Rutgers Women's Basketball Squad Gives Rutgers Business School Students a Lesson in Teamwork

The women’s basketball team was more than an hour into a practice session on Sunday afternoon when hundreds of students from Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick started filling a section of the bleachers inside the Rutgers Athletic Center.

In lieu of a regular class, nearly 700 students from 16 sections of “management skills” were required to show up to see Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer and her players put a real-world spin on classroom lessons about communication, team dynamics and motivating others.

On the court, the first demonstration was already underway: Stringer shouted instructions and encouragement while players passed the ball, signaled to one another and made shots at the basket.

For the crowd filing into the stands, the practice was just a prelude to a series of talks by a series of people associated with the basketball team, from Rutgers University’s Director of Athletics Julie Hermann and assistant women’s basketball coach Tia Jackson to the players, themselves, who shared candid insights on being part of team.

Rutgers Business School professor Phyllis Siegel, who is in the Department of Management and Global Business, said she chose Stringer and the women’s basketball team for the event because of their long history of success.

“Sports is often used as a way of exploring management and team dynamics,’’ Siegel said. “Coach Stringer is so highly acclaimed, I just thought she and the team would be great at sharing their insights and experiences at building and sustaining a winning team.”

In an age when innovation is driving every field to explore new ways of doing things, professors like Siegel, who helped to design the new management skills course, are striving to create ways of enhancing classic curriculum.

“Management Skills,” which is a revamped, year-old version of the former Principles of Management, emphasizes interaction, case studies and collaboration rather than old-fashioned lectures. The course opens with students exploring emotional intelligence and delving into team building skills. The classes will spend the semester working on a project in groups, which professors like Siegel, Joseph Markert and Payal Sharma hope will exhibit the qualities of teams by the time the semester ends.

“Team skills receive a major focus in our course,” Siegel said, “but we also address other critical skills including motivation, self-awareness and feedback, all of which were touched on by the program’s participants.”

This year, for the first time, Siegel said she and her colleagues incorporated Stringer and her team into the curriculum to offer students a chance to “see the concepts come to life.” The collaboration happened with the help of Betsy Yonkman, Stringer’s assistant, and Michelle Edwards, director of basketball operations.

During the presentation, Coach Stringer used a technique she calls “the string concept” to demonstrate how offensive players work together on the court to score. Two players are always within 18 feet of the ball and always aware of one another’s movements.

“The ball needs a friend,” Stinger said repeatedly as her players demonstrated the technique. And then Stringer brought six business school students onto the court and walked them through the concept.

Stephanie Drzewiecka, a freshman marketing student in Newark, was one of the students who found herself on the court, tossing a basketball and trying to follow Stringer’s direction.

“You realize how communication is really important,” Drzewiecka said afterward. “If you’re a very independent person, which I am, having to depend on other people around you is an interesting experience.”

Stringer, who described the collaboration as a “beautiful thing,” never seemed to forget that, this time, she was coaching business school students. “This has everything to do with the business world,” she told them. “Everyone needs friends in the workplace.”

The technique reinforced the importance of players – team members – understanding their roles, anticipating where they will be needed and working together to help the team advance.

Peter Sopranzetti, a freshman studying accounting in Newark, also found himself on the basketball court. “For me, that was the highlight,’’ Sopranzetti said, “it’s not just that everyone needs a buddy and needs support, but everyone needs others to get the greatest outcome for the team.”

Some of the most poignant insights came from the players who shared unscripted reflections about how they are motivated to push harder and perform better by their team mates, how they support one another and get to know one another better by spending time off-court together.

Shaquille Spann, a junior supply chain management student in New Brunswick, said he was so struck by the way the team rallied around one player who was reluctant to speak when she was called up to the microphone by her assistant coach. “They were her cheerleaders,” he said. “That’s what you do for the people you care about.”

Michael Purificato, a junior studying management at Rutgers Business School in Newark, said he wasn’t certain what he would get out of the event when he arrived at the RAC. But afterward, he said Stringer and her players “definitely demonstrated the different aspects and the value of team work.”

“It will motivate me personally,” he said, “to be a better team player.”