 "Photo: William Schneekloth/Photography editor")
Cappie Pondexter came back for a fifth year at Rutgers to improve her defense, to savor one more year of college, and to fight for a national title.
What she did, in the process, was impact the lives of everyone around her.
And now that Pondexter has seemed to settle into her new digs out West with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, her former teammates and coach are starting to adjust to life without No. 25 and look back on one of the best Rutgers careers in recent memory.
"With Cappie, it has been difficult for me to think of her not coming out on the court anymore," Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. "It brings tears to my eyes, and I think of her smile and I think of her willingness always to work hard. Any time these players were out there with Cappie, they knew they had a chance."
Stringer had spent four years guiding the former National High School Player of the Year along in her collegiate career (Pondexter did not play her freshman season) before she awaited the All-American's decision on whether or not she would return for her last year of eligibility.
The decision to come back, Stringer says, was the right one - and it allowed the All-American to do the fine-tuning that led to her second overall selection in this year's WNBA draft as one of the best players in the country.
"In my opinion, she is the best player in the country. She is the best," Stringer said. "Cappie can play defense and offense. I love her as I would my own daughter, and I'm very proud to see the way she has grown. I think she is ready [for the WNBA] now and I don't think she was at the end of last year. There's nothing else we can do for her, and she has given so much to this University and to these fans and to me, personally."
After Rutgers' loss to Tennessee in this year's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, Pondexter got emotional as she said she hoped she prepared Matee Ajavon well for next season. The sophomore guard is likely the one most anticipated to replace Pondexter in the future.
With similar skill and energy, Ajavon said she is ready to step into the big shoes that await her.
"Filling Cappie's shoes will be a big job next year," Ajavon said, "but I'm going to try to just play up to her caliber and maybe bring more intensity. Cappie brought that energy every day, and she was the leader on the court."
As a junior next season, Ajavon will always remember the things she learned in the two years as Pondexter's teammate.
"She taught me the little things," Ajavon said. "It's all about the little things. She taught me how to stay hyped up and how to bring a whole lot of energy, so Cappie will truly be missed on our team. But she's on to bigger and better things right now."
Pondexter finished her career as a Scarlet Knight as one of only two players to net more than 2,000 points at Rutgers and was the first player in conference history to be named a First Team All-Big East player four times in her career.
She finished her senior season with an average of 21.6 points-per-game and was honored as a Kodak/WBCA First-Team All-American earlier this month in Boston after leading RU to the Sweet 16 and a second straight conference regular-season title.
"Playing and skill-wise, there's no one that can stop her," senior point guard Courtney Locke said. "Just some of the things that she does, you have to stop and just say, 'Wow.' But as a person she really came out of herself these last two years and really became the all-around player that helped this team.
"We really looked to her as a leader and as a captain."
Locke has kept in touch with Pondexter since she left the Banks, and said she plans on watching her teammate as her professional career unfolds.
"I actually talked to her yesterday, and she loves Arizona, loves the weather," Locke said. "She's loving it right now, and she's focused on living her dream. I'm going to go see her when [the Mercury] plays in San Antonio and show her a good Texas time."
Pondexter's presence as a true leader became especially obvious in the way she touched the young players.
A naturally quiet and reserved person, Pondexter often led by example rather than through her words.
But that may have been what the rookies needed.
"I think she showed great leadership not just on the court, but off the court," freshman Sammeika Thrash said. "I think she listened to a lot of the comments that other players made to her, as far as things we felt she could improve on, and she really helped other people improve also.
"She gave people a lot of confidence and would just let us know to go out there and play like we play every night. I understood she was quiet, so she showed me more by doing than by saying, but also her little comments on the side like, 'Come on, you can do this, you can get it done.'"
After recently wrapping up competition with Team USA in Australia, Pondexter will graduate from Rutgers next month and will then begin her professional career with the Mercury - whose training camp opened Monday.
In the meantime, her former teammates will continue to practice hard and get ready for next season, hoping to emulate how Pondexter played the game and handled herself as a person.
"To tell you the truth, I just feel blessed to have coached her," Stringer said. "I think if you have the chance to coach one player like Cappie in your lifetime, it's special. I love her to death, she's just a great person and I'll always miss her, and I'm sure that her teammates will always miss her. If I hold my breath and hope for more time with that young lady, it would just make me cry.
"It's interesting because I never really spent a lot of time with her and I feel so bad for that, but I intentionally did that because I knew that people might think she was really special to me. I realize there's so much I would have wanted to ask her, and I suspect we'll probably be better friends now."
Be the first to comment on this article!