Staley Gets Ready For Former Coach

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer recalls how during Dawn Staley’s college days at Virginia she wore a rubberband on her right wrist and snapped it each time she committed a turnover. VanDerveer remembers how much she enjoyed coaching the ultra-competitive Staley on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team that captured gold in Atlanta. On Saturday night, VanDerveer’s top-seeded Cardinal will face Staley’s No. 5 seed South Carolina team in the NCAA tournament’s Fresno regional semifinals, with Stanford looking to take another step toward a fifth straight Final Four. The Gamecocks played at Stanford last season, and Staley invited VanDerveer to the visiting locker room to give her players a pep talk. And Staley, spoke to VanDerveer’s players at a 2007 tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands when Staley was still at Temple. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.