Four teams hope to slide into Big Ten's top five

If two students to a dorm room is a tight squeeze, check out the standings in the women's Big Ten basketball conference. Of the 11 teams in the conference, four teams -- Penn State (13-9, 6-6 Big Ten), Iowa (11-10, 6-6), Northwestern (13-9, 6-7) and Indiana (13-10, 6-7) -- are all within a half game of each other.

So what's the big deal? The top five teams in the conference will receive a first-round bye at the Big Ten tournament, which begins Feb. 28 in Indianapolis.

Teams with a bye only would have to win three games as opposed to four to win the tournament.

With Illinois (18-4, 10-2), Michigan State (18-4, 10-2), Purdue (13-8, 9-3) and Wisconsin (15-7, 7-5) all making formidable claims for byes, it's no wonder the scramble has begun for the elusive fifth spot.

"The last two weeks of the season are going to be very significant," Iowa coach Angie Lee said. "We've got to concentrate extremely hard to get into those top spots. That's our mini championship right now."

With or without you ...

Michigan State is a team of role players, and the Spartans proved it last weekend. Playing without sophomore forward Nicole Cushing-Adkins, the Spartans routed Minnesota, 102-51, on Friday and then took care of Ohio State, 72-64, on Sunday. Freshman guard Karen Rasmussen cashed in her first career double-doubles in both games. Tamika Matlock chipped in 19 assists for the weekend in the wins over the two worst Big Ten teams.

This weekend, however, the Spartans may not be able to get by without major contributions from their top players.

On Friday, they head to Purdue to battle Nell Fortner's up-and-coming Boilermakers. And Sunday the green and white return home to battle speedy Illinois.

"To say this weekend coming up is tough is an understatement," Michigan State coach Karen Langeland said. "(Illinois) is a very good basketball team. They have a lot of young talent as we do."

Split decision

The Big Ten Player of the Week award was temporarily changed this week to the Big Ten Players of the Week, as Penn State's Shauntai Hall and Purdue's Jannon Roland split the honors.

Roland led her Boilermakers to two road wins against Iowa and Michigan. Last Friday against the Hawkeyes, she poured in 17 points and ripped down seven rebounds to lead her team to a 53-48 win. Two days later in Ann Arbor, Mich., Roland scored 21 points, marking her 11th 20-plus point game this season.

Hall hit on 9-of-11 shots to score a career-high 20 points last Friday against Michigan in Happy Valley. In that game, which the Lady Lions won, 82-73, Hall scored Penn State's first 10 points. She added another 18 points, along with eight rebounds Sunday in an 82-66 win over Indiana.

On the weekend the sophomore from Masontown shot 75 percent (15-of-20) from the floor and 70 percent (7-of-10) from the free-throw line.

Any relation to Allen?

The skills of Philadelphia 76ers point guard Allen Iverson are well documented. The skills of Minnesota forward Angie Iverson are not. But maybe they should be. After all, the 6-foot forward is second in the nation in rebounding at 12.3 per game.

Last weekend she averaged 26 points and 15.5 rebounds in two losses to Michigan State and Illinois. She holds the highest single-game rebounding performance in the nation this season with her 25 boards against Colorado State.

But unfortunately for Iverson, her team isn't exactly very supportive. The two weekend losses by a combined total of 70 points marked Golden Gopher losses 19 and 20 this year. Minnesota averages 24 turnovers a contest and loses games by an average of 13 points.

"There were no keys ... we lost," Minnesota coach Linda Hill-MacDonald said following an 84-63 loss to Penn State on Jan. 24. "We didn't unlock anything tonight."