Lady cagers, coaches ready for tournament

By DAMIAN DOBROSIELSKI
Collegian Sports Writer

The Big Ten began sponsoring women's basketball in 1981. That season, a postseason tournament was held at Michigan State to determine the conference champion.

Ohio State beat Illinois 69-66 that year to win the inaugural Big Ten women's basketball championship. Following that season, the conference dropped the tournament and began using a round-robin schedule to decide the Big Ten champion.

Now, 13 years later, the conference is once againg a postseason tournament. Today at 2 p.m., Minnesota will meet Iowa at the Hinkle Field House in Indianapolis, tipping off the 1995 Big Ten tournament. Penn State does not play until noon tomorrow against the winner of the Minnesota-Iowa contest.

The championship game at 7 p.m. on Monday will be televised on ESPN2.

"We're pleased to be a part of this tournament," said Lady Lion Coach Rene Portland, whose team is the No. 1 seed. "When we were in the Atlantic 10, we always thought a postseason tournament was beneficial."

Seedings for the tournament were determined by the regular season conference standings. This year's Big Ten schedule was reduced from 18 to 16 games to allow for the tournament.

Despite the reduction of regular season games, most Big Ten coaches agree that the tournament is a positive addition.

"We're excited about the tourney," Michigan State Coach Karen Langeland said. "It gives people the opportunity to see some great women's basketball. It also gives teams at the bottom of the conference some incentive to play at the end of the season."

Teams like Minnesota, the No. 8 seed, are especially glad the tournament is being played.

"February was a very rough month for us," Golden Gopher Coach Linda Hill-MacDonald said. "The tournament is going to provide us with another opportunity."

It will provide an opportunity to secure an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

Note:

-- Penn State center Stacey Hrivnak will miss the Big Ten tournament after suffering a mild concussion in Tuesday's practice.