Penn State comes into this year's Big Ten Tournament as the favorite but leaving with the title is not going to be easy.

This year's tournament begins today in Indianapolis, and the Lady Lions are the No. 1 seed, but March Madness usually brings upsets and the unexpected.

The Lions enter Indy confident after they wrapped up the regular season by hoisting the Big Ten trophy following Sunday's win.

"I think it's all starting to piece together for them and now we have to put that behind us," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "Leave the trophy upstairs and see if you can go get the next one."

That next step will come away from home, where the Lions have struggled, to say the least, all season.

With a record of 9-7 away from Happy Valley, the Lions will enter play tomorrow with a chip on their shoulders. They need to prove they can play on the road if they intend on going deep in the NCAA tournament.

The Lions are also looking to prove to the selection committee that they deserve a top seed in the NCAA tournament, possibly a No. 2. Winning this weekend could go a long way toward helping their cause and giving the team high morale before the NCAA's.

"There's so much more . . . now it's time to put that in our back pocket and go into the Big Ten tournament with a record of zero and zero," Big Ten Player of the Year Kelly Mazzante said. "The next three games are going to be important, we understand how important it is to have another week of practice, and I can feel how everyone's really focused and ready to attack our next goal."

That goal is not going to be easy, having to play three games in four days if everything goes according to plan. However, the Lions have one major advantage this year in that the three teams that beat them during the regular season cannot meet the Lions until the finals.

This appears to give the Lions an easy road to the finals, where they could very well meet the winner of the potential No. 2 vs. No. 3 matchup between Purdue and Minnesota. Both of these teams defeated the Lions on their respective home courts, but have to worry about getting through each before concerning themselves with the Lions.

No matter who is matched up against whom, this is the Big Ten tournament, which means that everything teams have worked for all season is on the line.

"Everyone comes together with the same goal in mind," Mazzante said. "It really is three games ... and I think the intensity is much higher, and the focus of every team that comes into the tournament is a step up."

Who is going to step up remains to be seen, but judging by last year's winner anything can happen.

Indiana went into the tournament as the No. 5 seed, got hot and ran the table to an automatic birth in the big dance.

Teams like Penn State and Purdue hope this does not repeat, but this is March and anything can happen.