On Jan. 22, hope began to blossom where many thought there was no suitable soil. It was the day that the Penn State women's basketball team began to move in the right direction after a 1-5 start in Big Ten play. It was the day that the Lady Lions were back with a resounding win against ... Northwestern?

While Sunday's 43-point victory in Evanston, Ill., does sound impressive on paper, it's by no means a drastic turnaround for Penn State. The fact that Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland described the game against the Wildcats as a "must win" at this point in the season speaks volumes about the state of her program.

Northwestern is not a "must win." It's more of a "If-we-don't-win-this game, holy-crap-we're-in a-lot-of-trouble win."

Northwestern might as well have "Welcome" stamped on it because it's perennially stuck as the doormat of the Big Ten. Including this season, Northwestern has a 10-42 record in conference games in the past four-plus seasons and has not finished higher than next to last in the Big Ten in those years. One of those wins came last year against Penn State.

Just looking at the statistics from the game, Penn State clearly dominated Northwestern in nearly every category, and that's what should happen. The Lady Lions should not lose to Northwestern, and a win against the Wildcats is no cause for celebration.

Nevertheless, it's still true that a win is a win, and, no doubt, Penn State needed one badly.

Whether it be permanent or merely temporary, Penn State is a program in disarray. The fallout started on March 20, 2004, when No. 4-seeded Penn State lost to No. 13- seeded Liberty in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Following the loss, Portland informed three members of the team that they would not return next year.

One of those players, Jen Harris, filed suit against Portland, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and Penn State in a Pennsylvania federal district court on Dec. 21, claiming that Portland discriminated against her on the basis of gender, race and sexual orientation.

With that said, Portland is not only potentially facing her first losing season of her career -- and if the first half of conference play is any indication, it will be -- she's also staring down a lawsuit.

All distractions aside, the season is panning out the way it was expected. With no seniors on the team and four freshmen expected to contribute early, many believed Penn State would be near the bottom.

To be successful, Portland knew her team had to "steal on the road." However, with a 3-5 road record, Portland's Eleven hasn't shown quite the knack for thievery that Danny Ocean's did.

To really add to the disappointing season, Penn State is hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Watching another team defend your court in the postseason is one of the most disheartening aspects in any sport.

Some speculation says if the Lady Lions squeak out a winning record, the NCAA Selection Committee may go a bit easy on them to draw more fans, but the speculation is just that.

During a Dec. 5 site inspection of the Bryce Jordan Center, NCAA Vice President for Division I women's basketball Sue Donohoe said even though Penn State is hosting a portion of the tournament, it's about seeing playoff basketball, not just Penn State.

"You've got to sell this event as an event," she said. "You can't have an interest in it just whether Penn State's going to be in it or not. Certainly, hopefully they will be, but in the middle of March, the people from central Pennsylvania are going to have a chance to see two great days of basketball, first and second rounds. Folks need to have in interest in it whether Penn State's in it or not."

The negatives multiply faster than rabbits.

At this point, with everything that has happened, a win against Northwestern is just about as good as a SpongeBob SquarePants Band-Aid. It's not enough to stop all the bleeding.