Scouting for the upcoming game against Minnesota, it may seem as if the Penn State women's basketball team is looking in the mirror.

Like the Lady Lions, with four of their top five scorers playing in the backcourt, the Golden Gophers (11-7, 3-2 Big Ten) may prove to be an extremely balanced matchup for Penn State.

When the two teams take the floor of the Williams Arena at 3 p.m. Sunday, a close contest should be guaranteed.

But, as the Lady Lions' (9-10, 2-4 Big Ten) season has demonstrated so far, things almost never turn out as they appear.

"Minnesota, this year, is very guard-oriented," assistant coach Annie Troyan said. "A lot of trapping, the guards have good speed. They can all put it on the floor and score."

Minnesota's only senior, guard Kelly Roysland, paces the squad with 14.8 points per game.

Penn State has gotten added production in the backcourt from Kam Gissendanner (18.0 ppg; 6.2 more than her season average) and Tyra Grant (13.0 ppg, 1.0 more) since Adrienne Squire left the Lady Lions for unspecified reasons in late December.

Though most of the buckets will come from outside the paint, Penn State center Amanda Brown, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week, will have her hands full underneath the basket with Minnesota freshman Ashley Ellis-Milan.

Ellis-Milan is second on the squad in scoring and leads the team with 8.3 rebounds per game, including 3.5 offensive rebounds, which also leads the team.

Minnesota averages a Big Ten-leading 17.7 offensive rebounds.

"The No. 1 thing that they are doing well is offensive rebounding," Troyan said. "We cannot afford to allow them to get 18 offensive rebounds in their own gym, because we know how loud it's going to be."

Williams Arena packs in an average of 5,828 fans -- good for third in the conference -- and is where Minnesota boasts an 8-3 home record. The noise will provide an added barrier for the Lady Lions, a team that has also hung with the cream of the Big Ten (Ohio State) when it plays at the Bryce Jordan Center (8-1 record) but fades miserably away from State College.

It has left the Penn State coaching staff searching for something, anything, to shake up the status quo.

"From the coaching standpoint, we are trying different things," Troyan said. "In shoot-arounds, we've changed things up. In player personnel, we've changed things up when we're on the road. When we're on the road, we try to eat at different times. We've tried a whole slew of different things.

But what we haven't done is made it an emphasis where we're sitting there saying, 'We're changing because of this.' [The players] understand."

Notes: Luckily for the Lady Lions, none of the players have shown symptoms of the flu that has plagued the coaching staff for more than a week. Head coach Rene Portland and assistant Susan Robinson-Fruchtl were sick, and Troyan is beginning to feel ill.

"We're staying away from [the players]," Troyan said.

"Knock on wood, none of them have it right now."