Top 5 Tara VanDerveer replacements as legendary Stanford coach announces retirement ft. Kate Paye

Tara VanDerveer has announced her retirement after 38 eventful seasons with Stanford, where she guided the team to three national championships, 15 Pac-12 titles and 1,216 wins.

VanDerveer's accomplishments are so legendary that many college basketball coaches idolize her and some of her players have risen to become mentors like her.

Her achievements are a tough act to follow, so the coach who would replace her will be pressured to do better to gain following and respect from the college hoops world.

The Cardinal will have an enormous task during the offseason, as they look for a coache to guide the team to the next phase of the program without VanDerveer. Here are five possible coaching candidates to replace the legendary Stanford mentor.

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Top coaching candidates to replace Tara VanDerveer in Stanford

#1 Kate Paye

Kate Paye is known as VanDerveer's heir apparent.

Paye has spent the last eight seasons as the associate head coach to VanDerveer and has the most likely chance of securing the lead tactician spot due to her experience with Stanford as part of their coaching staff.

Paye focused on working the skills of their perimeter players, deploying defensive tactics during games and is their top recruiter and scout.

The former Stanford captain has played in the WNBA and the ABL in the pro ranks and won her second WBCA assistant coach of the year for Division I in three seasons.

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#2 Katy Steding

A former player under VanDerveer, Steding was a school Hall of Famer who focused on developing the skills of post players. In three seasons as assistant coach, she helped the team go 92-12, which is the second most wins of any school during that span.

With her help, Stanford has gone 50-5 against Pac-12 schools and captured three consecutive Pac-12 regular season titles and two tournament titles. Steding also helped mold Cameron Brink into a back-to-back All-American awardee and set the school record for career blocks.

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#3 Temple Brown

Brown returned to the Stanford bench this season after working as an athletic director for Okemos Public Schools.

She was one of VanDerveer's assistants and worked with the Cardinal for seven seasons from 2013-14 to 2019-20. During that span, Brown helped Stanford win 200 of 250 games and make two appearances in the Final Four.

She helped Steding strengthen the team's post-plays and was also in charge of recruiting. Brown oversaw the development of All-American and WNBA cager Alanna Smith and helped form five straight top-10 classes, including the class of Francesca Belibi, Haley Jones, Hannah Jump and Ashten Prechtel.

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#4 Lamont Paris

South Carolina Gamecocks coach Lamont Paris is a good recruiter and developer of players.

Paris has turned South Carolina into a top-caliber SEC team in his second season as coach.

The 49-year-old coach has made an 11-21 Gamecocks squad into a 26-8 team that ended tied for second in the SEC. Paris also guided South Carolina to a Round of 64 stint this season.

During his stint as an assistant coach for Wisconsin, Paris has been known for his talent development and recruitment skills. He helped develop the likes of Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes. He could maximize his recruitment and player development capabilities with Stanford if he gets the job.

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#5 Kenny Payne

Louisville coach Kenny Payne

If there's one coach who needs a redemption story, it has to be Payne. The former Oregon, Kentucky and New York Knicks assistant coach was installed as Louisville coach in 2022 and had two disappointing seasons. In his first season with the Cardinals, he went 4-28.

The next year, he went 8-24, leading to his firing. His championship experience as a player and assistant coach are achievements, so if he wants to prove that the stint with Louisville was a fluke, going to Stanford to redeem himself can be the place to be.