In Big Ten women's basketball, it's not just any given Sunday, it's any given Thursday, too.

When it comes to conference play, many coaches agree any team can beat any team on any given night, as evidenced by conference leader Purdue's overtime loss to Iowa less than two weeks ago.

"Night in and night out you have to be ready to play," Purdue women's basketball coach Kristy Curry said after a Feb. 5 game against Penn State. "Everyone's home floor is pretty difficult to win on the road in this league. Always has been, always will be."

While the Big Ten has continued its competitive reputation this year, the conference does have one noticeable difference -- Penn State isn't near the top.

In quite the contrast, the Lady Lions (11-13, 5-8 Big Ten), who from 1998-2005 never finished below fourth in the conference, are mired in 7th place with three games to go.

Northwestern women's basketball coach Beth Combs said it's strange to glance at the standings and see Penn State nowhere close to the top, especially after the Lady Lions' 98-41 thrashing of Northwestern earlier this year.

"It is," Combs said. "They really took care of us. I'm going to take some credit that we started their winning streak. You can't count a team like Penn State out."

With the Northwestern win and another against Iowa at home, Penn State did string together a modest two-game winning streak, but, since then, the conference parity began to turn on the Lady Lions.

Penn State lost to No. 11 Minnesota before struggling to beat a Michigan squad that's winless in the Big Ten so far in a game that was much closer than the score indicated.

After that, then-No. 8 Purdue beat Penn State in the Bryce Jordan Center for the first time since 1999.

Last Thursday, the conference woes continued for the Lady Lions, as they lost to Indiana for the second time this season. Before this year, Penn State had a 23-3 all-time record against the Hoosiers.

While Portland isn't having her traditional season, she has kept a young team competitive through tough stretches. Freshman Brianne O'Rourke leads the Big Ten in assists and is a frontrunner for the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award. Fellow freshman guard Mashea Williams has shown flashes of defensive prowess comparable to former Lady Lion defensive specialist Tanisha Wright. Williams had five steals, a career-high, in Sunday's win against Illinois.

Even though Portland insists there are no "moral victories" in a losing season, other coaches see it differently.

"It's unusual for Penn State right now," Indiana women's basketball coach Sharon Versyp said. "They've got a lot of young kids, but those kids are starting to step up and play great basketball. For them, they'd think they have a down year, but I think they're playing great basketball."

Currently, the Big Ten has three distinct levels. Purdue and No. 7 Ohio State are the class of the conference, each with one conference loss While the two are knotted together now, the Big Ten should be decided on Feb. 23, when the conference leaders meet. Purdue edged out Ohio State 61-59 in the first meeting this year.

Next is a chaotic middle featuring Minnesota, Michigan State, Indiana and Iowa. All four teams have a winning record in the Big Ten, but have been inconsistent (see Iowa and Indiana) or have not been able to pull off a win against one of the conference aristocrats (see Michigan State and Minnesota).

And then there's Penn State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Michigan, teams that are struggling just to reach .500 in the conference or even win a game.

But Combs says despite records, any team can still make noise, citing Wisconsin as a team that could cause some damage late in the season.

"It's anybody's guess who's going to end up winning our conference tournament," she said.

Right now, not even the Big Ten is making predictions.

"Each season, the Big Ten is one of the top women's basketball conferences in the nation when it comes to regular and postseason success, as well as ranking among the nation's best in attendance," Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament Director Wendy Fallen said in an e-mail message. "This year is certainly no different, as we are enjoying a very competitive conference season and anxiously awaiting to see how it unfolds in both the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments."

The Big Ten season aside, Versyp believes it's possible to get as many as six Big Ten teams into the NCAA Tournament, a strong showing for any conference. The only problem is the conference may be too competitive to achieve that number.

"Hopefully, it's not to the point where we hurt each other too much playing against each other," Versyp said.

If the teams stuck in the middle continue to split wins, there's a good possibility Versyp's words may be true by the end of the season. But, with the way the whole season has been going, that's a prediction that will have to wait until all the Thursdays and Sundays have passed.

"Bottom line is," Versyp said, "you never know what each night is going to bring."