Final Exam

Cappie Pondexter has taught her teammates an important lesson: some things are worth the wait

This time, Cappie Pondexter didn't mind waiting. Her Rutgers team had just beaten UConn 48-42 to complete its first undefeated Big East season. As her squealing young teammates bounded off one another, she stood placidly at center court, away from the celebration, waiting for Huskies coach Geno Auriemma.

When the coach and the senior pumped hands, it was a decidedly civil exchange, given their history. Last year, UConn embarrassed Rutgers in the Big East tourney, 67-51. Afterward, Pondexter poked at the coach's lapel, convinced he'd barked at a teammate during the game. They're over it now, even if the two teams are still not exactly on the best of terms.

And on that February night, Pondexter knew the postgame snap dancing was premature, as was teammate Mariota Theodoris' declaration that the takedown of UConn marked "the beginning of a dynasty." At his press conference, Auriemma smirked when a reporter mentioned the comment. "Let them hang a national championship on the wall first," he said. When West Virginia upset the top-seeded Scarlet Knights in the Big East tournament a week later, his words stung all over again.

Last spring, Pondexter turned down the chance to be the WNBA's No. 1 pick for one reason only: to establish Rutgers as an elite program. "Winning the NCAAs," she says, "is when the world gets to see you." This season has been a convincing Player of the Year campaign for her, but until Rutgers unfurls a banner, Pondexter has work still to do.

Delayed gratification has always come hard for Pondexter, whose pie face and game-mussed hair make her a female version of Peanuts' Pigpen. As a kid, she was barely able to sit through Sunday services before being freed to run off and play ball, sidestepping in her patent leather shoes in an alley near her home on Chicago's West Side. And she waited only a few hours after turning 18 before getting the WNBA logo tattooed onto her right biceps. (She held out a whole day after signing with Rutgers before she had "Scarlet Knight" etched onto her right calf.) The neighborhood boys-including Illinois' Dee Brown and Duke's Sean Dockery-know it won't be long after Cappie gets back in town before she'll be down at the Y looking for a pickup run. Pondexter has never been much for sitting back.

So imagine what she went through when she was forced to postpone the start of her career at Rutgers. Sidelined for all of 2002 as a partial qualifier, she cried after games because she couldn't help her bumbling squad overcome a 9—20 record. "I hate to lose anything," she says. "I'd be so depressed, because I felt I could contribute so much." When the shooter with the megapixelperfect jumper got her chance the following year, she was itching to make an impact. Playing the point for the first time, she went for 18.3 points and 4.9 assists per game, led the team to a 21—8 record and earned the Big East's Rookie of the Year award. The next season was a virtual repeat for the 5'9" star: 17.9 points and 4.3 assists as a finalist for the Naismith Award. Everything was falling into place at last.

And then it was all falling apart. In 2004, Pondexter left the team before the season for reasons neither she nor coach C. Vivian Stringer will divulge. (Both deny that drugs or pregnancy was a factor.) Stringer convinced Pondexter to stay close as she dealt with her personal issues, and Cappie took a job at a local Foot Locker. "That humbled me in a way you can't even imagine," she says. "If you're not playing, people treat you any kind of way." She kept in touch by text-messaging pep talks to teammates and through Stringer's frequent calls. "Cappie not playing was the best thing that could've happened. It forced perspective on her," her coach says. A year later, Pondexter is that much more focused—and grateful to be back.

Last season, she had no trouble waving off the WNBA's green. (Okay, tens of thousands of dollars.) "It wasn't tough," she says. "I always pictured myself winning a championship for Rutgers, and that's not accomplished." Stringer remembers the day Pondexter announced her plans to stay: "When I asked her why, she said, 'I just can't leave my teammates.' " Now, with a focus reminiscent of her idol Michael Jordan's, Cappie is the serious leader of what is otherwise a decidedly goofball squad. Often, 2-guard Matee Ajavon does the Worm in walk-throughs, while D-genius soph Essence Carson hums a tune. Sometimes the 2006 Big East Player of the Year has to crack the whip. "She's the one who keeps us involved," Carson says. "We want to win it for her." Coach has noticed a difference in her star: "In years past she had this anxiety about things, but now she seems so clear."

Here's one thing Cappie is clear about: You can't take anything for granted. It's a lesson her teammates had to learn the hard way in their loss to the Mountaineers. "That was a reminder that nothing is promised," Pondexter says. And with time running out for the senior, that realization has particular resonance. "I'm only guaranteed the next 40 minutes of my college career," she says. "I only get the next 40 minutes playing with my teammates."

For once, Pondexter is hoping for a little more time.

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine