Keeping Score: Summitt vs. Stringer

Both coaches are equally successful but I think Pat Summitt just has the edge on Stringer but she is always right there with awesome teams every year. Hey as long as Rutgers beats UCONN I'm happy!!!

I heart both of these women, but Stringer has been my favorite coach since my days of watching late-night replays of her Iowa women on the local Indianapolis channel that for some inexplicable and glorious reason ran late-night replays of Big Ten women's basketball games (gotta love the Hoosier state's obsession with basketball).  It's a testiment to Stringer's quality as a coach and mentor that so many of those former Hawkeyes are now head or assistant D1 coaches in their own right.

The experience that speaks the most, for me, to Stringer's character involves the ten minutes she stood talking to me about coaching after her team had beaten IU on the grey Sunday in Bloomington when I took my team of 11 year-olds to experience a college basketball game.  She was on her way to the post-game press conference, but she graciously stopped her rush to the press room when I flagged her down to tell her how much I admired her coaching.  Everything she has done since that day in the early nineties--through terrible personal tragedy and struggle--has reinforced my belief that she is not only a coaching genius, but an impeccable person who cares foremost about the people around her as human beings and about her players as developing young women. 

Pat Summitt is certainly the empress of the basketball universe, (and Sylvia Hatchell gets my vote for Vice-Empress), but C. Vivian Stringer is my spirit guide.

pat summitt is an unbelievable coach and a legend in the basketball world, no doubt about it, but, if given the option, i'd rather play for c. vivian stringer. i spent the last three summers playing basketball at rutgers and spending time with both coach stringer and many of the players, and i love her style of coaching and the relationship she maintains with her players, even in the off-season. she's tough and strict on the court, but at the same time, she's fun and caring. she's the kind of person you want to be around because you can always learn something from them, no matter what they're doing.

i've been playing basketball practically my whole life, and the coaches that have stood out to me as being really great were the ones who made an effort to be more than just someone who tells you what to do and where to play, the ones who really cared about their team and players as individuals, not just as pawns to achieve a goal, and in my experience, that's the kind of coach stringer is.

Watching this game was amazing--usually, I'm quick to turn away from what looked to be a blowout (especially since last weekend was packed with incredible games), but I kept watching...and wow was it a classic.

Personally, I've always had a special affinity for Coach Stringer and the Rutgers squad. Stringer's just a class act and I want her to have her day in the sun. If it were any other team that lost such a commanding lead, I'd worry about the capacity of the team to rebound from that kind of loss, but with Vivian Stringer as a coach, I think Rutgers will be alright. 

 

-----

"The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." -- Robert F. Kennedy

Speaking of great b-ball coaches, NC State coach Kay Yow stepped down today as a result of her long battle with breast cancer. She coached the US to Olympic gold, is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and is the fifth all time winningest coach. She was also the first Jimmy V. ESPY award winner. While I am a UNC alum, I have always greatly admired Ms. Yow. Later in life, I was lucky enough to have WNBA (Charlotte Sting) season tickets next to her parents. Her sister Deborah is the Atheletic Director at the Univ of Maryland and her sister, Susan is head coach at Belmont Abby College after coaching in the WNBA. I once overheard someone ask Mr. Yow if he was disappointed that he did not have sons. He replied, "No. I have something better- basketball players." We need more dads like that! Please join me in saying a little prayer (in any form you choose) and send well wishes to the Yow family.

Has always been one of my favorite coaches. I went to UT when she was first hired there as the head coach. I guarantee that no other major university will hire a very young athlete with no head coaching experience to lead their team. Wish I had been able to play for her (I am all of 5' 2" - yes I know that is the same height as their current point guard, but I had other issues at the time). Hope UT makes it 3 in a row!