South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer in Final 4
South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer in Final 4
Dawn Staley, a two-time national basketball player of the year at Virginia, played for three gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic teams, including the 1996 squad under Tara VanDerveer.
Staley has yet to beat VanDerveer as a player or as a coach.
When she was head coach at Temple, the Owls lost their only meeting with the Cardinal.
“I’m part of her 1,000 wins,” Staley said with a laugh Tuesday during a conference call with reporters.
The Cardinal (32-5) play the Gamecocks (31-4) at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Final Four in Dallas.
In the second national semifinal, four-time defending champion Connecticut (36-0) tries to extend its 111-game winning streak against Mississippi State (33-4).
“Dawn has gone from being a passionate player to a passionate teacher and coach,” VanDerveer said.
Staley recently was named head coach of the Olympic team, a job previously held by VanDerveer as well as UConn’s Geno Auriemma.
“For us all to be here says we’re doing things the right way,” Staley said.
With VanDerveer, “you know you’re going to be well prepared for any situation you’ll see,” Staley said.
During the team’s final practice at Maples Pavilion before flying to Dallas on Tuesday afternoon, she told the players, Maybe 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you’ll look back and understand what you have.
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.