I always thought that Jen Gross might be in the running for the Stanford job when VanDerveer retired. I've heard that she and her husband have a good relationship with VanDerveer and they have helped VanDerveer with the Princeton style offense.
Same here. I always believed that the moment that TVD retired, that it was Coach Gross' job for the taking. No knock on Coach Paye; she's got a very high ceiling AND her Stanford roots run very, very deep (born at Stanford hospital, brother was a 2-sport star for The Cardinal, walked on and won the point guard job for TVD, etc., etc., ...
No head coaching experience but the athletic department may see this as the safe and obvious choice - keep continuity, keep the recruits, and someone who can easily lean on TVD for advice.
20 years ago I was at the Stanford campus in the summer. Maples Pavilion had an unexpected issue and was closed. aTara Vandeveer must have had a summer camp going on. Her camp was moved outside to a parking lot with portable hoops. I watched her run camp for almost 90 minutes. She can coach and teach hoop. She was funny, had a ton of energy. Hopefully the campers enjoyed it as much as I did.