Purdue seeded No.1 in tourney

A coach being carried off a field or court is a rare occurrence in sports at any level. Movies glorify sports a bit more than in real life, but even on the big screen a coach or player being carried off the field is not common.

That is unless you are the coach of a Purdue women's basketball team that finished the season with seven wins in its final eight games, including a season finale victory over No. 17 Illinois to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament.

"The feeling is fantastic," Purdue coach Nell Fortner said. "I'm so proud of these kids. They've worked so very hard."

Jannon Roland was the main catalyst in the win over Illinois. The senior forward scored 32 points Sunday, as well as 21 points Friday in Purdue's 64-55 loss to Northwestern. Her performance tied her with Penn State's Angie Potthoff as the conference's leading scorer within conference games at 20.4 points a game. Roland also averaged 7.7 rebounds, shot 48 percent from the field and 77 percent from the free-throw line.

The Boilermakers will take on the winner of Friday night's Indiana (14-12, 7-9 Big Ten) vs. Michigan (15-10, 7-9) game.

Moving on up

For the first time, the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament will be played in the RCA Dome as opposed to Butler University's Hinkle Filedhouse, where it has been the last three years. Most coaches are excited but are keeping the move to the new venue in perspective.

"The court I don't think is really gonna matter," Northwestern coach Don Perrelli said. "Everyone's going in on that so-called neutral court. It'll be a great atmosphere I'm sure."

Illinois coach Theresa Grentz said her Illini should not be affected by any differences in the lighting or the court itself because they have experience playing in a variety of gyms this season.

"You know what, I don't worry about that. We've played this year in high school gyms, in junior colleges," she said. "There was one time we were on the road, and we couldn't get a gym at the university so we had to take a can of food and go to the salvation army."

Spartan leader

A couple of different coaches can easily lay claim to this year's Big Ten coach of the year award, which will be handed out Friday in Indianapolis. There's the motivational Grentz, who in just her second year as the Illinois coach led the Illini to a 20-6 overall and a tie for the Big Ten regular-season title with Purdue and Michigan State.

There's Fortner, who in her first year at the helm of Purdue, pushed her team from ho-hum play at midseason to a Big Ten powerhouse at postseason time.

Oh, and then there's my actual choice for coach of the year. She is Michigan State coach Karen Langeland, who in her 21st year in East Lansing should be an obvious choice. Why? She has no stars.

Grentz has had the speedy Ashley Berggren to run the fast break. Fortner has had the reliable Roland. But Langeland had no standouts.

Michigan State's top scorer this season was senior Paula Sanders at 12.8 points and 8 rebounds per game in conference play. Behind Sanders were unknowns Cheri Euler, Tamika Matlock and Nicole Cushing-Adkins. Despite lacking a go-to player, Langeland's squad finished within the top three in the Big Ten teams in scoring offense, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, blocks, steals, assists and turnover margin.

"I'm excited the conference race is over. This is kind of a new beginning for us," Langeland said. "I have a lot of confidence in this team."

Let us dance

The Robert Goulet's ESPN commercial suggesting that earning a "trip to the dance" just takes a little "chutzpa," is not entirely accurate. For NCAA qualification, a team either has to receive an automatic bid or win its conference tournament. Unfortunately, the AP top 25 Poll has much to do with what teams receive automatic bids.

Last season, Perrelli was adamant about his Wildcats not getting into the NCAA tournament. Northwestern finished last season 23-11 and 8-8 in the Big Ten. His current squad is again hovering near the bubble at 17-9, 9-7. Perrelli said the problem of Northwestern's and other Big Ten teams' not getting into "the dance" starts at home.

"You've gotta have respect within your own conference. We have a number of coaches that vote in that poll, and only three teams got votes this week, and those are the three teams that are in the top 25," Perrelli said. "If we don't respect ourselves, if we don't think we're good enough in this league to get some votes, than how can we expect the committee to think so?"