As the snow piles up in East Lansing, warm air will welcome MSUs womens basketball team (3-3) today as they travel to Birmingham, Ala. to take on Samford University (2-4) at 7 p.m.
Theyll close off the weekend in Tuscaloosa, as they face unbeaten Alabama University (6-0) on Sunday before returning to East Lansing for finals week. The game will be aired live on ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. as part of the Big Ten/SEC Challenge.
The team is riding a roller coaster, coming off a surprising loss to Eastern Michigan on Sunday, 66-59 and a pounding of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 74-60, proving they could win without senior forward Becky Cummings.
Cummings injured her left foot by tearing her plantar fascia in the second half of the Eastern game, and is expected to sit out Friday and possibly Sunday.
McCallie said she was pleased with the teams performance without Cummings in the Wisconsin-Green Bay drubbing.
Were in a great situation to play well against many teams, and Becky being out maybe forces the issue, she said. The key is using that in a positive way and when she comes back, well work her in.
Senior center Erin Skelly replaced Cummings in the starting five Tuesday, and said filling the shoes of the teams leading scorer (14.2 ppg) and rebounder (7.13 rpg) was a team effort.
I just did what I had to do, she said. And kept in mind that you cant do too much. Everyone on the team gives more.
After the teams display of scrappiness in the Wisconson-Green Bay game, McCallie said they are getting closer to the style of play she hopes the team eventually nails.
Whats been difficult is that were not playing forty minutes of basketball, she said. Were not diving for balls, not playing blue-collar and thats really the thing thats hard to handle.