It's the first thing a coach and a player do when they receive the next season's schedule. They look for those stretches of tough games, key match-ups, the series that either make you groan or make you salivate.

The next four games for the Penn State women's basketball team is one of those periods, and the Lady Lions are hungry.

No. 24 Purdue comes into the Bryce Jordan Center tomorrow night, for what has become one of the more interesting rivalries in women's basketball.

"This is a game where everything goes out the window," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said.

Penn State and Purdue battled three times last season -- two Lady Lions victories during the regular season, but one bitter loss to the Boilermakers in the championship game of the Big Ten Conference Tournament in Indianapolis.

"We said to one of the freshman [Adrienne Squire], 'You don't understand Purdue-Penn State,' and she said, 'Oh, yes I do, I was there last year,' " Portland said. "We're lucky they were in the stands last year because I know our players feel like something was taken away from them last year."

The Big Ten title has cycled between the Boilermakers and the Lady Lions enough in recent years to make a freshman's head spin -- the reason tomorrow's game was earmarked early on this year's schedule.

No. 8 Michigan State comes into town on Sunday, right now just one spot behind the conference leading Lady Lions in the Big Ten standings at 4-1. The Lady Lions are 5-0 in conference. Prior to the start of that game, Portland will be honored in a small ceremony as part of "Rene Sunday," commemorating Portland's 25 years as head coach of the Lady Lions. No commemoration would be without its free giveaways -- the first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a "commemorative medallion."

"I don't know if there's going to be much of a ceremony. I mean, we have a game to play here," Portland said. "I think the players value it, past, present and future. We had a good number of kids come back for the alumni game that we had earlier. And, the cards and letters we got a few weeks ago [when Portland was on a medical leave of absence] made a young-old coach feel good about the time she spent with them."

The Lady Lions then pack their bags for Evanston, Ill., to take on Northwestern before returning back to State College for the scariest game of this four game stretch: No. 12 Minnesota.

The Golden Gophers have been fighting the Penn State-Purdue hegemony in the Big Ten the last few seasons behind Lindsay Whalen, now a WNBA star. Current standout Janel McCarville is getting all kinds of national attention this year, like best post player in the country kind of attention.

"[Purdue's starting point guard Sharika] Webb got nailed in the Minnesota game by the death-wish pick of McCarville, and that's a pick we should look at and say it's dangerous," Portland said, about Webb's injury, which resulted from a Minnesota set play. "It's just dangerous, and everyone in the league has gotten hit by that and now it's a great point why we don't look at that pick and make it illegal in the game. If it was in a football game, they would make it illegal, and they have pads on."