Promise and talent can take a team only so far. Hard work, dedication and coming together as a family can be the difference between a good season and a great season.

The Penn State women's basketball team found how to realize their potential this season and because of that it is extremely optimistic about 2002-2003.

"I think they can only progress from now," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "They're freshmen and sophomores and they've done some incredible things this year and I think they are only going to get better."

The youth that brought the Lady Lions back to the Sweet 16 this season was something that caused the team to hit some potholes early on. Twenty games into the season the Lions were a mediocre 12-8 and were only 4-3 in the Big Ten. The team was not ranked in the Top 25 and there were questions as to if it would even make it into the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman point guard Jess Strom played well but there were times when she did look like a newcomer and had problems protecting the ball. Fellow freshman starting guard Tanisha Wright had the skills to put up around 18 points a night but was not playing aggressively enough on the offensive side to score consistently.

Newcomers also were prevalent on the coaching staff.

"We had a brand new staff this year so not only did we deal with 10 freshmen and sophomores, I had to deal with two new coaches," Portland said. "One was a high school coach and one came from Indiana. I think both are doing a terrific job but we had a lot of adjustments to do this year, so hopefully we'll be able to settle down next year and obviously be able to build off this."

They will be building off of what happened after those first 20 games. The 21st game was a match-up with then Big Ten-leader Wisconsin. The Lions put together a great team performance and easily defeated the Badgers 63-49.

From that point on the Lions would only lose four more games. They made a run to the finals of the Big Ten Tournament and fulfilled an earlier Kelly Mazzante prophecy by making it into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

"The atmosphere has been great," Wright said of playing in the Sweet 16. "It's been a great experience for us, especially because we are freshmen and sophomores.

They haven't been here either, the sophomore class. Hopefully we will be back next year and we'll make a little further run."

There were plenty of highlights that went into returning Penn State to the upper echelon of women's basketball.

Mazzante rewrote the conference record books, becoming the Big Ten single season scoring champion, scored the most points in one game and was the fastest player to surpass 1,000 points. She was also the nation's leading scorer, although Portland says there is an NBA player she wants to pattern Mazzante's play after next year. "The kind of game we feel we have to model after, not be exactly like, is Allen Iverson," Portland said. "He's quick, he can hit the three, and he puts the ball on the floor very well."

Wright found the aggressive shooting nature that Portland had been looking for all season. She was intricate in end of the season tournament play, scoring an average of 18.8 points in the six games played in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments.

Strom demonstrated the overall play that is necessary to be a pivotal point guard. In the team's final game against Connecticut, Strom demonstrated what she can do, as she scored 12 points, had eight assists and only had one turnover.

Yet as great as the guards proved to be, the team's limitations came down low in the post. At times during the season and especially in the game against UConn the Lions were dominated inside.

Without a major force in the paint it proved impossible for Penn State to move on to bigger things than the Sweet 16, but Portland thinks she has an answer.

"We have two players sitting on our bench that I think will really help us," Portland said. "Jenny Brenden and Ashli Schwab will be great contributors when they get healthy, they're coming off knee injuries and I do think that it takes a whole year before you can be the person that we recruited to come to Penn State."

The atmosphere around the team is very optimistic regarding next season. With the loss of only two seniors (Rashana Barnes and Katrena Carr) and the core of the starting lineup coming back with more experience, the Lions feel they will be even better next season.

"I think a lot of things. Next year we are just looking to go a step further in everything," Wright said.

"Rene was talking about we came second in the Big Ten, came second in the tournament, we made it to the Sweet 16. I think next year we will be looking to go a step further in everything we do."