Stanford announces basketball schedule changes in face of rising COVID-19 rates

STANFORD — Tara VanDerveer’s march toward becoming the all-time winningest women’s Division 1 basketball coach will continue Saturday at Nevada-Las Vegas as Stanford University released schedule changes because of Santa Clara County’s ban on contact sports to address the rise of COVID-19 case rates.

The second-ranked Cardinal ended last season in Vegas when losing the Pac-12 tournament final to Oregon 89-56 on March 8. The NCAA tournament was canceled the next week because of the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Eight months later schools are trying to start the 2020-21 season in the midst of a new wave of outbreaks. Stanford opened the season with a 108-40 demolition of Cal Poly last week but had a four-game homestand canceled once the county’s tight limits went into effect on Monday.

School officials said Wednesday in a release that additional updates will be announced when they become available. Once the Cardinal leaves for Las Vegas the team cannot return to campus without undergoing a 14-day quarantine.

Stanford was scheduled to open the Pac-12 Conference on Friday and Sunday against Washington and Washington State, respectively.  Those home games might be rescheduled.

VanDerveer has 1,095 career victories in 42 seasons with the Cardinal, Ohio State and Idaho. She needs three victories to tie the legendary Pat Summitt, her friend who coached at Tennessee before retiring in 2012 because of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

VanDerveer, 67, also is 63 games short of the overall Division 1 record held by Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.  Connecticut women’s coach Geno Auriemma also is closing in on Summitt’s record with 1,091 victories. The third-ranked Huskies open the season on Dec. 15 and play four games in eight days.

The Stanford men’s team traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, for the Maui Invitational, which was relocated from Hawaii. The Cardinal, which lost to Indiana 79-63 on Wednesday, will stay in North Carolina for the time being. The team will try to schedule regional non-conference games while there, the release said.

The team’s three home non-conference games in December have been canceled. Officials are working on finding a location for the Dec. 19 Pac-12 matchup against Arizona. Stanford is scheduled to open league play on Dec. 13 at USC.

Also, the Stanford men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are training for fall competition “in accordance with the latest county guidelines.” The teams had two non-scoring meets against Cal last month. The rest of their calendar has not been released.

School officials announced that all other sports are scheduled to begin training at the end of December or in early 2021.  Those schedules remain unchanged, the release said.

Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir said in a statement that school officials will monitor the local and national landscape while collaborating with school and county officials and health experts to “make informed decisions that we believe are in the best interest of our student-athletes.”

Muir said the school will support any student who decides to opt-out of their current or upcoming season, “including honoring their scholarship.”