Stanford women’s basketball coach dismisses allegations as ‘clickbait junk journalism’
Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
In April 2024, Tara VanDerveer, then the NCAA’s all-time leading women’s basketball coach, retired after 38 seasons as Stanford’s head women’s basketball coach.
Kate Paye, a longtime assistant and associate head coach, took over as VanDerveer’s successor shortly thereafter. Under Paye, the Cardinal missed the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons, shrouding the historically successful program in a cloud of doubt.
In May, The San Francisco Standard raised concerns about Stanford women’s basketball by publishing a bombshell report on Paye’s alleged conduct as head coach.
“The disappointing season wasn’t solely the fault of the coaching staff,” Marisa Ingemi wrote, in part. “However, two former players and four parents of players who spent the 2025-26 season with the Cardinal allege that Paye has fostered a dysfunctional and toxic environment, in which coaches intimidate and threaten players, and some student-athletes feel ‘iced out’ of practices if they fall on coaches’ bad sides.”
On Tuesday, Mitchell Northam of USA Today asked Paye for comment on the allegations.
“This is the world we live in — it’s clickbait junk journalism,” Paye said. “We don’t peddle negativity. When others go low, we go high, and we’re looking forward.”
Contrary to Paye’s defensive response, Ingemi cited concrete evidence that corroborated the concerns of the anonymous players and players’ parents, including screenshots of emails sent to John Donahoe, chair and director of Stanford athletics.
Paye and other Stanford officials were given an opportunity to provide comment to Ingemi, but declined to participate in her reporting.
Ingemi also cited multiple former Stanford players’ farewell Instagram messages after deciding to enter the transfer portal, as well as an Athletes.org survey that ranked Stanford athletics 50th out of 59 universities.
As Northam noted, Stanford has not publicly disclosed an investigation into Paye’s program or any disciplinary action. That does not change the fact, however, that Ingemi conducted a thorough, by-the-book journalistic investigation for The Standard — not remotely close to the same zip code as clickbait.
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Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.