[CompSci87]

Here is an honest question: Geno coached our Olympic teams in 2012 and 2016, and seems not to have taken any time off of coaching his college team.  How did he do that, while Tara had to take a year off to focus exclusively on the Olympic team?

I'll quote for convenience from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_VanDerveer#Olympics. The information matches what I remember from reading Tara's book "Shooting From the Outside":

... The national team finished third at the 1992 Olympics, and third again in the 1994 World Championship. ...

The USA Basketball organization, with input from VanDerveer, decided to depart from the usual strategy to form a team a few weeks before the event, which severely limited the practice time. Instead, they decided to form a full-time national team to stay together for a year, preparing to the 1996 Olympics. VanDerveer was chosen as head coach, but was expected to take a one-year sabbatical from her head coaching position at Stanford.
...
VanDerveer's Olympic team was considered one of the best ever assembled, and compiled a 60–0 record over the course of the year, culminating in a gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta.

Obviously, coaching 60 national team games over a one-year period really did require Tara to take a year away from Stanford! The national team doesn't play anything like that schedule anymore, though as we know, this year they're playing a series of 8 games against college teams.

BTW, also, Tara didn't choose the team.  (I don't think Geno got to choose his team either, but I don't know exactly how things work at present.):

Prior to 1996, the head coach had much input into the team selection. While the USA Basketball organization selected the pool of potential players, the head coach chose the final team. That changed in 1996, when USA Basketball decided to take over the selection role. The initial selection was of 11 players, with plans to add a 12th player later, which would allow the organization to determine what was most needed. The lack of input led to some differences of opinions ...

[CompSci87]

Here is an honest question: Geno coached our Olympic teams in 2012 and 2016, and seems not to have taken any time off of coaching his college team.  How did he do that, while Tara had to take a year off to focus exclusively on the Olympic team?

I'll quote for convenience from Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_VanDerveer#Olympics. The information matches what I remember from reading Tara's book "Shooting From the Outside":

... The national team finished third at the 1992 Olympics, and third again in the 1994 World Championship. ...

The USA Basketball organization, with input from VanDerveer, decided to depart from the usual strategy to form a team a few weeks before the event, which severely limited the practice time. Instead, they decided to form a full-time national team to stay together for a year, preparing to the 1996 Olympics. VanDerveer was chosen as head coach, but was expected to take a one-year sabbatical from her head coaching position at Stanford.
...
VanDerveer's Olympic team was considered one of the best ever assembled, and compiled a 60–0 record over the course of the year, culminating in a gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta.

Obviously, coaching 60 national team games over a one-year period really did require Tara to take a year away from Stanford! The national team doesn't play anything like that schedule anymore, though as we know, this year they're playing a series of 8 games against college teams.

BTW, also, Tara didn't choose the team.  (I don't think Geno got to choose his team either, but I don't know exactly how things work at present.):

Prior to 1996, the head coach had much input into the team selection. While the USA Basketball organization selected the pool of potential players, the head coach chose the final team. That changed in 1996, when USA Basketball decided to take over the selection role. The initial selection was of 11 players, with plans to add a 12th player later, which would allow the organization to determine what was most needed. The lack of input led to some differences of opinions ...