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Still Smarting, Rutgers Shows Plenty Of Class

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 16, 2008

TAMPA - Since the timing is right and no one else I know of has come up with any other bright ideas, let us present C. Vivian Stringer and the Rutgers women's basketball team with some kind of award. A consolation prize, if you will.

Maybe we could call it "The Dignity In The Face Of Highway Robbery" award.

Or, "Show The World How To Rise Above It" award.

Better yet, the "You've Got Class" award - for this team and its head coach surely have an abundance of that. We saw it last year after the Don Imus debacle that put Rutgers in a spotlight it didn't ask for. We saw it again earlier this week when the Scarlet Knights were the foil in one of the great thefts in college basketball history.

Tonight they'll play the University of South Florida at the Sun Dome - not the best timing for the Bulls, to be sure. Rutgers will have almost a week's worth of pent-up stuff after what happened in its last game at Tennessee, and a lot of eyes will be watching.

Surely you've seen the tape of the final seconds at that game on Robbery Top, where - cough, someone, cough - stopped the clock in the final, frantic seconds while top-ranked Tennessee, down by a point, was trying to score the game-winner. The clock stopped just long enough for a Vols player to be fouled. The resulting two free throws turned a Rutgers win into a 59-58 loss.

Tennessee tried to say it was an automatic clock system tied to the officials whistle. But why did the clock freeze with two-tenths of a second left, then start again after the foul?

"It doesn't matter that we won and the whole world says we did," Stringer said. "We never got a chance to celebrate on their court and we never got a chance to make history."

Handled It Right

Beating Tennessee would have been massive for Rutgers, which in its previous game knocked off then-No. 1 and undefeated UConn. But perhaps the bigger victory came afterward in the way Stringer and her team handled what happened.

"Obviously I feel we won the game," she said. "Obviously that's not what was recorded. If we could have gotten the people involved to do what they should have done, then we wouldn't be talking about this. Short of that, I don't care.

"... I wish there was a way they could still review it and make a correction, just make a correction and for once in their life do what's right."

Think about some meltdowns we've seen from coaches in other sports and measure that against the way Stringer conducted herself. She walked the right line between controlled outrage and defending her team. There is a right way to handle these things and she showed what it is.

"Vivian does such a good job," USF coach Jose Fernandez said. "She is an excellent role model for her players and you've just got to respect her. For her program and her to go through the type of adversity they have and still show the character they have says a lot."

We saw that last year when she turned the foolishness from an idiot radio host into an opportunity to put a positive light on her team. It was impressive and it was lasting.

"She really brought a sense of awareness to all minorities," Fernandez said. "We need to respect each other and after the way she handled all that, I think that's how the nation began to look at it."

Could Return Here

Chances are, we'll see Rutgers back here in April for the women's Final Four. Maybe, if the basketball gods have a sense of show, the Scarlet Knights will get another shot at Tennessee - both to pay back this week's game and the national title game last season, when the Lady Vols prevailed.

"It's better for us to think that we lost at Tennessee because then you play with the mind-set that you're upset and you want to do something about it," Stringer said. "We continue to learn lessons. One of those lessons is that you never leave your destiny in the hands of other people."

Especially if one of those people is a clock operator at the end of a basketball game.

"It will be a controversy forever," she said. "I've got to believe all this is happening for a reason. I'll figure it out, hopefully, before I retire."

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