Tara's Hall of Fame career – the 1990s

Stanford Athletics continues its review of Tara's coaching career. In the third installment, Tara leads Stanford to its second national championship and USA Basketball to a 60-0 record and a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.

Elliott Almond (Mercury News) writes about Tara's work ethic:

Tara VanDerveer has never been one to waste an opportunity. When she lands in Springfield, Mass., this week for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ceremonies, the Stanford coach plans to work on improving her tried-and-true triangle offense. Read more...

In his article, Almond quotes one of Tara's aphorisms: "You want to have fun? Try winning. Now that's fun."

A couple of days ago, Ros Gold-Onwude tweeted, "In honor of Tara's Naismith HOF let's start a #taraisms trend. Along w/ bball genius-she's said a lot of funny things over the years."

These are the taraisms that former players have tweeted. (Thanks to "Moxie12" for beginning the list.):

"Don't be a pig and hog the ball!"
"What offense are you running? Mumbo Jumbo?!!! Be a point guard! Run the play!"
"There's too much mustard on your hotdog" (on showoff/ fancy moves)
"You don't want to be 'the nice girls from Stanford'." (telling us to be tough)
"The 'S' on your jersey doesn't stand for stupid."
"Mind over mattress."
"You don't have to be best friends, but you do have to be best teammates."
"It's not the start of the race but the finish."
"Mental is to physical as 4 is to 1."
"Why use a water pistol when you have a cannon!"
"Don't be a squirrel on the wrong side of the tree." (in reference to the D post being on the wrong side of the O post player)
"You can't be a light switch and turn your game off and on, has to be on all the time!"
"If you have a Ferrari body don't use it like a pickup truck."
"They already made the movie dumb and dumber... And you're NOT in it!!!"
"A repetition of error shows a lack of intelligence"
"Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes you're the fire hydrant."
"Basketball is a team sport. If you are into individual things, take up tennis."
"This isn't prayer basketball, we don't just throw the ball in the air and PRAY someone will catch it"
"I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night."
"Christmas is over. Quit standing around like a decoration."
"This is not a democracy."
"If there is a fire in the house, get off the porch!" (in reference to the ball in the key & helping in)
"When I was playing I used to love guarding Weak Wilma because I could help in & get steals!"
"The play is called Motion"...not "SLOW Motion"
"That play's not for you! The play is called money! Not funny!"
"You have to be more than a one trick pony!" (on having more than one go-to move)