Cal Women's Basketball: Charmin Smith Faces Alma Mater and Mentor at Stanford

Cal head coach played for Stanford's Tara VanDerveer

Charmin Smith will face her alma mater and Tara VanDerveer for the first time as Cal’s head coach when Cal (8-5, 0-2 Pac-12) and fifth-ranked Stanford (13-1, 2-0) play the first of their home-and-home weekend series on Friday at 7 p.m. at Stanford's Maples Pavilion.  The two Bay Area rivals will face off again two days later in Berkeley in a Sunday game starting at 5 p.m.

This is the oldest rivalry in women’s college basketball. The series between the schools dates back to April 4, 1896, when Cal and Stanford faced each other at San Francisco's Page Street Armory for the first intercollegiate women's basketball game.

The teams have played each other in consecutive games for quite a while now, a move needed to get all conference games played before the Pac-12 tournament.

Cal split with Stanford each of the past two seasons, but the Bears will be big underdogs in both games this weekend.

But the focus will be on Smith, who has faced Stanford a number of times as Cal’s assistant coach, but has never faced the Cardinal and coach VanDerveer as a head coach. Smith played for Stanford and VanDerveer from 1993 to 1997, helping the Cardinal to three NCAA Final Fours. Friday she returns to Maples Pavilion, where she experienced so much success as a player.

Smith talks about facing Stanford and VanDerveer in the video above. VanDerveer has 1,080 career victories as a college head coach; Smith has eight.

Smith earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford and was a Cardinal assistant under VanDerveer for three seasons.

Smith will try to get the Bears back on track after losing the past three games, including their first two conference contests. Last week, Cal lost at home to Washington and Washington State, two teams that Stanford defeated by comfortable margins.

Last season, Cal beat Stanford in Berkeley 81-80, but Stanford won two days later at Stanford 75-50.