Rutgers' Stringer Moves Closer to Joining the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
(Guru Note: This is the rough copy sent earlier Thursday to the sports department for print coverage. The edited version will be in the regular area of Philly.com)
By Mel Greenberg
Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer, whose women's basketball coaching career has been filled with joy and sadness, is one step closer to induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Stringer is one of the finalists for the class of 2009, multiple sources not associated with Rutgers confirmed.
Hall officials will officially announce the group Friday afternoon at the NBA All-Star game activities in Phoenix.
The ballot is expected to be headed by former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, who is in his first year of eligibility.
The 60-year-old Stringer, now in her 38th season, is one of four women's coaches with more than 800 victories. Her overall record is 818-276, including a 298-141 mark in 14 seasons at Rutgers.
Stringer has not been notified in advance of the announcement.
"At this stage, the finalists usually learn through the media," said a hall executive who asked to remain anonymous because a formal announcement has not been made.
If elected next month, Stringer would join her good friend John Chaney, who was inducted in Springfield, Mass., in 2001 when he was still coaching Temple.
The two worked together when Stringer's career began at Cheyney in the early 1970s.
A 1970 graduate of Slippery Rock, Stringer was inducted in 2001 into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.
"They should have let her in a long time ago with all she's done," Chaney said recently when discussing her potential Naismith nomination.
In 2000 Stringer led Rutgers to the first of two Final Four appearances.
That milestone made her the first men's or women's coach to take three different programs, which included Iowa, that deep in the NCAA tournament.
Her 2007 contingent advanced to the title game, losing to Tennessee.
This is the fourth straight year Stringer has been considered by the hall's Women's Screening Committee, whose makeup is changed annually.
The group advanced Stringer's name as a finalist last week, a source familiar with the move said.
The women's committee is allowed to nominate a maximum of two candidates.
The group has also advanced Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, sources said.
The former WNBA sensation with the now-defunct Houston Comets coaches Prairie View A&M and will be inducted to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on June 13.
Ironically, Cooper-Dyke's squad traveled to Rutgers in December and narrowly lost to the Scarlet Knights, 58-56.
Former Immaculata coach Cathy Rush was the only woman advanced as a finalist last year and she was inducted in September.
Rush and Stringer coached against each other regular in the Philadelphia suburbs when Immaculata and Cheyney met in the early 1970s.
It took several attempts as a finalist before Rush was chosen but she believes Stringer may not have to wait as long.
"She's had such an amazing story in her life and career that I don't think anybody on the big committee would not know all she's achieved," Rush said recently of Stringer's chances to become a finalist and inductee.
Following next month's election, the new hall of famers will be announced and introduced in April at the men's Final Four.
If Rutgers is in this year's NCAA women's field and advances to the finals in St. Louis the same weekend she would have a well-earned excused absence from being on the scene at the men's event.
-- Mel