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The Daily OrangeWBB | A resilient leader: C. Vivian Stringer willed Rutgers through controversy. Now recruits are rewarding that camaraderie
By Brian Tahmosh
Posted: 2/27/08, 11:23 PM EST Section: Sports
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That all changed when a talk-show host thrust Rutgers women's basketball into the spotlight.
"When there was that big controversy with (Don) Imus that's when I really found out about them," Pope said. "It was so publicized that you had no choice but to find out about them. It was everywhere. It was on every station."
One week after the Scarlet Knights players brought Rutgers to its first ever national championship game, a 59-46 loss to Tennessee, they sat at a table with their coach to address the media. They were not there - on April 10, 2007 - to talk about the most successful season in school history. Instead, they stared defiantly into the camera to discuss disparaging remarks made about the players by Imus the day after the title game.
C. Vivian Stringer, the legendary coach of the team, stood up in defense of her players, becoming the face of the charge against Imus.
Now, less than a year after the remarks, No. 4 Rutgers (23-4, 13-1), which plays Syracuse Saturday at 1 p.m. at home, is after that national championship behind Stringer's lead. And Stringer is set to bring in the most heralded recruiting class in school history for next season. The crop of stars consists of five McDonalds All-Americans, with players from Texas (Pope), California (Jasmine Dixon and Nikki Speed), Mississippi (April Sykes) and Florida (Chelsey Lee).
This, all after one of the most trying times of Stringer's illustrious career.
"She was very professional," Pope said of her soon-to-be coach. "She never lost her composure even though it was a time where she very well could have. She could have lost her composure and acted ignorant just like he did. She could have went to the same measures, but she didn't."
That's because the story of Rutgers' success begins and ends with Stringer.
She is the only person to lead three women's basketball programs (Iowa, Cheyney State and Rutgers) to the Final Four. She has won three National Coach of the Year awards and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. And she became only the third women's basketball coach to win 800 games last night with a 60-46 victory over DePaul.
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Michael Maryk
posted 2/28/08 @ 1:27 PM EST
I have followed intercollegiate athletics for over fifty years. There have been many stories of failures and accomplishments during this time. Now Rutgers can boast of having two of the most complete leaders of young people in coaches C. (Continued…)
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