Tara VanDerveer is on the verge of 1,000 career coaching wins, which puts her in exclusive company in the history of college basketball: Only Tennessee legend Pat Summitt and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski have achieved the feat. It's hard to narrow down the top moments and victories over 39 years on the sideline, but we count them down (scroll down for a year-by-year look at VanDerveer's career).
10. Owning the Pac-10/Pac-12 (2001-14): The Cardinal put up as dominant a stretch in their conference as any team could, winning at least a share of 14 consecutive Pac-10/Pac-12 conference titles from 2001-2014. During that span, Stanford posted three 18-0 conference seasons from 2010 to 2012. The Cardinal won 11 conference tournament titles in 15 years.
9. And with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft ... (2012 and 2014): VanDerveer will always tell you her success is attributable to great players. No two might have been greater than Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, who were drafted first overall two years apart. Each of them held the Pac-12 all-time scoring title by the end of their careers before becoming the first sisters in league history to hear their named called first on draft day.
8. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction (Aug. 12, 2011): VanDerveer traveled to Springfield, Massachusetts -- the place where she spent her holidays as a child at her grandparents' house -- to be part of an induction class that included Chris Mullin and Dennis Rodman.
7. 2008 national semifinals (April 6, 2008): With Stanford and UConn again facing off with something big on the line, the Cardinal came away with the 82-73 win to advance to the national championship game. Tennessee soundly beat Stanford, winning Pat Summitt's last NCAA title.
6. 2010 Elite Eight vs. Xavier (March 29, 2010): A ticket to the Final Four on the line. And the score was tied. Then with 4.4 seconds to go against Xavier, Jeanette Pohlen took the inbounds pass and went coast-to-coast to score the game-winning layup with 0.3 seconds on the clock, sending Stanford to the Final Four with a 55-53 win.
5. Ending UConn's 90-game win streak (Dec. 30, 2010): Maples Pavilion was electric on the second-to-last day of 2010, when the Huskies came to town with their then-NCAA record winning streak in tow. Pohlen had a career night with 31 points, Maya Moore was bottled up much of the game, and Stanford came away with a 71-59 win.
4. 2008 Elite Eight vs. Maryland (March 31, 2008): The Cardinal hadn't been to the Final Four since 1997, a basketball eternity for one of the nation's best programs. And in Candice Wiggins' senior season, Stanford found its way back with an offensive show against a talented Maryland team, winning 98-87. As Wiggins dribbled off the final seconds, VanDerveer hugged her players, her glasses fogged from tears.
3. Winning the 1992 NCAA title (April 5, 1992): With point guard Molly Goodenbour running the show, VanDerveer and Stanford cemented their place on the basketball map with a second title in three years, defeating Western Kentucky 78-62 in Los Angeles.
2. Olympic gold medal (August 4, 1996): VanDerveer made a huge sacrifice and walked away from her Stanford program for a year to coach the U.S. national team into the Atlanta Games. It was a seminal time in women's basketball, with the future of two professional leagues hanging in the balance. VanDerveer pushed and prodded the most talented team ever at that point and ultimately led them to a 60-0 record and a gold medal on U.S. soil, defeating Brazil 111-87 in the title game.
1. Winning 1990 NCAA title (April 1, 1990): When VanDerveer got to Stanford, a job her father told her she shouldn't take, Maples Pavilion was so empty the bleachers didn't even need to be pulled out. But VanDerveer went to work, she lured Jennifer Azzi from Tennessee, and the rest is women's basketball history. The Cardinal, led by Azzi, Katy Steding and Val Whiting, took down Auburn 88-81 in Knoxville to win the program's first championship.