After the dust settled on the Big Ten regular season, the No. 25 MSU women's basketball team tied with Iowa for fourth place in the conference, receiving the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten tournament.
The Spartans (20-7 overall, 10-6 Big Ten) get to face No. 4-seeded Iowa (16-11, 10-6) today in Indianapolis at Conseco Fieldhouse in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie wants her team to be ready, especially on defense.
"We need to be focused on what we need to do defensively," McCallie said. "Iowa is an offensive juggernaut."
The only other time the two teams met this season, Iowa won, 78-67, at Breslin Center. In that game, the Hawkeyes and Spartans were tied, 67-67, with two minutes left in the game.
Iowa went on an 11-0 run to finish the game, led by guard Kristi Faulkner and forward Jennie Lillis. The two combined for 10 of the final 11 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line.
The 78 points scored on MSU were the most any team has scored on the Spartans all season and caused McCallie to apologize for the way her defense played after the game. The Spartans finished the regular season 0-3 when allowing their opponent to score 70 or more points, losing to Purdue (77) and Ohio State (72) both at home as well.
"It's definitely going to be a battle," sophomore guard Lindsay Bowen said. "We just have to come out and play as a team, which is something we haven't been doing real well lately."
At the weekly Big Ten teleconference, McCallie described experience, age and tradition as key factors in how well teams do in the Big Ten tournament. With five freshmen, MSU is the eighth-youngest team in the country and has a 4-9 record all-time at the Big Ten tournament. McCallie said she hopes the all-time losing record isn't a factor in this year's tournament.
McCallie knows it will be tough to win the tournament title and said she has concerns about her young team and its tournament mentality.
"My concerns are a lack of focus and a lack of leadership, which we have shown in some of our recent games," McCallie said. "When you don't have seniors and don't have tradition, you have to be tough and fight for things.
"I want our fight to be there."
But history is not on MSU's side, as the No. 5 seed is 7-8 all-time in the tournament. MSU has been the No. 5 seed three times before, but has yet to win - the team is 0-3 as the No. 5 seed.
This season, the Spartans will look to repeat Indiana's efforts two seasons ago, when the Hoosiers won the tournament title as the No. 5 seed.
