Forgive Purdue head coach Sharon Versyp for not being in the most chipper of moods.
Her No. 16 Boilermakers (21-5, 10-2 Big Ten) tripped -- or, perhaps more accurately, turned -- over a major chance to make a statement in the conference when they relinquished a 12-point halftime lead and lost at the buzzer at home to No. 24 Michigan State.
Versyp cited defensive errors and a struggling transition offense as major factors in the loss, which allowed the Spartans (19-6, 10-2) to even up with Purdue for second place in the Big Ten.
"We need to make sure that we finish well and be extremely focused," Versyp said yesterday. "We need to stop turning the ball over 20 times a game."
But the Boilermakers -- and other teams around the Big Ten -- must avoid slipping up off the court as well. Inclement weather has ravaged the conference's geography, and for teams like Purdue, which has three of its last four games away from home, traveling won't just be a violation on the hardwood.
Versyp, Indiana coach Felisha Leggette-Jack and Penn State coach Rene Portland all noted that the snow would complicate things away from home more so than usual.
However, Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie has avoided, or at least ignored, Old Man Winter's frigid touch. Her Spartans will travel to Columbus to clash with No. 4 Ohio State (23-1, 12-0) on Sunday in perhaps the biggest Big Ten test for both squads this season. McCallie is hoping her team can produce on both sides of the floor, as they proved they could do in the second half at Purdue.
"I think our team is very confident but I also think it has not always been able to focus and give the kind of intense effort that's needed," McCallie said. "That was just 20 minutes. Now we gotta learn to play the whole game."
Hoskins Hurtin'
Ohio State's quest to finish the conference schedule unblemished will be hampered by a season-ending injury to senior guard Brandie Hoskins, who ruptured the Achilles tendon in her left ankle for the second time in her career.
Hoskins is second on the team in scoring, first in assists, and third in rebounds.
Wisconsin coach Lisa Stone expressed her sympathies to Hoskins and admitted Ohio State doesn't appear as daunting without her manning the point.
The Badgers will travel to Columbus tomorrow, where junior guard Jolene Anderson, the Big Ten Player of the Week, will look to continue her hot streak against a depleted backcourt.
"Without Brandie, it's a different look. She's a leader, she's emotional, she pulls her team together," Stone said. "But when someone goes down, the team rises up, and that what Ohio State has done."
Outside shooting from sophomore UCLA transfer Ashlee Trebilcock and senior guard Stephanie Blanton has helped the Buckeyes in Hoskins' absence.
"The ability for everybody to sort of tweak their game a little bit and take one little aspect of what Brandie did for us and incorporate it into what they're doing, that's what you do with a situation like that," Ohio State head coach Jim Foster said. "We'll play a little bit differently, but I think we're still a pretty darn good basketball team."
Ohio State's opponents will still attempt to contain senior post Jessica Davenport, who has stepped her game up in Hoskins' stead. Davenport is nearly averaging a double-double, with 19.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest.
Quotable
Northwestern head coach Beth Combs, in relation to her team's 64-61 win against Penn State on Sunday, its first conference win in more than a year:
" 'Phew,' I guess, is our word of the week."
