Rutgers honors C. Vivian Stringer for all she ‘poured into this university’
Rutgers has named the court inside Jersey Mike’s Arena the C. Vivian Stringer Court, her name now forever imprinted in the Scarlet Knights' history and future.
PISCATAWAY – Coquese Washington recalled walking down a street in Washington, D.C. years ago and, out of nowhere, hearing a voice begin to call out to her.
“I look up and Coach Stringer’s on top of one of those tour buses that goes around,” Washington said Sunday. “She’s leaning over and (calling), ‘Coquese! Coquese!’ I was fangirling because I was like, she knows who I am. She recognized me on the street, not in coach gear, but I’m just walking down the street with jeans and a hat on.”
Washington was the head coach of Penn State at the time, and Rutgers had recently joined the Nittany Lions in the Big Ten. Yet the moment meant more to Washington in the grand scheme of things: “Oh my God, Coach Stringer knows who I am,” she recalled telling herself. “OK, I think I made it.”
The story not only illustrated a younger coach feeling seen and validated by a college basketball idol, but also served as the spark of a new friendship. Washington felt able to pick Stringer’s brain about coaching and grew closer to her, a valued relationship in a business where only a slight percentage of head coaches are Black women.
She could have had no idea at the time that she’d become Stringer’s official successor as the leader of Rutgers women’s basketball.
The Hall of Fame coach retired in April, and on Sunday Rutgers did one of the only things left to do to enshrine her storied career. It named the court inside Jersey Mike’s Arena the C. Vivian Stringer Court, her name now forever imprinted in the Scarlet Knights’ history and future.
It was C. Vivian Stringer Day as Rutgers hosted No. 4 Ohio State for its Big Ten opener, a game Rutgers lost 82-70. Stringer was honored on the court before the game – presented with a replica Rutgers court fashioned from an old piece of the floor her teams played on – and again at halftime, when the court was officially commemorated.
“I saw my signature on the court and I was stunned. And I still can’t believe that,” Stringer, 74, said before trailing off, overcome with emotion.
She was flanked by family and a number of program alumni (WNBA star Kahleah Copper was among those in the building), along with athletic director Pat Hobbs and men’s coach Steve Pikiell.
“I am so excited and so stunned,” Stringer said. “I can’t believe that you all came here for me.”
What stunned me was learning how few college basketball courts are named in honor of women’s coaches, even when you take into consideration that women’s college basketball only began to proliferate after Title IX in the early 1970s. Per Doug Feinberg’s story for the Associated Press, Rutgers and Stringer join a list that includes Pat Summit at Tennessee, Kay Yow at NC State, Joe Foley at Little Rock and Doug Bruno at DePaul.
Stringer deserves that company. She was the fifth coach in women’s or men’s basketball to reach 1,000 career wins, finishing her five-decade career at 1055-426 — including 535-291 at Rutgers after successful runs at Cheyney and Iowa. When the Scarlet Knights reached the 2000 Final Four, their first of two under Stringer, she became the first person to lead three different programs to the national semifinals. Rutgers was a power in her heyday, a program that produced WNBA talent and advanced the women’s game.
At breaks throughout Sunday’s game, Rutgers played video messages from the likes of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer and former players on the center-hung scoreboard.
“I wanted to be a part of this ceremony because you’ve meant so much to all of us,” said Staley, coach of the defending national champions. “You’ve been a great mentor. You’ve been a great legend. You will go down in history as a coach’s coach. So thank you.”
Washington, who unveiled the replica court to Stringer before the game, called participating in the dedication a “tremendous honor.”
“It’s not that often that you get to be a part of celebrating a legend,” she said. “Me personally, to be a part of this today was an amazing, amazing experience, something I’ll remember for the rest of my life that I got to be a part of honoring a legend like Coach Stringer, for what she’s meant to women who look like me over the course of her career. Giving us opportunities, fighting for equality, fighting for presence and to be seen.
“And so to be able to be a part of her sendoff and celebrating her legacy, it means the world to me and I know it meant the world to this team, because all those kids were recruited by her to come here.”
The game on the court deserves more than a footnote. Rutgers started slow and trailed 20-6 after the first quarter before losing the game by 12 – meaning it outscored Ohio State over the final three quarters.
Washington called a timeout early in the second quarter with her team down 30-10, and the Buckeyes would lead by 39-18 before Rutgers clawed back with an extended 27-14 scoring stretch. That got the Scarlet Knights within eight points before Ohio State held them at arm’s length the rest of the way.
Freshman Kaylene Smikle introduced herself to the Big Ten by scoring 19 of her 21 points in the second and third quarters; she shot 5-for-5 from the field for 12 points in the third quarter alone. She added six rebounds and three assists while being the most active Scarlet Knight on defense most of the game. She’s a top-100 freshman, Rutgers’ leading scorer and a star in the making.
And while Smikle was held scoreless in the fourth quarter, Rutgers still hung around thanks to other contributions, notably center Kassondra Brown’s nine points and two steals.
The Scarlet Knights’ challenging nonconference schedule saw them play two opponents who were ranked at the time (Tennessee and Texas) at the Battle 4 Atlantis, along with reigning WNIT champion South Dakota State. They also faced Seton Hall, a better, more veteran team, and a home game against Princeton looms later this month. They’re 4-6 and fully prepared for the strenuous Big Ten slate.
Washington is working with a team of just eight players in her first year on duty, making Sunday all the more impressive.
“The first thing for us was to come out and to give a great performance for Coach Stringer,” Washington said. “This may very well be the last time she watches a game in Jersey Mike’s Arena, and we wanted our performance and our effort to be reflective of what she has poured into this university and into this program during her time here. And I thought we did that. We played hard, we fought for 40 minutes and we gave it everything we had, and that’s the hallmark of a Coach Stringer team.”
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Happy Monday, and thanks for reading. Time to clean the glass with notes from the weekend that was in college hoops, staying in Piscataway to start:
Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis still has never beaten Rutgers. How about that for a little Monday morning trivia? This is no longer a mere anomaly following the Scarlet Knights’ sixth straight win over Indiana and the eighth in their past nine meetings. The streak has spanned multiple Indiana head coaches and now extended beyond the Harper/Baker era at Rutgers. And for all the credit being assigned to the home-court advantage, this streak has included Rutgers’ past two visits to Assembly Hall. “Hoosier Daddy,” indeed:
Rutgers 63, No. 10 Indiana 48. Not only were the Hoosiers were held to a season-low 30.4% field-goal shooting, they were averaging 55% for the season coming in. Cliff Omoruyi, Caleb McConnell and Mawot Mag helped Rutgers dominate the boards, and Paul Mulcahy returned from injury to chip in six points and four assists. It’s a tremendous early win, showing what this team’s potential is with everyone healthy.
I don’t think it will be enough for Rutgers to pop into the new AP Top 25, which will be released shortly after I publish this newsletter. But the 6-2 Scarlet Knights absolutely will appear under “receiving votes.” A shakeup at the bottom of the poll is coming, with North Carolina sure to drop out and Michigan State likely to as well after losing to Northwestern. The thing is, there are teams around the country that also deserve consideration in that 21-25 range, including 8-1 Virginia Tech (whose only loss is by two points on a not-so-neutral court in Charleston, now with wins over Penn State, Minnesota and short-handed UNC) and 8-0 Mississippi State. Votes will be split, but RU will collect a few. (Editor’s note: RU did not, in fact, collect a few. Confident as I was, Rutgers did not receive votes in this week’s poll, while 18 other teams that just missed the Top 25 got at least one.)
We’re less than a week away from the Garden State Hardwood Classic. Rutgers is flying high, with a trip to Ohio State this week before returning home for the game. Seton Hall, meanwhile, has problems aplenty, questions about energy after a 91-65 loss at Kansas and only a Division II team to tune up against this week. The Pirates won last year’s meeting, but given the circumstances (and the location of this year’s game), Rutgers should be a comfortable favorite.
Congratulations to Monmouth on its first win of the season, avoiding the dubious distinction of ending up as the last team in Division I to win a game. After the Hawks’ frustrating loss to Rider last Wednesday, they went to Manhattan on Sunday and pulled out a 76-69 win. Myles Ruth led with 21 points and made all three of his 3-pointers; the Hawks shot 51 percent overall and led wire-to-wire, staving off the Jaspers’ last-ditch comeback effort. (The four winless teams remaining: Louisville, California, Central Connecticut and Green Bay.)
