her back to the film room, back to her whiteboard.
As her assistant coach Katy Steding says, VanDerveer likes the destination. But what she really likes is the journey.
But now this crazy journey has taken her team to this destination. Another title game, again in the Alamodome. Another chance at a championship 29 years removed from her last title.
“In the past 30 years I’ve had 30 different relationships with 30 different teams,” VanDerveer said. “This is a lowmaintenance team. They get it. They get that we’re so fortunate to be playing. They’re just doing whatever it takes.
“We have come to appreciate the little things, but maybe the real things, in life.”
Sunday will be a very real thing. Playing for a national championship, the last stop on an extraordinary journey.