Currently Cardinal, 12/30: Coach Tara builds her basketball dream player

It’s 2020 and we’re all up for anything at this point. As the year winds down, the NCAA.com website published what is by all accounts a very interesting nugget of information featuring your very own legendary coach Tara VanDerveer.

Fresh off her record-setting win just a week or so ago now, Coach Tara set off to build her ultimate dream basketball player.

NCAA.com tasked VanDerveer to create her ultimate Stanford women’s basketball dream player, picking one player for 10 different categories. Here’s her picks for each category, along with what she had to say about each player.

It’s an interesting list, but one that I thought everyone here would certainly enjoy. Here’s what she came up with:

The Quarterback: Sonja Henning (G, 1987-91)

The Bucket-getter: Kate Starbird (G, 1993-97)

The Glue: Nneka Ogwumike (F, 2008-12)

The Dirty Worker: Chiney Ogwumike (F, 2010-14)

The Athletic Wonder: Kristin Folkl (F, 1994-95, 1997-98)

The Clutch Gene: Candace Wiggins (G, 2004-08)

The Lockdown Defender: Ros Gold-Onwude (G, 2005-10)

The Shooter: Jennifer Azzi (G, 1986-90)

The Heart: Jayne Appel (C, 2006-2010)

The IQ: Karlie Samuelson (G, 2008-12)

Pretty awesome list, if you ask me. And even if I didn’t think so, who would you rather take their word for in this regard, me or Coach Tara? HA! (Don’t answer that)

Anyways — you can read what Coach Tara had to say about each player here.

And here’s the rest of some hard-court news pertaining to your Stanford Cardinal:

Stanford remains No. 1 in AP women’s poll after passing first test | ESPN

Tara VanDerveer and Stanford women’s 10 best all-time Cardinal players | ESPN

Stanford aces first test, remains No. 1 | NCAA.com

Stanford women maintain No. 1 ranking | San Francisco Chronicle

Coach VanDerveer defined by sustained excellence | ESPN

3 ways Stanford showed why it’s the No. 1 women’s basketball team in the country | NCAA.com