02-01-2025, 11:31 PM
Byline: Stanford University, April 3, 2028
Stanford Universities players and coaches, celebrated their first return to the NCAA Final Four basketball Tournament in Indiana this past weekend. The excited Cardinal fans together with the dancing Tree and their uniquely wild band made their presence known at Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Field House Sunday afternoon.
Playing in the Finals was a fitting accomplishment for this team and their coaches who had been in a rebuilding mode since Hall of Fame Coach Tara VanDerveer retired in 2024. Kate Paye inherited a team ravaged by player transfers, a factor that was par for the course when the courts basically turned player loyalty on its head in the early 2000s. Paye, whose 2024-25 team would have been a powerhouse — Brink, Iriafen, Betts, Nivar, Emma-Nnopu, and Lepolo — had graduations, transfers, injuries, and portal defections that decimated the team she could have inherited in the first year as Head Coach. She had to overcome a losing season and fan doubt which started her tenure the old fashioned way — recruite, develop, teach, and inspire. Paye probably wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
So credit Coach Kate Paye and her indefatigable coaching staff! And especially credit the veteran players and the fine recruits that stuck with their coaches and fans to commit to the Stanford winning tradition!
(You get the idea… you never know where things are going to end up. And every team needs a supportive, confident fan base to make it through the tough times!)
Stanford Universities players and coaches, celebrated their first return to the NCAA Final Four basketball Tournament in Indiana this past weekend. The excited Cardinal fans together with the dancing Tree and their uniquely wild band made their presence known at Indianapolis’s Gainbridge Field House Sunday afternoon.
Playing in the Finals was a fitting accomplishment for this team and their coaches who had been in a rebuilding mode since Hall of Fame Coach Tara VanDerveer retired in 2024. Kate Paye inherited a team ravaged by player transfers, a factor that was par for the course when the courts basically turned player loyalty on its head in the early 2000s. Paye, whose 2024-25 team would have been a powerhouse — Brink, Iriafen, Betts, Nivar, Emma-Nnopu, and Lepolo — had graduations, transfers, injuries, and portal defections that decimated the team she could have inherited in the first year as Head Coach. She had to overcome a losing season and fan doubt which started her tenure the old fashioned way — recruite, develop, teach, and inspire. Paye probably wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
So credit Coach Kate Paye and her indefatigable coaching staff! And especially credit the veteran players and the fine recruits that stuck with their coaches and fans to commit to the Stanford winning tradition!
(You get the idea… you never know where things are going to end up. And every team needs a supportive, confident fan base to make it through the tough times!)