The college basketball world saw another legendary coach move on Tuesday night.
Longtime Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, who has led the Cardinal since 1985, announced her retirement after a career that saw her win three national championships and become the winningest college basketball coach ever, women’s or men’s.
LSU’s Kim Mulkey has a long way to go to catch VanDerveer’s all-time win total, but she has already surpassed her with four national championships. While that isn’t the most of all time, it puts Mulkey in a special group.
Here’s how the leaderboard looks among the seven women’s basketball coaches in history with more than one national title.
Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
Championships: 11
This sport has seen its fair share of legendary coaches, but none can hold a candle to Auriemma in terms of success. Like VanDerveer, he took over the Huskies program in 1985 and has since won 11 titles and reached the Final Four 23 times. He’s led UConn to six undefeated seasons and won a record 111 games in a row from 2014-17.
Pat Summitt, Tennessee
Championships: 8
In many ways the architect of the modern sport, Summitt coached at Tennessee from 1974-2012, winning eight national titles in the process. She never missed the NCAA tournament in Knoxville, nor did she ever have a losing season. At the time of her retirement, she was the all-time winningest women’s college basketball coach. Summitt died in 2016 at the age of 64 following a longtime battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Kim Mulkey, Baylor/LSU
Championships: 4
The only coach on this list to win a national title with two different programs, Mulkey has three championships at Baylor, where she coached from 2000-21, and one at LSU, where she has spent the last three seasons. She hasn’t been at it as long as some others on this list, so she ranks fairly low on the all-time wins chart. But that just goes to show how impressive her championship success is.
Tara VanDerveer, Stanford
Championships: 3
VanDerveer is moving on after 30 years in Palo Alto which saw her win three titles — most recently in 2021 — and reach the Final Four 13 times. Here 1,216 career wins are the most of any college basketball coach, though that record will almost certainly soon be broken by Auriemma, who sits just three wins shy of tying her.
Dawn Staley, South Carolina
Championships: 3
The youngest coach on this list, Staley is also the most recent to win a championship as she led the Gamecocks to an undefeated campaign to capture her third title this season. Staley has turned South Carolina into a national powerhouse since arriving in 2008, and at just 53 years old with no signs of slowing down, she will likely keep climbing this list.
Muffett McGraw, Notre Dame
Championships: 2
Another recently retired coach, McGraw led the Fighting Irish to championships in 2001 and 2018 before retiring in 2020. She took over at Notre Dame in 1987 and reached nine Final Fours with seven championship game appearances.
Linda Sharp, USC
Championships: 2
Unlike most coaches on this list, Sharp didn’t have a tenure at USC that spanned decades. She led the Trojans from 1977-89, winning back-to-back titles in 1983 and 1984. She left abruptly in 1989 to accept a job at Southwest Texas State before spending one year in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks in 1997 and later as an interim with the Phoenix Mercury in 2002. She later coached at the Division III level in Texas before retiring in 2008.
Notable coaches with one championship
Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech: Kim Mulkey’s college co-head coach Barmore led a veritable dynasty in Ruston, leading Louisiana Tech to a national title in 1988 with Mulkey as an assistant and nine Final Fours overall. He later worked under Mulkey at Baylor.
Brenda Frese, Maryland: Frese has coached the Terrapins since 2002, winning a title and 2006 and reaching two more Final Fours, most recently in 2015.
Jody Conradt, Texas: Conradt only won a single national title in 1986 as the coach of the Longhorns, but she reached three Final Fours with an unbelievable 16 year difference between her second and third.
