Nothing would be sweet about a trip to the round of 16 for this year's Penn State women's basketball team.
And if anyone has any doubts about that, they can just ask Lady Lion guard Kelly Mazzzante if a Sweet 16 birth would be acceptable for the 2003-04 Penn State squad.
"No. Absolutely not. No." she said, shaking her head emphatically.
The Lions have been to the Sweet 16 before -- the last two years.
Both of those years the Lions ran into a No. 1-seeded powerhouse, coming up short of an Elite Eight or Final Four appearance by losing to powerhouses Connecticut -- the eventual national champion -- in 2002 and Tennessee in 2003.
The players and Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland made it clear yesterday at the team's media day that they were hoping to break into the top tier of women's college basketball and a Final Four appearance would be the way to do it.
"The Sweet 16 is an old height. We already accomplished that. We want to get further than that," Lions' junior guard Tanisha Wright said.
Coming up short last year was especially painful for the players. The Lions ended their season by getting dominated on both ends of the floor by a more physical Tennessee team.
"We got beat and beat pretty bad," Lions' junior point guard Jess Strom said. "This year we're trying to get that far and go further. We're just talking final four."
Put to the test against the best
For a squad that is looking to book a trip to New Orleans in April, the non-conference schedule will be the early litmus test for the women.
"[The schedule] opens with LSU and we come right back and have Texas," Portland said. "They know they are playing six of the top 20 teams in the country early. But I think that's the schedule we want to play."
The slate also includes Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech, and North Carolina all before the end of the calendar year and the commencement of conference play. And that is how the players like it.
"Who wants to play against the little people?" Wright said. "Everyone wants to play against the best. That's how you measure yourself."
They won't protect this house
At least, not during tournament time.
Though this team has had its problems in the third phase of the tournament, the first two rounds in the last two years were always just so easy: at home in a Bryce Jordan Center packed with Blue and White fans and playing against teams who were, if not outmatched, far from home.
This year it won't be like that because this year Penn State was not chosen as a pre-determined site for the women's NCAA tournament.
The NCAA decreased the amount of pre-determined sites -- from eight to 16 -- in the first round of the tournament, and Penn State was, apparently, squeezed out in the process.
"[The NCAA] said, 'If you do a good job putting fans in the stands then you got a pre-determined site,' " Portland said. "The criteria changed and attendance wasn't the factor and that's the one we were sold on."
Far from final for four
While the Lady Lions are returning the core of last year's sweet sixteen team, with all five starters back, four new players will also be looking to fit into the team's game.
"I don't know if I'd like to be a freshman on this team," Portland said. "They are trying to break into a team that's accomplished so much."
But that does not mean that Portland will hesitate to play the newcomers if they fight their way up the ladder. Of the four, Portland has been most impressed with post player Amanda Brown's performance in the preseason workouts. Brown could potentially bring a more dominant post presence to the floor, an area in which the team struggled last year.
"Jess Strom comes up to me and says, 'Rene, [Brown] is really good,' " Portland said. "I told her, 'I know.' And she says, 'No, Rene. She's really, really good.' I said, 'I know, I recruited her.' "
Portland also said that guard Jen Harris could see time early. Center Reicina Russell -- who at 6-foot-6 claims she can dunk -- and forward Rochelle Johnson will also suit up for the team.
