Bill Kostroun/Associated Press
For nearly a month, the Rutgers women’s basketball team played without its Hall of Fame head coach, C. Vivian Stringer, because she has an undisclosed medical condition.
But her presence was clearly felt. Before their first-round N.C.A.A. tournament game on Friday, the Scarlet Knights wore bracelets that read: “What would Coach say?”
After Rutgers, the No. 7 seed, lost to 10th-seeded Buffalo, 82-71, in Storrs, Conn., the players probably did not want to know the answer to that question. Now a more pressing question remains: Will Coach Stringer be back for a 25th season at Rutgers?