Hoosiers earn automatic NCAA bid after Penn State upset

INDIANAPOLIS -- Before the beginning of the Big Ten women's basketball tournament Thursday, the Hoosiers postseason future was already determined -- there wasn't one. \nBut a run to the tournament's championship game -- the first time in the school's history and the first No. 5 seed to do so -- and a win against No. 1 Purdue in the semifinal and a three-point win versus No. 2 Penn State in the championship changes the plans. \nThose plans include a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1994-95 season and the fourth time in the program's history. \nSo what do the Hoosiers do now? \nThey celebrate.\nAfter that, they get back to work in anticipation of where the tournament selection committee will send them. IU coach Kathi Bennett and the coaching staff hopes for a No. 8 or 9 seed. But no matter where IU is placed, the Hoosiers will be on the road. The team is taking the day off tomorrow and will begin preparing for its postseason run Wednesday.\nAs for Penn State, they go back to State College, Pa. "comfortable," coach Rene Portland said. The Nittany Lions were guaranteed a bid in the NCAA's going into the four-day tournament, something that wasn't promised to the Hoosiers. \n"We're hoping that the committee will make a good decision and not send us to Louisiana Tech," Portland said. "We are 21-11, and we made it to the finals, and we are the No. 2 team in our conference. We should hope that Purdue and us would be the two teams to get the home seeds."\nBut with IU's win comes the opportunity for the Hoosiers to play the role of spoiler. Because IU gets the automatic bid into the tournament, at-large bids will likely be awarded to Purdue and Penn State, leaving very little room for teams such as Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.\n"It's a question mark," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of the Hawkeye's NCAA tournament hopes after their overtime loss to IU Friday. "I would hope that (the selection committee) would still take us as the fourth seed in the Big Ten. I would hope that they would still do that and not base it on one overtime game like this." \nPurdue's situation is one that eerily resembles the one they faced last year. The Boilermakers were defeated by Iowa in the championship game. After the loss, they made a run to the NCAA championship game before falling to Notre Dame. \nPurdue coach Kristy Curry uses that as a guiding light in the team's dark moment of losing to IU. She's hoping for a similar result from 2001. \n"We have one more game to play," Curry said. "Every time we lace up our sneakers, our goal is to get to the Final Four."\nFor now, that is of no concern to the Hoosiers. They are going to the NCAA tournament regardless. But don't get IU wrong; they are looking for more success in the continued role as the underdogs. The Hoosiers made it clear after last night's contest that an appearance just won't do. \n"I know that some people have been saying it's the seniors, and they've been separating us, but there is no separation," senior forward Erin McGinnis said, "It's the whole team together, all as one"