Events for the past week have shown that there are things more important than games of roundball.

But for women's basketball coach Rene Portland, her sport is never far away.

Portland's good friend and neighbor, Ann Infield, who co-founded the Lady Lions' Cager Club, passed away on Saturday.

Infield had been fighting cancer for the past two years, although she followed the Lady Lions right up until the end. After last Thursday's win against Ohio State when Portland went to visit her in the hospital, Infield congratulated her on a job well done.

Throughout, Portland was in contact with the team leaving her staff and team captains Kelly Mazzante and Rashana Barnes in charge.

"We continue to work, yesterday we met and yesterday I was a pallbearer, so you do it all in one day," Portland said yesterday at her weekly press conference.

Also not far from the 22-year coaching veteran's mind was the condition of Indiana coach Kathi Bennett who was severely injured in a car accident Friday.

"There is a sisterhood. . .that only us coaches understand the distractions we coaches go through," Portland said.

Bennett's condition hit home even more for Portland, who last spring was involved in a minor accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The team sent a get well gift of flowers to Indiana, in addition to sending well wishes during Sunday's telecast against Iowa.

Getting schooled

With Portland away from the team yesterday, assistant coach Annie Troyan took some time to explain the process of the Big Ten tournament to Penn State's four freshmen.

"She taught the young players

about the bracket and who plays who and when you would play," Portland said.

The younger players took a lot away from the leaning session, especially considering the team was bothered by last week's time changes flying back and forth while playing three road games.

"For all of us, we've never experienced that before," freshman point guard Jess Strom said.

"I think it was good for us just to sit down and look at it instead of just thinking about the Big Ten tournament."

No 'I' in team; there is a 'me'

Sunday's loss to Iowa sparked questions about how well Mazzante must play for the Lions to be successful, especially with big games on the horizon against Michigan and conference leading Purdue.

As far as Portland is concerned, Mazzante, the nation's leading scorer, is not the source of the problem. Balance must come from her teammates.

"The 'and others' need to score, Jess (Strom) needs to shoot the three and that's a great thing, Tanishia needs to do what she's doing," Portland said.