The No. 44 of Angie Potthoff's shiny satin uniform is replaced by a blue sweater and comfortably faded blue jeans as she folds her 6-foot-1-inch frame into the wooden benches of Waring Commons.

She is wearing navy blue low-cuts with white soles, but she could have easily chosen a different pair of shoes to adorn.

"I always buy sneakers," she says, her deeply dimpled cheeks smiling widely. "It's my fetish."

But as a power forward for the women's basketball team, the redshirt sophomore has been stockpiling more than just leather lately.

She leads the No. 10 Lady Lions in points with 18.9 per game. Her 10.6 rebounds per game lead the Big Ten, as does her 63.6 shooting percentage -- the third-best in the nation.

A year ago, though, the only thing Potthoff was gathering was heartache. An injury to her right shoulder sidelined Potthoff for all of last season. She could only watch as her teammates advanced to the elite eight of the NCAA tournament. On her cheeks were no longer dimples, but tears.

"Every home game I would cry," the Erie native said. "People kept telling me that after the first couple of games on the bench I would get used to it. I never got used to it."

In the rehabilitation that followed the injury, Potthoff put those emotions to good use. They provided her with motivation as team trainer Andra Thomas "tortured" Potthoff during her recovery.

Potthoff would spend hours upon hours in Rec Hall, running the track, shooting right-handed, shooting left-handed, doing defensive slide drills, every day, every week. Her thoughts were aimed at this year, her new sophomore season.

In May 1994, with her shoulder fully recovered, Potthoff ventured to the Olympic Festival in where she had suffered her injury the year before. But this time, the results were all positive. Potthoff's deceiving quickness and leaping ability were the surprises of the Festival.

"Angie was anxious when she went into the tryouts last year," Lady Lion Assistant Coach Susan Robinson said. "She didn't know what to expect out of herself. But when she went in there and had three consistent days of play, that told her right there how good she could be."

Potthoff left the tryouts with renewed confidence and was ready to move into the new season -- and a starting spot vacated by the graduation of Helen Holloway.

But Coach Rene Portland called Potthoff's preseason efforts last fall "complacent," and Potthoff's name was not announced when the starting lineups were introduced for the season opener against Rutgers.

"That really got me mad, made me work harder," Potthoff said.

She scored 17 points and snagged nine rebounds against Rutgers, eventually working her way into the starting lineup 10 games later.

"Angie's a player who needs to be challenged all the time," Portland said. "And the challenge of not starting at the beginning of the year was a challenge she rose to."

Watching that rise has been a joy for Potthoff's parents, especially for her father Steve, who is a University graduate.

"It's the proudest moment for him to see me run on the floor with the Penn State uniform on, with the emblem on my back," Angie said, that same emblem dangling in gold around her neck.

Steve agrees.

"It's something very special for me," he said.

For Angie, it is special as well. Even more so than a new pair of Nikes.