And now, my inaugural Big Ten Women's Basketball Awards. Drumroll please . . .

Player-of-the-Year -- You can make your case for Ohio State sophomore Katie Smith, especially after her 29-point performance at Rec Hall where she was unstoppable.

But Minnesota senior Carol Ann Shudlick gets the nod. The reigning player-of-the-year, Shudlick led the conference with 24 points per game (fourth in the nation). Despite Minnesota Coach Linda Hill-MacDonald's gripe that the Gophers aren't one-dimensional, the 6-foot center practically single-handedly guided the Golden Gophers to an NCAA berth.

All-Big Ten team -- By position, there's Shudlick at center, Lady Lion senior Helen Holloway at the power forward position, Smith at small forward, Iowa senior Necole Tunsil at the off-guard and Penn State sophomore Tina Nicholson at the point.

Holloway is the mother figure and glue of Penn State's conference co-championship team. When she was injured in a freak accident against Purdue, the Lady Lions lost their first game after 18-straight wins.

Tunsil came on strong in the second half of the season to pick up the pieces when star Tia Jackson was injured. Her 28-point effort in a 78-68 win at Iowa helped prevent Penn State from winning the championship outright.

Nicholson, at 5-foot-3, is easily the most exciting player to watch in the conference.

"Last year was a wash, though she did amuse me sometimes with some of the things she tried," Penn State Coach Rene Portland said. "But it's nicer this year to smile because of her success and fortunately she's only a sophomore. We're going to see a whole lot more."

Freshman-of-the-Year -- Purdue's Leslie Johnson, hands-down. The burly 6-footer dominated the paint, averaging 18.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game for the Boilermakers.

Underrated as a high school senior, despite averaging nearly 30 ppg, she stepped right into the starting lineup and carried the Boilermakers to the conference co-championship on her wide shoulders.

"She's very difficult to stop and has the potential to catch and score with two or three people on her," Purdue Coach Lin Dunn said of Johnson.

Coach-of-the-Year -- Indiana's Jim Izard.

The Hoosiers were predicted to finish 10th in the conference standings in the coaches' preseason poll.

"The coaches' polls are popularity contests," Izard said of the selection, "and I don't win too many of those."

But Izard did lead the Hoosiers to an NCAA bid and fourth-place finish in the Big Ten. He guided his team to two victories over Iowa, including the weekend in which the Hawkeyes were expected to assume the nation's No. 1 ranking.

"Jim has done a great job with such a low seed," Northwestern Coach Don Perrelli said. "His kids are fighters and they play extremely hard."

Biggest Disappointment -- Ohio State. A year removed from the NCAA championship game, the Buckeyes didn't make the tournament field this season. And they really weren't close. Coach Nancy Darsch returned a Kodak All-American in Smith and recruited one of the nation's top freshman classes. But the returning players didn't come through, the freshmen contribution was minimal, and Smith couldn't do it alone.