Rutgers extends head women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer's contract through 2026
With her previous four-year contract extension expiring after last season, head women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer inked a new extension, keeping her with the Rutgers women’s basketball team for the next five years. She will be with the Scarlet Knights (14-5, 10-3) until the 2025-2026 season.
The deal had to first be approved by the Board of Governors and once it was, the school announced the $5.5 million extension on Wednesday. Next season, Stringer will make $1 million and will have the opportunity to earn performance incentives.
Stringer has been on the Banks since 1994 after being the bench boss at Cheyney State and Iowa. She guided Rutgers to an National Women's Invitational Tournament Championship victory in 2013-2014 and took the Knights to the NCAA tournament 17 times, including once to the National Championship and twice to the Final Four.
In November 2018, Stringer won her 1,000th game, becoming the first Black coach to do so. Her 1,055 victories are good for fifth-best in NCAA women’s basketball. Stringer was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and recently was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Stringer has sent 20 Knights to the WNBA and just added another yesterday as fifth-year senior guard Arella Guirantes was drafted 22nd overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
Stringer hasn’t just been finding success on the court. There has been a perfect score of 100 in Graduation Success Rate for Rutgers women's basketball players over the last two years. The Knights had a record six members on the Academic All-Big Ten list this past season.
Coming off a five week pause due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the middle of last season, Stringer’s squad won three straight games and Stringer was crowned ESPN National Coach of the Week. Rutgers would go on to finish out its regular season on a nine-game winning streak.
“This is what I love to do, and I do it today with as much care and passion as when I began,” Stringer said. “I am grateful to our administration, Director of Athletics Pat Hobbs, Deputy Athletic Director Sarah Baumgartner, and President Jonathan Holloway for their continued support as we seek to win championships while developing, mentoring, and teaching young women for life in and around the game of basketball.”
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