Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 3, 1993 TAG: 9304030020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
IOWA WOMEN HAVE INCENTIVE TO KEEP WINNING
There was a point in the basketball season when the Final Four seemed very insignificant to University of Iowa women's coach Vivian Stringer.Stringer wasn't sure how she would get to the next day, much less contend for a national championship.
"There gave been many times when I have wondered if I was going to make it or could," Stringer said Friday. "We have had tremendously heavy hearts."
Stringer did not coach a game until Jan. 2 as she mourned her husband, Bill, who suffered a fatal heart attack Thanksgiving Day.
"My biggest decision was whether I was strong enough to come back," said Stringer, the mother of three children between 8 and 13. "I would rather have let my assistants coach if I couldn't be a lift. I didn't want to be a burden."
The Hawkeyes lost their second game after Stringer's return, then won 17 in a row on their way to a Big Ten co-championship with Ohio State, their opponent today in the NCAA semifinals at the Omni.
After fourth-ranked Iowa (27-3) and No. 3 Ohio State (27-3) play at noon, top-ranked Vanderbilt (30-2) meets No. 5 Texas Tech (29-3) in the second semifinal, which starts 30 minutes after the first game.
The games will be broadcast by CBS almost everywhere but Atlanta, which will pre-empt the first 30 minutes for a local news program. Viewers here might miss one of the most compelling storylines of the tournament.
The loss of Bill Stringer, an exercise physiologist who helped with the conditioning of his wife's team, was followed by the deaths of ballgirl Nikki Smith from leukemia and the team physician from cancer.
"It was a very emotional time for us," senior guard Laurie Aaron said. "We had to play the week after Mr. Stringer died. We didn't want to play, but we just had to set aside our emotions."
The Hawkeyes, coached by assistant Marianna Freeman, started the season with a pair of road victories over Pittsburgh and then-No. 4 Maryland and presented Stringer with a 5-0 record on her return.
Part of Stringer wants to talk about her suffering. The other part wants her team to get the credit it deserves. Aaron rolled her eyes Friday when Stringer was asked once more about her personal tragedy.
"It bothers us somewhat when people say we're playing on emotion," said Stringer, 47, whose 1991-92 team finished 25-4 after an upset loss at home to Southwest Missouri State.
The Hawkeyes have won 20 or more games in nine straight seasons under Stringer, who went to Iowa City in 1983 after a highly successful career at Cheyney State outside Philadelphia.
Stringer took Cheyney State to the championship game in the first women's NCAA Tournament in 1982, although she had little time to enjoy the trip. Her daughter, Nina, had a bout with meningitis that has left her brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair 11 years later.
"There were a lot of things going on, a lot of tragic things that kept me from getting all the flavor of that first Final Four," said Stringer, whose team lost to Louisiana Tech, 76-62, in the final.
"We were a small school, a relative unknown, and I can remember CBS was scrambling to get some footage of our games. Nobody could pronounce our name. They kept saying it `Sh-NAY' or `SHY-ann.' "
The first women's Final Four was in Norfolk, Va., and the early elimination of Old Dominion took away some of the attraction. There were 300 people at the coaches' convention that now draws nearly 2,000.
Now that the women's Final Four has become more of an event, Stringer has been aching to return, twice reaching regional finals, once losing by one point. She never thought she would get back under these circumstances, however.
"My husband was my best friend . . . and biggest fan, and he worked very closely with the team," she said. "We have tried to lighten the load as much as possible and, yet, how can you do that?
"It has caused us to be together more and made us want that much more to win. It was a relief because we had finally reached this stage, but it is sad because he, more than anyone, would have been so proud and happy to see it."