| Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir |
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Note: Tore her ACL and will miss the 2009-2010 season.
Prep: Was a 2009 graduate of New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, Mass...Named the 2009 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and the Western Massachusetts Player of the Year by MassLive.com following her senior season...Was also named to the Boston Globe All-Dream Team as one on the top five players in the state...Broke the Massachusetts scoring record (boys and girls) by scoring 3,070 career points since starting varsity basketball as a eighth grader...Broke Rebecca Lobo's state scoring record in January of her senior season...Was a starter all five seasons at New Leadership, and averaged 42.0 points a game in her final prep campaign...Was named to the ESPN High School National Honor Roll as one of 50 players who had special individual performances or careers that contributed to team success...Participated in the Michael T. White All-America Game in Atlanta...Was a first team All-Scholastic honoree as well at New Leadership and graduated first in her class...Was coached in high school by John Williams and played AAU ball with the Springfield Sparks under coaches Tony Motley and Anthony Willis...Will compete with her arms, legs and head covered in accordance with her Islamic faith at Memphis...Has already appeared in Sports Illustrated, SLAM Magazine and on ESPN coming in to her freshman campaign...Choose Memphis over Boston College and Louisville.
Personal: Born Nov. 11, 1990 in Springfield, Mass., also the home of basketball...Daughter of Tariq and Alooah Abdul-Qaadir...Her brother, Yusuf Abdul-Ali also played college basketball at Bentley College, helping his team to the NCAA Division II Final Four two different times...Plans on majoring in pre-med at Memphis with an interest in cardiac surgery.
