Rutgers Women's Basketball Team Picked Ninth by Gballmag.com
Oct 26 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, NJ – The Rutgers women’s basketball program was picked ninth in the Gballmag.com Preseason Poll, and fifth-year senior Cappie Pondexter (Chicago, IL) was named to the site’s Preseason All-America Second Team.
RU also previously selected second by the Women’s Basketball News Service, third by Lindy’s, fifth by ESPN.com, sixth by Basketball Times, 11th by both SI.com and Athlon Sports, and 16th by Street & Smith’s this preseason. The Scarlet Knights posted a 28-7 overall record and a 14-2 mark in BIG EAST Conference play last season, winning their first outright BIG EAST regular-season title and advancing to their second consecutive BIG EAST Tournament championship game. Rutgers reached the Elite Eight of the 2005 NCAA Tournament and finished seventh in the final WBCA/ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll.
Pondexter also earned first-team preseason All-America accolades from the Women’s Basketball News Service, second-team All-America mentions from Lindy’s and Athlon Sports, and was named to the Street & Smith’s “Terrific 10” Preseason All-America Team. Already named a candidate for two 2005-2006 national player-of-the-year awards, the 5-9 guard was a candidate for all three national player-of-the-year awards (Naismith, State Farm Wade Trophy, Women’s Wooden Award), as well as the Nancy Lieberman Award (top point guard) and Bayer Advantage Senior CLASS Award, last season. Pondexter also was named to the 2004-2005 Associated Press (honorable mention), Full Court Press (third team) and Kodak/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (honorable mention) All-America Teams, the Kodak/ WBCA All-Region 1 Team, the BIG EAST All-First Team and the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team, and was the NCAA Tournament Philadelphia Region’s Most Outstanding Player. She averaged 14.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season, posting 19 double-digit scoring efforts (seven 20+ points) in 27 appearances.
Rutgers, which returns nine letterwinners and four starters from last season’s Elite Eight team, will officially begin the 2005-2006 campaign on Grand Bahama Island, competing at the Junkanoo Jam
Nov. 25-26.
Gballmag.com Preseason Top 10 Poll
1. Duke
2. Tennessee
3. Ohio State
4. LSU
5. Georgia
6. North Carolina
7. Baylor
8. Connecticut
9. Rutgers
10. Texas
Stanford
Gballmag.com’s Preseason All-Americans
First Team
Seimone Augustus, LSU
Monique Currie, Duke
Jessica Davenport, Ohio State
Tiffany Jackson, Texas
Sophia Young, Baylor
Second Team
Tasha Humphrey, Georgia
Crystal Langhorne, Maryland
Cappie Pondexter, Rutgers
Khara Smith, DePaul
Candice Wiggins, Stanford
