Ask senior guard Christie Pung if Big Ten women’s basketball games are physical, and she might mention the black eye she had two weeks ago.

Or the one she had before that. Or her sprained ankle. Or her bandaged knee.

“All of my injuries came from games,” she said. “The Big Ten is known for being a really physical conference.”

That rough quality of play has head coach Joanne P. McCallie following a trend that schools like powerhouse Tennessee set everyday at practice - it’s guys versus girls.

The men, all MSU freshmen, come to every women’s practice with their high school basketball experience and the desire to help the women improve.

And their quickness, height, strength and ability to learn opposing teams’ plays sometimes makes beating them harder than winning conference games.

“I always say to my players, ‘If you can stop these guys you can stop anybody,’” McCallie said. “Because these guys are quicker than anyone we’re going to play and they’re stronger than anyone we’re going to play.”

Although the MSU team has practiced with guys in the past, McCallie brought her approach from her former head coaching job at Maine. There, she led her team to six NCAA tournament appearances and said that may have been a direct result of practicing with the boys.

“I attribute the year we beat Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament to practicing against guys,” she said. “They can stimulate their whole game plan.”

Each week, the coaching staff teaches the scouts the offensive and defensive styles of upcoming opponents. During practice, the men run those plays to prepare the women for real game situations.

That means each week they must rethink their game and fine tune it to fit the newest needs of the team. But Jason Hawkins, a freshman political-science and pre-law major,said it isn’t too difficult.

“Sometimes when we have two games in one week, it’s difficult,” he said. “We’re not going to be able to duplicate an offense a team’s been running all year in 20 minutes. But we get the basics.”

At practice, the scouts wear matching MSU apparel they received for helping out the team. They look like part of the team - and in many ways, they are, McCallie said.

“It’s very competitive,” she said. “But we really do appreciate them. They come to the banquet at the end of the year and we try and get together for pizza or something from time to time.”

Now that the team is in the middle of a nine-game funk, Hawkins said it is clear to the guys that they aren’t the same team they were at the beginning of the slide.

“You can see two different teams,” he said. “In practice they’ve really been pushing themselves. Their spirits seem to be more up now.”

And the women seem to think the guys have something to do with it.

“It’s very difficult for an opponent to be as quick and fast as the guys here are,” senior forward Becky Cummings said. “It really shows us how to box out on defense, and step up our offense, too. And it does help you prepare for the Big Ten - you do take a beating out there.”

So who usually wins when it’s guys versus girls?

“It all depends,” Pung said with a smile. “It depends if we feel like taking care of the ball.”