While she was doing a radio interview that same morning, Merchant had witnessed a female fan fall down in front of the stadium and bleed profusely from her head.

“I’m like ’Are you kidding me with that?’” Merchant said. “I believe it has to be me at this point. When I got done I went over there, and I didn’t have any band aids, but I probably could’ve butterflied (bandaged) that thing up.”

Sophomore center Madison Williams and freshman guard Aerial Powers both are out for the year due to injuries, and Merchant said last week was surgery week for the pair.

“Aerial had hers on Thursday and Maddie had hers on Friday,” Merchant said. “Maddie’s went really well, they ended up doing a little bit more in there. … It’s going to put her on crutches for the next six weeks, which was not anticipated, but given the timetable we have, we really need to do what we need to do to get her healthy.”

With Maryland and Rutgers now slated to join the Big Ten in 2014, Merchant said the teams will provide the Spartans with even more of a challenge going forward, and that she has mad respect for both of their coaches.

“It’s exciting to see that kind of quality of programs come into our league, and it only benefits the Big Ten,” she said.

“(Maryland head coach Brenda Frese) does an amazing job on the recruiting fronts and obviously won a national championship there (in 2006). What can you say about (Rutgers head coach) C. Vivian Stringer, she’s one of the best coaches in the country.

“One of the true matriarchs of our sport, and has a lot of respect from (coaches) with the things shes endured over her career.”

Not to be lost in the shuffle, the Spartans take on Albany at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Breslin Center, and Merchant said it is going to be an interesting matchup.

“We’re looking forward to it,” she said. “It’s a team that really gets after you in the backcourt and has a lot of different versions of a press defense, so we’re going to have to be at our best, there’s no question about that.”