VanDerveer didn’t absorb all fatherly advice

Heidi VanDerveer’s father once told her that the game of basketball would take her nowhere.

“He was usually right, but not that time,” said VanDerveer, the former head women’s basketball coach at Eastern Washington University, who is back in town this week with the Stanford University team that is competing in the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship’s Spokane Region at the Arena.

“As it turned out, basketball has taken me all over the world – for free.”

The ride is about to get wilder for VanDerveer, who has signed on to work with and scout for the United States women’s Olympic team under head coach Anne Donovan.

VanDerveer, who spent three seasons (1994-97) at Eastern, where she went 24-55 overall and 15-29 against Big Sky Conference competition, is scheduled to accompany the Olympic team on a 12-day tour of China on April 12, and will spend much of her time there scouting potential opponents in the Summer Olympics, to be held in Beijing in early August.

“I’m very excited about it,” she said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

VanDerveer left EWU for the WNBA following the 1996-97 season and spent six years coaching at the professional level in Sacramento, Minnesota and Seattle, where she worked under Donovan before leaving to become the associate head coach at San Diego State last winter.

She served as an assistant at all three of her WNBA stops but also worked as the head coach at Sacramento and Minnesota. All the while she managed to keep involved with the Stanford program, where her sister, Tara, is the head coach.

The two live a block from each other in Menlo Park, Calif., and spend much of their time talking basketball. VanDerveer has helped her sister with scouting, summer camps, the coordination of video and many other tasks.

“I’m kind of like a distant assistant, who works for nothing,” she said. “I gave Tara the family rate.”

Bad timing

Underdog Pittsburgh was giving Stanford everything it could handle, trailing 49-46 with just more than 8 minutes remaining. But Shavonte Zellous was running out of gas and Marcedes Walker was almost out of fouls.

Walker was on the bench after picking up her fourth foul at 11:42 and Zellous, who carried Pitt with 22 points, had to take a blow.

Within six seconds of Zellous hitting the bench, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude hit a jumper and, after a Pitt miss, nailed a 3-pointer. Then after a Panther turnover Candice Wiggin scored and just like that the lead was 10, forcing Pitt coach Agnus Berenato to call a timeout to get Walker and Zellous in.

“Shavonte rarely, rarely, rarely, I mean rarely asks for a breather,” Bernato said, then referred to Gold Onwude’s big shots. “I thought then we rushed a couple of sets, probably took some ill-advised shots.”

Some extra motivation

Actor Cuba Gooding Jr., in town filming a movie, spoke to the Stanford team Saturday afternoon.

Gooding was particularly impressed that the players had chosen “Men of Honor” as the team movie for the game.

Later several players headed out to get something to eat and saw Gooding in the hotel bar.

“We weren’t in the bar,” sophomore Rosalyn Gold-Onwude quickly pointed out, “but we saw him.”

Returning to the hotel, Gold-Onwude said she brought Gooding a sandwich.

When asked if he paid her, she joked, “I said it was on me, don’t sweat it Cuba.”

When asked if she left a ticket for him, she added, “He’s filming tonight. I got his cell, though.”

As she denied that, teammate Candice Wiggins leaned over and said, “No questions about that any more. Get the mic away.”

Empty bench – almost

Maryland poured in 80 points against Vanderbilt, the second-highest total the Commodores allowed this season.

But it wasn’t until 42 seconds remained, when Jade Perry made a free throw, that a Terrapins reserve scored.

“Any game it’s different,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “You look at the talent that we have. The media timeouts are about 5 minutes long in the tournament, so I just felt today in the flow we were well rested and that’s why our starters played so many minutes.”