Before the Penn State women's basketball team started its season a few weeks ago, the players and coaching staff emphasized that if the Lady Lions were to remain in the upper echelon of the NCAA this season, each and every player on the roster would have to be ready to make a significant contribution on the offensive end.

Head coach Rene Portland knew before the season started that senior Tanisha Wright would have to shoulder a large portion of the scoring responsibilities, but said that she was counting on other players like Jess Strom, Amanda Brown and Jen Harris to help out.

But three games, and three losses, into the season, with Wright taking shots at a rate that would make Kobe Bryant blush, it seems that this year's offense is amazingly close to the one the Lady Lions ran last year, only featuring Wright playing the role of Kelly Mazzante.

Though Strom has played well, less than a week into the season it has become abundantly clear that as goes Tanisha, so go the Lady Lions.

If Penn State is N'Sync, Wright is Justin Timberlake. If it is the Rat Pack, she is Frank Sinatra. The Lady Lion's have become Tanisha Wright's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

While Wright shooting 20-plus times a game and scoring 26 points against the Dutch national team was enough for the victory, Wright has averaged 22 points a game and 20 shots a game in the Lady Lions' three games, all Penn State losses to top-25 competition.

Wright has led by example for her entire Penn State career, but even she recognizes that she cannot be the sole offensive threat if the Lady Lions have a chance of winning their third straight Big Ten championship.

"Offensively we're going to have to win games by everyone contributing," Wright said. "It can't just be one or two people, it has to be everyone on that court. Everyone on that court has to be a threat offensively."

But for Wright to be able to spread the shots and scoring, Penn State's other players need to be more consistent game-in and game-out.

Sophomore guard Jen Harris scored a career-high 17 points in Friday night's loss to Duke, only to score four in 22 minutes yesterday.

Similarly, Ashli Schwab scored 20 points and snatched eight rebounds against the Wildcats, but averaged only 3.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 27 minutes in two games against Texas and Duke.

Following yesterday's loss, a frustrated Portland said that the Lady Lions have some soul searching to do, but defended Wright's shot selection.

"Tanisha is an All-American, and All-Americans play great defense and great offense," said Portland. "She needs to take a lot of shots and she needs to do that because she can't sit on the great talent she has."