As Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland made herself comfortable at Tuesday's press conference, she asked the most fitting question.

"No Tanisha and Jess. What are you gonna do?" she said of last season's graduated captains, Tanisha Wright and Jess Strom, while sitting alongside this year's captains, Amanda Brown and Kamela Gissendanner.

The answer will come at 8 p.m., when unranked Penn State hosts No. 1 Duke and again at 2 p.m. Sunday, when Villanova comes to the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Student Stonewall Coalition has said it will protest Friday and possibly Sunday in response to allegations that former Penn State basketball player Jen Harris was dismissed because she was perceived to be a lesbian.

Preferring not to focus on off-the-court matters, Portland has attempted to resolve the question of how she will replace Strom and Wright, two of the best guards in the country last year.

The response appears to be freshman point guard Brianne O'Rourke and shooting guard Mashea Williams. The Strom-Wright tandem combined en route to an NCAA berth a year ago, success the team hopes to duplicate with this year's duo. "She's done a really nice job," Portland said of O'Rourke. "She's running a lot of the mixtures of things. She's running our transition equally balanced instead of picking her favorite and just running one of them all the time.

"Mashea is going to be a go-to for us. She really is. She really is an exciting player to watch," Portland added.

Defensively, the freshmen will begin their collegiate careers against arguably the best guard in the country, Duke's Monique Currie. A preseason player of the year candidate for multiple awards, Currie is complemented on the outside by Jessica Foley, the Blue Devils' record holder for 3-pointers in a season, a mark she set last year.

To lessen the burden on the guards, at least on offense, Portland has emphasized the need to balance the traditionally guard-based philosophy. Brown, a junior forward, will attempt to ease the workload by expanding her role from a rebounder into a scorer as well.

"In the past, we've had All-American guards and players that obviously deserved the ball and obviously were going to score for us," Brown said.

"This year, it's going to be more like Rene said, more of a balanced game."

Gissendanner, a co-captain who has never played a game as a Lady Lion, was also asked to bring her defensive tenacity to the offense for the sake of balance.

"Everybody says, 'You know, we want her to be the defensive stopper,' and a few weeks ago, I said, 'Forget her defense,' " Portland said. "I need offense, and she knows she has the green light."

Against the top-ranked Blue Devils, Brown and Gissendanner will be pitted against Mistie Williams and Alison Bales. Williams is an All-American candidate, and Bales is a 6-foot-7-inch center who led the Atlantic Coast Conference in blocks last year.

"The two of them are really, really good. Let's not underplay them," Portland said. "Mistie Williams, last year, we were winning a large part through the Duke game at Duke last year, then she just did the wide-bodied act in the lane with her hands spread eagle calling for the ball. I mean, there's nothing you can do."

Duke's advantage on both ends of the floor leaves Portland looking for ways to expose the Blue Devils.

"We're going to do a chess game and change up things and see what we can do to equalize all of that," she said.

With four new starters, the Lady Lions are just looking to answer all those questions, hoping to see if balance can work and if the freshmen can hold down the perimeter.

"There's only so much we can do to prepare for Duke," Portland said. "You can have an idea, but you're not going to be able to master it because they're so very, very talented. So the thing we do well is going to be what helps us the most."