Being the hunted instead of the hunter shouldn’t faze Penn State in the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament. That’s the opinion coach Rene Portland and star center Andrea Garner shared Wednesday on the eve of the event.
“I like this situation better,” said Portland of her team’s No. 1 seed in the tournament, which runs Thursday through Sunday. “The players like it the other way–being the hunter.”
Garner, a 6-foot-3-inch senior who leads the Big Ten in blocked shots, expressed a been-there, done-that attitude about being the tournament favorite because of a No. 5 national ranking and records of 24-3 overall and 15-1 in the conference.
“We were picked No. 1 in the Big Ten before the season and we’ve been the hunted all season,” said Garner. “Some of our younger players may be a little nervous, but we’re an experienced team. We seniors will play all out because we know every game might be our last.”
The tournament gets under way Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse with three games involving the six teams that did not finish high enough to earn first-round byes.
Whether they’ve been the hunters or the hunted, Portland’s Lady Lions have prospered in Big Ten tournaments. Their record is 10-3 in the five previous tourneys. They won the first two events in 1995 and ’96 when they tied for first and finished second in the regular season. They reached the finals in ’98 when they finished seventh in the league with an 8-8 record. They begin tournament play Friday against the winner of Thursday’s Indiana-Ohio State game.
Portland agrees with Garner that Penn State’s season-long success as a favorite should be an asset in the tournament to determine the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“This team has survived all season,” Portland said. “We’ve been attacked from all sides and handled it pretty well. We’re used to it, poised and confident.”
Penn State also is talented. Garner at 14.9 points per game, Maren Walseth at 14.1 and Lisa Shepherd at 13.2 rank among the top 20 in Big Ten scoring. Rashana Barnes has been a spark off the bench. Point guard Helen Darling leads the league in assists and earns her coach’s nod over Garner as the league’s most valuable player.
“Helen deserves it,” said Portland. “It’s good to have three scorers because on some days, somebody doesn’t show up. Defenses can limit one scorer, but nobody has been able to stop Helen. When Penn State does not play well, it’s because Helen doesn’t play well.”
No team in five previous Big Ten tournaments has won the event by winning four times in four days after failing to earn a first-round bye. Wisconsin’s hopes of pulling such an upset rose Monday when doctors cleared 6-4 freshman Nina Smith to play in the tournament.
Smith averaged 12 points a game and led the league in field-goal percentage when she broke her foot eight weeks ago. A native of Waterloo, Iowa, she was generally regarded as the No. 1 recruit in the nation in the class of 1999.
“I’m delighted,” said Badgers coach Jane Albright. “I didn’t recruit her to keep a stat sheet on the bench. She’s been working out. The doctor will watch her carefully. My guess is that she could give us up to 20 minutes per game.”
