For the first time in a quarter of a century, Stanford women’s basketball is unranked in the AP preseason polls following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in college basketball history. In the ACC preseason media polls, which were announced Tuesday night, the Cardinal ranked seventh in its new conference, while the men’s team was positioned second to last.
In women’s basketball, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish topped the ACC poll with 70 first-place votes, led by preseason ACC Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo and star Olivia Miles. NC State and Duke placed second and third.
Stanford’s relatively poor preseason rank comes after the loss of stars Cameron Brink ’24, who was drafted to the LA Sparks, and Kiki Iriafen ’24, who transferred to USC. VanDerveer, the three-time national championship winning coach, is succeeded by long-time Stanford assistant coach Kate Paye.
Two new transfers, sophomore Mary Ashley Stevenson from Purdue and junior Tess Heal from Santa Clara, will add to a lineup that retains experienced seniors Brooke Demetre and Elena Bosgana, and includes another crop of young freshmen, led by center Kennedy Umeh, who was ranked the 44th best player in the country by ESPN HoopGurlz.
On the men’s side, Stanford ranked 17th out of 18 ACC teams, followed only by Boston College. The poll was topped by longtime ACC favorites Duke and North Carolina, followed by a resurgent Wake Forest. Cardinal senior Maxime Raynaud received one vote for preseason ACC Player of the Year, which was ultimately awarded to North Carolina’s RJ Davis, who received 40 votes.
Both men’s and women’s basketball start the season on Nov. 4, with home games against Denver and Le Moyne respectively.