Natasha Pointer (born June 27, 1979) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player who is currently the head women's basketball coach at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. She was drafted in the fourth round of the

2001 WNBA draft 2001 WNBA draft *On April 20, 2001, the regular WNBA draft took place. Key Draft Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 ''Notes'': See also *List of first overall WNBA draft picks References * {{2001 WNBA season by team WNBA draft ...

by the

Portland Fire The Portland Fire were a professional basketball team in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) based in Portland, Oregon that joined the league in 2000 as the counterpart to the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and played their games a ...

with the 52nd overall pick.

Playing career

Pointer played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

, where she was a four-year starter as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

. At Rutgers, she was the first person in the history of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

to record more than 1,000 points, 700 assists, 500 rebounds, and 250 steals as well as the first player to record a

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

in the history of Rutgers women's basketball. Pointer was drafted by the

with the 52nd overall pick in the

, but did not make the final roster. She was later selected by the Chicago Blaze in the third round of the

National Women's Basketball League The National Women's Basketball League, often abbreviated to the NWBL, was an organization governing professional basketball leagues for women in the United States. The league was founded in 1997 and began play in the Fall of that year. The leagu ...

draft in 2004 and played two games with them. Pointer was later signed by the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Confer ...

but was waived a month later.

Rutgers statistics

Source

Coaching career

Pointer began her coaching career at Columbia as an assistant coach in 2004. She was also an assistant at Xavier for one season before joining her alma mater

as an assistant coach. She spent eight seasons with the Scarlet Knights helping them rebuild themselves into contenders before joining St. John's in 2015 as an assistant coach. Pointer left St. John's after two seasons to join Northwestern as an assistant coach. Pointer was named the head coach at UIC in 2018. It was announced that Pointer would not return after the 2021–22 season.

Head coaching record

References

External links

*
UIC Flames profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pointer, Tasha 1979 births Living people Basketball players from Chicago Basketball coaches from Illinois Columbia Lions women's basketball coaches Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball coaches Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball coaches Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball players St. John's Red Storm women's basketball coaches UIC Flames women's basketball coaches Xavier Musketeers women's basketball coaches National Women's Basketball League players