Donning glasses, rummaging through her navy bookbag, Rene Portland pulled out the latest assigned reading.

It would have been easy to mistake the Penn State women's basketball coach for a professor had it not been for the warmup suit with "Penn State basketball" in white embroidery across the upper left-hand corner of the nylon jacket.

"This is what they get before Thursday's game," she said flipping through the pages of notes she was set to deliver to the team later in the afternoon for the game against Indiana.

She was not done there.

"And they'll get this one for Sunday's game," pulling out a second packet already prepared for a game against Illinois.

The inch-thick packets dedicated to analyzing the upcoming games have not always been embraced wholeheartedly by the young 'uns.

The older players have long since acknowledged the importance of being students of the game, but the newcomers have only started to stumble upon that realization, which is important if they want to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

"I'm starting to enjoy it more, I guess," freshman point guard Brianne O'Rourke said with a smile, to which Portland mustered a laugh.

Portland said it's not that the team doesn't have the will to prepare. It just has no idea how to do so. O'Rourke attested to as much. Freshmen go to the next level having watched virtually no film before they arrive on campus. Preparation starts and ends on the high school gymnasium floor.

Portland has tried to convey to the young team that basketball is like any other class. Reading and film and watching game footage is required outside of the Bryce Jordan Center.

"The willingness to prepare for a young team is always the hardest thing to do," she said. "I don't think they understand that this is another textbook in their book bag that they have to study."

The role as Professor Portland does not end there.

Yesterday she unveiled the newest visual aide: a bracket board showing the possible seedings for the Big Ten Tournament. It attempts to diagram possible outcomes of where the Lady Lions fit into the greater postseason picture.

It attempts to predict where each of the other 10 teams in the conference will finish.

It could aptly be called "Bracketology 101." A largely theoretical class, the goal is to show the Lady Lions how important it to finish strong to earn a decent seed for the Big Ten Tournament so that they can accomplish their season-long goal -- qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

Portland recognizes that Penn State won't be an at-large invite as it has traditionally been in the past. Rather, it must win the conference tournament in Indianapolis to qualify for the postseason.

"That has to be our number one concern," Portland said. "We'll show who you get if you get the first night off. Who you have to play if you get to this spot, who you'll play if we get ourselves to this spot."

The spot they are at right now is not where they want to be three weeks from now. Tied for seventh with Illinois, they are two games back of the upper half of the Big Ten with five to play.

Unless the Lady Lions start scouring the bags for the answers that the book bag contains, it's going to be difficult for them to improve much on their seeding and a case study for too little too late.