It holds no official weight. \nIt's just a projection. A projection that neglects IU's final seven regular season games and the ensuing Big Ten tournament.\nBut projection or not, important or not, coach Kathi Bennett is getting close to turning around the women's basketball program in one season.\nIn the first projection of the women's NCAA tournament conducted by the Ratings Percentage Index, a complex algorithm has placed IU in the field of 64 teams.\nBennett, still coaching, and not taking any gratitude in the projection, said the Hoosiers have a lot of work to do if they want to play in the NCAA national championship.\n"We had a goal to be playing in the postseason," said Bennett, who took over the team in March after IU failed to renew former coach Jim Izard's contract. "If we want to get there, we have to get better in certain areas."\nIU is projected as an 11th seed in the tournament by the RPI, which takes into account wins, losses and strength in schedule. Its index of teams is one of the resources the NCAA consults in selecting teams for its tournament.\nConference champions receive automatic bids in the tournament from the NCAA, which then awards 34 at-large slots to fill the field. The RPI correctly picked 31 of the 34 at-large teams from last year's tournament in its first year of projecting the field, said Jerry Palm, owner of Palm Sports Resources, Inc., the company that runs the RPI.\nLooking at the seeding, Palm predicts IU meeting Vanderbilt in the first round of the tournament in the Mideast bracket. The game will be played on the campus of Texas Tech, the Mideast's No. 3 seed, the RPI projects.\nPalm claims his projections are valid, although he concedes he cannot predict the outcome of the season. \n"Fifty-two of the 64 were within one seed of actual," Palm wrote on his Web site, www.collegerpi.com. "Not bad for a first try."\nThe Big Ten lists six teams in the tournament's first projection with Purdue leading the way as a No. 2 seed in the Mideast bracket. Other Big Ten teams include: Penn State, No. 3 (East); Wisconsin, No. 4 (Midwest); Iowa, No. 10 (Midwest); and Michigan, No. 10 (West).\nOnly the Big 12 has more teams in the first projection, with seven.
Freshman phenoms duking it out for scoring title\nFor never suiting up in a Big Ten conference game this season, Penn State's Kelly Mazzante and Minnesota's Lindsay Whalen look like polished veterans.\nAs the conference seasons hits the halfway mark, the two freshmen are 1-2 in scoring for the conference.\nMazzante is tops in the league, averaging 18.3 points a contest. This comes after not starting the Lady Lions' first three games. Mazzante is behind only Whalen in the conference scoring chase. Mazzante averages 19.1 points a Big Ten game.\nWhalen, who like Mazzante is a shooting guard, averages 19.3 a Big Ten game and 18.2 overall. The scoring race can't get much closer -- or younger.\n"I didn't expect anything like this to happen," Mazzante said of her profilic scoring in her first season. "My main focus coming in was to fit in and just be a part of this team."\nMazzante exploded in her last game, scoring 28 points while adding eight rebounds, six assists and seven steals in a blowout win agaisnt Michigan State.\n"Her statline against Michigan State was unbelievable," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "She's complete, and she works very, very hard at it. She may not just be freshman of the year, she's vying for First Team Big Ten right now."\nMazzante is playing mainly because of the preseason injury to PSU senior Chrissy Falcone.\nBut despite the forced playing time, Mazzante doesn't feel a burden to score.\n"I think our team has so many offensive threats that each game varies who scores," Mazzante said. "Day-by-day, game-by-game, who's going to score varies.\n"There's going to be days where my shooting isn't there. On those days, I need to be there to help my team with assists or steals or rebounds."\nWhalen was also thrust into the limelight early because of the youth of the Golden Gopher team. She has responded well, Minnesota coach Cheryl Littlejohn said.\n"Lindsay is really crafty with the ball," Littlejohn said. "She's a strong guard that can score -- she's very creative and can set her players up.\n"But I'm just most impressed with her ability to score against high-caliber competition"
