CYNDY
WILKS SPOTLIGHT1-29-03
Women's basketball player Cyndy Wilks (Bridgeton, N.J./Bridgeton) is a scorer. Call her a gunner, shooter, catalyst or any other term to describe a player who loves to put up big numbers on the offensive end of the court, because that's Cyndy. Her aptitude for shooting the basketball helped earn her South New Jersey most valuable player as a senior at Bridgeton High School. And now as a junior guard for the Rams, Wilks is at it again, as she averages 14.3 points per game while reaching double figures in points in all but three games this season. She also has made 37 of the Rams' 70 three-pointers while taking nearly half of the team's attempts from beyond the arc.
These are the type of numbers Wilks has always put up, and she expected to do so at the collegiate level as well. But sometimes even gunners have to wait their turn, and waiting is not something that comes easily for scorers like Wilks.
"I experienced a lot of adversity my freshman year at VCU," Wilks said. "We had a lot of juniors and seniors ahead of me who played a lot of minutes, so it was hard for me to get into the flow of things. And when I did get playing time, I was nervous because I thought if I messed up I'd get taken out again.
"I played every minute of every game in high school, and I didn't deal with five to 10 minutes a game well at all. It was the toughest thing I had to deal with, outside of my injury," said Wilks, referring to a knee injury that forces her to wear a brace. She also had to learn to listen and follow the lead of her teammates, since she was used to being the leader on her teams in the past.
Wilks played in every game as a freshman and was second on the team with 19 three-pointers, but she averaged under 10 minutes per game, an adverse condition for a shooter. With the graduation of three-year starter Liz Remus, Wilks' minutes increased her sophomore year, and she became a starter midway through last season. Eventually, head coach David Glass called Wilks aside and said the magic words every gunner wants to hear. "Coach Glass gave me the green light one day and said he wanted a pure shooter on the court," said Wilks. "He said if I have an open shot, take it."
Shortly after her conversation with Glass, Wilks had a career night against Drexel, hitting seven of her nine three-point attempts to finish with 33 points. "I felt like the basket was as big as the equator," Wilks said. "Everything was going in. I was definitely in a zone. But I don't want just one big game, I want consistency. I want it to be like that every game and get in the mindset that everything I put up is going in."
Wilks averaged 10.2 points her sophomore year and struck for 40 three-pointers, hitting over 38 percent of her attempts. Not coincidentally, her numbers improved as her playing time doubled to nearly 22 minutes a game with 13 starts.
Although scoring is Wilks' greatest strength, she didn't earn the playing time strictly based on her offensive output. This year she is more of a complete player, ranking second on the team with 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while leading the team in steals with 29. These are uncharacteristic numbers for a scorer, requiring hustle and toughness more than sheer athletic ability. But Wilks understands that her team needs her to do more than just shoot the ball, a point Glass hammered home in another discussion her freshman year. "Coach Glass once told me during a game that he wanted to put me in to score, but he knew I'd get scored on, and he didn't put me in," Wilks recalled. "I've really worked on my defense since then."
With several newcomers in the rotation this season, the Rams have been carried by Wilks and senior forward Kristine Austgulen, who leads the CAA in scoring and rebounding. The two players are clicking well now, with a combined 50-point outing against Drexel last Sunday as evidence. But Wilks admitted that it was difficult earlier in the year for them to get comfortable playing together. "In the beginning of the season, with Kris being a senior and our main scorer from last year, we both were trying to create our own shot," Wilks said. "Now we're working well together and making others around us better.
"There's a lot of pressure on us to play well because we carry the energy of the team. When we play well, everyone else plays just as hard."
After a shaky non-conference stretch that saw the Rams go 3-6, the team has won four of its last five heading into Thursday's meeting at George Mason. Wilks likes her team's chances for a string of wins during the second half of the CAA schedule. "We've got some teams coming up that we owe," Wilks said. "[The team] has the mentality that we owe them a loss. We didn't have a good start, but we feel like we can beat the teams that beat us earlier. Confidence is everything and we're playing with a lot of confidence right now."
Although the monikers of shooter, gunner and the like do fit Wilks' playing style, there's another descriptor she'd like to add before her career at VCU concludes: winner.