CHICAGO — It’s been a question lingering not just at Rutgers but throughout the women’s college basketball world: What is the latest with C. Vivian Stringer?

On Thursday, Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs addressed the Naismith Hall of Fame coach’s status in an interview with NJ Advance Media at Big Ten Football Media Day.

“She’s back (and) she looks great,’’ Hobbs said.

That’s welcome news to Rutgers fans who watched Stringer take a health-related leave of absence with two weeks left in the 2018-19 regular season. While Stringer initially intended to return to coach her squad in the Big Ten Tournament, she ended up remaining on a health-related leave while announcing her plans to resume coaching duties in the future in early March.

Tim Eatman served as the Rutgers women’s basketball team’s acting head coach for the final six regular-season games and in both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

“Tim Eatman has done a fantastic job in her absence,’’ Hobbs said. “There’s no one more looking forward to walking into the RWJ Barnabas Health Athletic Performance Center than C. Vivian Stringer.’’

Indeed, Stringer will now set her sights on moving her squad into Rutgers’ sparkling new practice facility in early August. The Scarlet Knights return eight players from a team that finished 22-10 overall, 13-5 in the Big Ten and earned its first NCAA bid since 2015 last winter.

Stringer, 71, will head into her 49th season of coaching and 25th year at Rutgers in 2019-20. Last season, she became the fifth NCAA Division I women’s college basketball coach in history to record her 1,000th career win on Nov. 14, 2018, when the Scarlet Knights defeated Central Connecticut State.

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She is set to earn $875,000 in the third year of a contract that runs through the 2020-21 season.

When she stepped away from the program last March, Hobbs said “nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our people’’ and looked forward to Stringer “making a positive impact upon the lives of our student-athletes.’’

The Rutgers AD echoed that sentiment Thursday, saying his only advice to Stringer while she was away was to “listen to your doctors.’’

“It’s a good time for her to transition back in,’’ Hobbs said. “She’s raring to go.’’

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.