Although the Big Ten women's basketball tournament is still more than four weeks away, teams are battling hard to earn a high seed and impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

There is a definite balance in the conference with four teams fighting for second and third place and a first round bye.

No. 16 Penn State and No. 25 Wisconsin are tied for second with Illinois and Iowa just half a game back. All four teams have suffered three conference losses.

Michigan and Indiana are also in the hunt, having been defeated four times apiece.

Don't I know you?

This weekend when Indiana travels to Iowa, it will match two first-year coaches with a history.

Indiana's Kathi Bennett and Iowa's Lisa Bluder both moved into the Big Ten this year from previous stints in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Bluder was a three-time coach of the year at Drake and Bennett spent her previous four years at Evansville.

"I'm not looking forward to going against coach Bluder because of her record against me," Bennett said.

"I finally got one win last year at their place. She's a heck of a coach and does a tremendous job."

Bluder is looking forward to renewing her battle with Bennett.

"It's really odd to go against Kathi again," Bluder said. "Our careers have kind of paralleled each other. This goes back 12 or 13 years now.

"It's kind of fun to have somebody you know and somebody that's in the same boat that you are."

Player of the week

Lady Lions freshman Kelly Mazzante was named Big Ten player of the week last week for her role in the Lions two victories.

At Indiana, Mazzante scored 14 points. However, Mazzante saved her best for the home crowd and Michigan State.

She scored 28 points, grabbed eight boards, and added career-highs in three pointers, assists and steals.

"She's obviously an unbelievable scorer," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "She is complete and she works very, very hard at it.

"The kid's just playing extremely well."

She leads the team and conference, scoring 18.3 points per game.

This is the second time this season Mazzante has earned player of the week honors.

Still perfect

Preseason favorite Purdue is showing why they were picked to win the conference. The No. 6 Boilermakers are the only team yet to lose a conference game, although they did need overtime to beat Wisconsin on Sunday.

The Boilermakers are riding an 11-game winning streak and haven't lost since Dec. 16 to Louisana State.

Quote of the week

"It may not have been the prettiest game in the world but it was certainly loud and both teams had their spurts. The crowd got in to it. It's fun, especially when you win."

—Michigan coach Sue Guevara on the intrastate rivalry with Michigan State.