By Nick Pipitone

It’s 9:30 on a Tuesday morning and the Pride’s sensational sophomore guard Cigi McCollin is taking part in an individual practice. It’s nothing out of the ordinary-all members of the team have at least one weekly isolated session with a coach.

So why is this particular session a bit strange? You could start with McCollin’s stat line as of Sunday, which includes a team-high 16.7 points-per-game (ppg) and 40 steals. Add in that during the week she scored 21 and a career-high 29 points in two Pride victories over Drexel University and Virginia Commonwealth University, respectively. And, finally, you could finish with her naming as Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week that Monday.

So why the early morning practice the next day? Why not bask in the glow of her first player of the week honors?

“She was scheduled to practice that morning, but last year she never really did individual workouts,” head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “Her maturity level has definitely improved.”

And that pretty much sums up the underlying difference between the player who averaged 7.9 ppg in 28 games played last year, and the one currently averaging ten points.

McCollin’s maturation is the primary reason for such a breakout season, but it wasn’t just one thing that has motivated the third-year sophomore to become the player that she is today. In addition to a more dedicated approach to the Pride’s off-season workout regimen and her participation in New York’s summer Empire League, a knee injury in her true freshman year provided a set back that would challenge her work ethic.

“I tore my ACL in my left knee in 2002,” McCollin said. “I wanted the injury to heal itself, so I red-shirted and sat out for the remainder of my freshman year.”

The injury, which took place in only the fifth game of the season, cut short a stellar start to her college basketball career and left her with an entire year of rehabilitation. Last season McCollin returned to the team but didn’t play at the same level. Throughout the season, she was forced to wear a protective sleeve over her left knee.

“Mentally, I struggled with confidence issues last year,” McCollin said. “I was out for so long and struggling to get back into it. I just went out this summer and got my confidence back. I felt like I was turning into my old self.”

Now, the shooting guard said that although the knee gets sore every once-in-a-while and most importantly, the injury no longer hampers her at all. Legette-Jack added, “She’s a healthy kid and she’s just as strong as she was before.”

In some ways, the injury helped McCollin improve her already impressive skills. While rehabbing the knee and playing through some mild pain last season, she was forced to re-learn how to play the game because of her handicap. This, coach Legette-Jack believes, has been a major factor in her improvement this season.

But while the injury has definitely been an incentive for McCollin to work harder, it will never be as important as her biggest motivation of all: her family. The Queens native lived in a tough neighborhood growing up, but always had the support of her mother and father. The two still come to a majority of her games today.

“She has an excellent mother and father,” Legette-Jack said. “When times get tough for her up here, she doesn’t want to let them down.”

Using basketball as an outlet, McCollin was able to stay away from the drugs and violence that surrounded her and work toward her life-long dream of playing in the WNBA.

But for McCollin, those things are beyond her vision. For now, she’s focused on tomorrow’s game at James Madison Universitty and, of course, that 9:30 Tuesday morning practice.