May 14, 2012
Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2012 Release
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford women's basketball associate head coach Amy Tucker will be among 16 individuals enshrined into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame this Saturday night, May 19 in Columbus, Ohio.
The enshrinement ceremony will take place at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Upon enshrinement, Tucker will be a member of two hall of fames in the State of Ohio, having been inducted into the Ohio State Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
A native of Springboro, Ohio, Tucker starred for the Ohio State basketball team from 1978-82, captaining the 1981-82 team that won the Big Ten title and earned a bid to the inaugural NCAA Tournament. At the time of her graduation from Ohio State with a bachelor's degree in social work in 1982, Tucker held the Buckeye record for most games played with 123 and was second on the program's career scoring list with 1,629 points.
Tucker embarked on her decorated coaching career in 1983-84, joining current Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer's Ohio State staff as a graduate assistant. She would go on to earn her master's degree in sports management and administration in 1984, then was promoted to assistant coach for the 1984-85 season.
Following that season, Tucker joined VanDerveer's first Stanford coaching staff when VanDerveer took the Cardinal job prior to the 1985-86 campaign.
Since moving out west, Tucker has helped build Stanford, a program that had made only one NCAA Tournament appearance by 1985-86, into a juggernaut which has won two NCAA title (1990, '92), reached four national title games, 11 Final Fours, won 21 Pac-12 Conference titles and reached the NCAA Tournament 26 years running. Over Tucker's 28 years with the program, the Cardinal has accumulated a record of 738-152 (.829).
Tucker has helped guide the Cardinal to five straight Final Four appearances and to a pair of national title game appearances since 2007-08. During that span, Stanford has gone 172-16 (.915).
In 1995-96, when VanDerveer took a year-long sabbatical to coach the USA Basketball Olympic Team, Tucker, who had earned the title Associate Coach in 1990, was named Interim Head Coach, and along with co-head coach Marianne Stanley shared the United Press International Coach of the Year award after leading Stanford to a 29-3 record and the Final Four.
Upon VanDerveer's return, Tucker was named to her current title as Associate Head Coach.
Tucker's duties include serving as the program's recruiting coordinator. One of the nation's top recruiters and an excellent evaluator of talent, she has been responsible for assembling several top-five recruiting classes during her tenure at Stanford. Among the notable recruits Tucker has helped bring to The Farm are future Wade Trophy Players of the Year Jennifer Azzi (1990) and Candice Wiggins (2008), and two future Naismith National Players of the Year in Azzi (1990) and Kate Starbird (1997). Eleven of Tucker's recruits have also gone on to earn WBCA All-America First Team selections, most recently sisters Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogwumike in 2012. During Tucker's tenure, Stanford players have been named Pac-10/12 Player of the Year 16 times and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year on eight occasions.
Joining Tucker in the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2012 by such names as former Cleveland Cavaliers star Mark Price, current New Orleans Hornets standout and former Xavier star David West, former Louisville player Bud Olsen and former University of Cincinnati player Richard Dallmer.