THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Entering her senior season as a member of Drexel's women's basketball team, Marginean is arguably the most decorated female college basketball player in Philadelphia history.
The 6-1 forward from Romania has scored 1,854 points, a mere 47 points away from breaking Michelle Maslowski's all-time Drexel scoring record and 555 points shy of eclipsing former Villanova star Shelly Pennefather's all-time city scoring mark. And if she can duplicate her scoring output from a year ago, Marginean, who finished third in the nation averaging 23.3 points per game, will crack the top 25 on the NCAA's all-time scoring list.
Of course, eventually having the opportunity to annihilate every conceivable scoring record in the book would have meant nothing to the 22-year-old if her team didn't win. But after leading the Dragons to a program-record 24 victories last season, the university's first-ever Colonial Athletic Association title in any sport, and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, Marginean had finally achieved what she set out to accomplish when she arrived at Drexel in 2006 as an unknown with untapped potential from Mount de Chantal Academy in Wheeling, W.Va.
"Last year was amazing," said Marginean, who earned the CAA Player of the Year award after she scored a conference single-season record 769 points. "We didn't even expect to finish where we did [the Dragons started off the season 8-8] and do everything we did. But as soon as we hit conference play, I think we finally came together, played really well together, and it showed."
This season, however, expectations are a bit loftier. Drexel was chosen to repeat as conference champion and Marginean enters the 2009-10 campaign as a nominee for the John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the outstanding men's and women's college basketball players.
"I think it's a great honor to be nominated for all these awards," Marginean said. "It's just something that motivates me to work even harder and helps me continue to improve."
There's not much room for improvement for Marginean on the court skillwise. She's a versatile player who can score seemingly at will and in a variety of ways; she can dribble like a guard and defend any position. But according to Denise Dillon, Marginean's head coach, she still needs to evolve in her role as a leader.
"We had two very strong leaders last year in senior guard Andrea Peterson and forward Nicole Hester [who both graduated]," said Dillon, the CAA Coach of the Year. "But this year we don't. And I'm asking her to start demanding things of her teammates because that's the role I'm putting her in right now. And it's going to be tough.
"It's another challenge for her. And if you put a challenge in front of her, she's going to do everything she's capable of doing to accomplish it."
Marginean, no surprise, is motivated and up to it. After all, the biggest reason Dillon recruited her in the first place was because of her work ethic.
"I think it's a huge role and it's going to be a lot of work," Marginean said. "But I feel like it's a really good group of girls who are willing to listen and to work hard, so hopefully it's going to be a good year."
Marginean is setting her sights on capping her stellar Drexel career with back-to-back CAA titles. And once it's over, she'll likely have the option to play professionally. A couple of 2010 WNBA mock drafts even project her to go in the top 10.
However, Marginean isn't dwelling on that, even if others seem to be.
"I do want to play professionally," she said. "But I'm not really thinking about that right now."
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