Adrian Peterson, Dwight Howard, Sebastian Telfair -- youth is in right now.

Slowly but surely, the world of NCAA women's basketball is mirroring the rest of collegiate athletics with younger players contributing more and more.

The Penn State women's basketball team is counting on its freshmen class to add support and depth to a team installing a new, high-tempo offense.

"I think women's basketball is at the point where freshmen can come in and contribute right away," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said.

The Nittany Lions have five fresh faces this year, and four are freshmen. Sophomore guard Kamela Gissendanner, an offseason transfer from North Carolina State who is a Pennsylvania native, will redshirt this season.

The four true freshmen are all four very different players, filling in at four different positions.

"We're looking for depth. We're looking for people to come in anywhere," sophomore guard Jen Harris said. "We have a shooter, a point guard and a slasher."

Not to mention a post-player -- freshman Romana Vynuchalova -- now the tallest of the Lions on the court.

In a practice scrimmage yesterday, freshman guard Adrienne Squire was quickly thrown into the action, and it was pretty obvious how she's going to make a name for herself.

"Adrienne -- her shooting ability is nice," fellow freshman Amber Bland said.

Squire's biggest threat was the quick jump shot, especially off of set screens from Ashli Schwab in the half-court set.

Bland said she's the speedy slasher.

"We have to be the track team on the court, basically," Bland said, referring to herself and fellow freshman guard Lisa Etienne. "Extremely fast. You know, we're young, so we bring a little excitement to the team."

Etienne is the ball handler of the class, and has begun to learn the intricacies of the Lions offense under senior point guard Jess Strom.

Learning a new offense is tough, but having to adapt to the level of intensity in collegiate play at the same time makes it that much more difficult.

"It's hard," Strom said. "I know it's especially hard for Lisa because there's so many things she has to know. There's so many plays and little things you have to know. They'll learn. They'll be fine."

The Lions are confident the freshmen will be ready to go for the opening game against Texas in just a week and a half.

For Portland's team, the freshmen will be adding depth to the bench, earning valuable time on the court while giving the starters a chance to rest and regroup.

"I do think they're quite capable of coming off the bench and contributing, giving us minutes, and then growing," Portland said.

That growth will determine what kind of factor these freshmen will be.

Brown is back in town

Sophomore forward Amanda Brown is back in action this week, after being diagnosed and tested for mononucleosis. Brown's return is a fast one, and she is nearly at full strength.

"Pretty close to it," Brown said. "Just about at 100 percent, so I should be back and ready to go."