Stringer makes Carver return

IOWA CITY — After C. Vivian Stringer last brought a Rutgers team to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, she made a vow.

Never again.

'I promised I would never do that again,' Stringer said Sunday. 'Sitting on the visitors' bench there, it was such a strange feeling.

'Then we joined the Big Ten.'

And now, there's no avoiding it.

Stringer, who packed Carver regularly — and overfilled it on a cold, sunny afternoon in 1985 — returns for the first time in more than 10 years when Rutgers (10-3 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) faces No. 25 Iowa (11-2, 1-0) on Monday.

Tipoff is 7 p.m.

'Iowa has never left my heart,' said Stringer, 67. 'To me, it's like coming back home. I raised my children there. But it's always going to be weird sitting on the visitors' side.'

In 12 seasons at Iowa, Stringer lifted the program to heights not reached before, or since. A game against Ohio State in 1985 — Stringer's second season — drew a far-beyond-capacity crowd of 22,157.

She won six Big Ten championships, reached nine consecutive NCAA tournaments, and took Iowa to its only Final Four in 1993. After her first and only losing season at Iowa in 1994-95, she left for Rutgers.

'I know she was a huge figure here,' said Iowa junior Ally Disterhoft. 'She developed the program in full. She has a lot of history here. She's a great lady.'

Stringer brought the Scarlet Knights to Carver in 2005 as part of the Hawkeye Challenge, and beat the Hawkeyes, 57-51, in the championship game.

It was the first of four meetings between the teams — the series is tied, 2-2.

Rutgers won in New Jersey in 2006, then Iowa captured a 70-63 win in the first round of the 2010 NCAA tournament at Stanford, Calif. The Hawkeyes won last year's contest — the first as Big Ten rivals — at Rutgers, 79-72.

'This will become a regular occurrence now,' Stringer said. 'I'm looking forward to it. Lisa (Bluder) has kept the tradition going.'

Under Bluder, the Hawkeyes have reached the NCAA tournament eight straight times, including a Sweet 16 trip last season.

Despite the graduation of Samantha Logic, Melissa Dixon and Bethany Doolittle, the Hawkeyes are a good bet at this point to continue that run. They jumped on Nebraska in the first half and held on, 74-68, in their Big Ten opener Thursday.

'That seems to be a team that executes its offense extremely well,' Stringer said. 'They always seem to shoot the ball well.'

Rutgers is on a five-game win streak, including a 66-55 home win against Minnesota on Thursday.

'We've been playing very well the last few games,' Stringer said. 'We had very few turnovers against Minnesota. But there are still a lot of things to work on.'

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