Stanford, North Carolina meet for just 2nd time

SPOKANE - If there is one thing Tara VanDerveer and Sylvia Hatchell have learned to do is win.

They have a combined 1,683 career coaching victories. Each are members of the exclusive 800-win club in women's college basketball and with one more NCAA tournament win, Hatchell can join VanDerveer as one of seven coaches with at least 40 tournament victories.

And they lead two of the storied programs in women's college hoops: Stanford and North Carolina with a combined 12 Final Four appearances between the two schools.

"These two coaches definitely changed women's basketball as a whole," North Carolina guard Italee Lucas said. "Their knowledge for the game, their passion for the game has changed it worldwide."

So consider it surprising that when the fifth-seeded Tar Heels (28-8) and top-seeded Cardinal (31-2) meet tonight (8:30, ESPN) in the Spokane Regional semifinals, it'll be just the second time the two schools have ever met.

The only previous meeting: the 1995 regional semifinals in Los Angeles and a 81-71 Stanford victory.

"In the NCAA tournament it is kind of surprising too that we only played one time. That's just I think based on the brackets we have been in and some of the years that they have gone to the Final Four we haven't been in that mix and then some years we have and they haven't been," VanDerveer said. "So we're excited to play them and they have a great program, but it would be fun to play them more."