Although Taylor Alton’s MSU women’s basketball career is done, the senior guard will don her Spartan jersey at least one more time March 29 as a participant in the 2012 State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships.

Alton will be participating in the 3-point shooting portion of the evening’s festivities, which will be aired on ESPN at 9 p.m. Finisher her career eighth all-time at MSU in made 3-point field goals (116) and fourth in 3-point percentage (35.6 percent), Alton is the first Spartan to compete in the 3-point contest since Lindsay Bowen, who won it in 2006.

With 64 3-pointers this season, Alton led MSU and was fifth in the Big Ten. She also shot 36.6 percent from long range to lead the Spartans.

College Park, Md. — There weren’t many bright spots during the No. 10-seed MSU women’s basketball team’s (20-12) 67-55 loss to No. 7-seed Louisville (23-9) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, but one of them was the play of freshman center Jasmine Hines.

It’s been a roller coaster first season for the 2011 Michigan Miss Basketball winner, who was thrust into the rotation after redshirt freshman center Madison Williams suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, at the beginning of the season.

After big games against Indiana and Michigan early in the conference season, Hines saw her playing time dwindle in favor of fellow freshman center and roommate Becca Mills.

But the past three games, Hines has received more minutes and took advantage of the opportunity, finishing today’s game with eight points and five rebounds and was the only Spartan to make more than half of their shots.

“I just wanted to come to play today because everything that we worked so hard for all came down to this game,” she said. “It was win, or lose and go home, and I didn’t want to go home.”

Even though the Spartans weren’t able to advance in the NCAA Tournament like Hines had hoped, head coach Suzy Merchant said she was proud of the way her freshman came in and played after senior forward Lykendra Johnson picked up two early fouls.

“I (thought) Jasmine Hines came in and did some good things in (Johnson’s) place,” Merchant said. “Especially when we needed some inside play.”

Hines is part of the youth movement on MSU’s roster, as one of nine underclassmen on this year’s team.

With the Spartans down by 19 points late in the second half, Hines was a part of a young group on the floor that cut Louisville’s lead to 12 points and said the determination the group showed in the game’s closing minutes is something the team can build off of for next season.

“We’re all competitors, we’re not going to just roll over and die,” she said. “Hopefully next year we can carry that over and some of us step up and be leaders and play hard. … I think we’ll always compete, no matter what.”

College Park, Md. — If a No. 10 seed falls in the first round of the NCAA tournament but no one is around to see it, does it still count?

Well unfortunately for the MSU women’s basketball team, the answer is yes, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have liked a few more fans in Comcast Center in College Park, Md. on Saturday afternoon.

In a stadium that seats 17,950, only 5,624 fans showed up to watch the Spartans stumble against No. 7-seed Louisville, 67-55.

Most in attendance were sporting the colors of the Maryland Terrapins, whose No. 2-seed women’s basketball team had played earlier in the day and would face the winner of the MSU/Louisville match up in the second round.

Save for a section reserved for friends and family members of the team, green apparel was scarce, especially for St. Patrick’s Day.

Although those few fans were vocal throughout the game, one can’t help but wish that seniors Lykendra Johnson, Porschè Poole and Taylor Alton deserved more witnesses to their last game in a green and white uniform.

College Park, Md. — At halftime of the No. 10-seeded MSU women’s basketball team’s first round NCAA Tournament game against No. 7Louisville, the Spartans trail 39-23.

The Spartans hold a slight edge in rebounding, 18-17, but have been hindered by the absence of defensive leader Lykendra Johnson.

After finding herself in early foul trouble, the senior forward has ridden the bench for most of the game, and the Spartan defense has allowed the Cardinals to shoot 45.2 percent from the field.

Senior guard Porsche Poole is the team’s leading scorer with six points in 18 minutes.

After the MSU women’s basketball team (20-11) lost to Purdue in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, Suzy Merchant thought the Spartans had done enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but admitted she couldn’t be certain.

So after the initial excitement and relief in the moments after it was announced the No. 10-seed Spartans would take on No. 7-seed Louisville (22-9) on Saturday (1:45 p.m., ESPN2) in College Park, Md. in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the head coach tried to remember what she knew about Louisville.

As of Monday night, she said her knowledge was limited to the Cardinals’ leading scorer, Shoni Schimmel, and a few minutes of a game she saw on TV.

“We tried to recruit their guard, Shoni Schimmel,” Merchant said. “She’s a very outstanding, playmaking guard, and I’ve seen (Louisville) a little bit, I’ll have to watch them on film, but I certainly know her.”

Merchant’s connection to Louisville also extends to to the Cardinals’ coaching staff, led by head coach Jeff Walz, who was an assistant coach at Ball State under current Maryland head coach Brenda Frese, at the same time Merchant was the head coach at Eastern Michigan.

With Walz, Merchant and Frese all playing in Maryland during the tournament’s opening weekend, Merchant said it will have a Mid-American Conference feel.

“Our paths crossed through the Mid American Conference,” she said. “I know (them) from those days certainly and as a coaching colleague on the road and stuff. (Walz is a) hard worker, really good recruiter and has done an amazing job at Louisville.”

And although Maryland isn’t a neighboring state, Merchant said she has family that lives in the area and has been to the Comcast Center multiple times so she expects a sense of familiarity.

“I got a great uncle (that lives) out there, so I feel like I’ve got family out there,” she said. “The Comcast Center is amazing. I’ve been out there too for a lot of AAU tournaments and have recruited out there in the summer, so you know when you go out there you’re going to get a quality tournament and a quality facility.”

Covering women’s basketball all season, reporter Josh Mansour makes his picks for the NCAA Tournament, which begins Saturday. If you have questions about how to fill out your bracket, check out who he picked below.

Des Moines Region: Baylor
Fresno Region: Stanford
Raleigh Region: Notre Dame
Kingston Region: UConn

Championship game: Baylor vs. UConn

Champion: Baylor

Less than one week ago, the MSU women’s basketball team (20-11 overall, 11-5 Big Ten) learned they had landed a major piece of the 2012 recruiting class in Detroit Country Day’s Aerial Powers — a finalist for the annual Miss Basketball award.

Today the award’s winner was announced and guard Madison Ristovski from Grosse Point Woods University Liggett — who will be heading to U-M in the fall — took home the honor with two future Spartans finishing in the top-five.

Ristovski received 1,333 points in voting by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, and MSU recruits Branndais Agee and Powers finished second and fifth respectively, with Agee garnering 850 points and Powers receiving 698 points.

Agee, from Detroit Cass Tech, and Powers are both recognized by ESPNU’s HoopGurlz as four-star recruits, with Agee listed as the 27th best player in the country, and Powers recognized as the 97th best player in the country, and one of the top-15 players at her position.

After 31 games and more than four months of basketball, the Spartans are waiting anxiously to learn their fate.

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will announce the field of 64 teams to make the cut on Monday (7 p.m., ESPN), and the MSU women’s basketball team (20-11 overall, 11-5) will be sweating it out, hoping to hear its name called.

In ESPN’s latest projected NCAA Tournament bracket, Charlie Creme has MSU as the second-to-last at-large team to make the tournament.

After the Spartans lost to Purdue in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, head coach Suzy Merchant and a number of local and national writers predicted MSU was comfortably in the tournament.

But with other conference tournament’s concluding, the Spartans spot in the field appears to have become more tenuous.

In Creme’s latest projected NCAA Tournament updated on Saturday, MSU is a No. 10-seed and scheduled to face No. 7-seed DePaul in Chicago.

After months of recruiting, the MSU women’s basketball team got some good news this week, as several media outlets are reporting Detroit Country Day’s Aerial Powers committed to the Spartans 2012 recruiting class.

Powers is one of the best high school players in the state of Michigan and is capable of playing several positions.

She is averaging 20 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.3 steals at Country Day this season and is a former high school teammate of redshirt freshman center Madison Williams.

Powers cited the opportunity to play with Williams again, in multiple reports, as a contributing factor in her decision to join the Spartans over scholarship offers from Texas and Northwestern, among others.

Two weeks ago, Powers was named as one of five finalists for Michigan’s Miss Basketball, along with future teammate Branndais Agee, from Cass Technical High, in Detroit.

The duo help form one of head coach Suzy Merchant’s better recruiting classes, as ESPNU’s HoopGurlz has Agee listed as the 27th best player in the country and a four-star recruit, and Powers is recognized as one of the top-15 players in the country at her position and is also a four-star recruit.

For the Spartans to be successful, head coach Suzy Merchant has said they would need their seniors to lead the way.

On Wednesday, two of the seniors were among those recognized by their teammates as the MSU women’s basketball team (20-11 overall, 11-5 Big Ten) named seniors guard Porschè Poole and forward Lykendra Johnson co-Player of the Year at the annual postseason awards banquet.

Poole was acknowledged as one of the conference’s best players this season, being named to the All-Big Ten Second Team by the conference’s coaches after leading the Spartans in scoring and setting career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and field goal percentage.

Johnson was also named to the All-Big Ten Second Team after finishing the season as MSU’s second leading scorer, the conference’s second-best rebounder and becoming the second Spartan and 13th Big Ten player to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for a career.

Sophomore guard Klarissa Bell won MSU’s Most Improved Player Award after joining the starting lineup midway through the conference season and providing an instant impact, averaging 7.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 31.5 minutes per game as a starter during the regular season.

Freshman forward Becca Mills took home the Sixth Player Award after finishing the season as MSU’s second best rebounder with 4.4 rebounds per game and fourth leading scorer with 7.2 points per game in her first year on campus.

MSU’s two juniors were also recognized by their teammates as forward Courtney Schiffauer won the Hustle Award and guard Jasmine Thomas won the Defensive Player of the Year Award.

Closing out the awards, the Spartans honored two players who have made a difference off the court, as redshirt freshman center Madison Williams won the Pat Canning Coaches Award and junior guard Tracy Nogle won both the Spartan Character and Spartan Scholar-Athlete Awards.