Samantha McComb isn’t buying it. Neither is anyone else on the Northwestern women’s basketball team.

After the Wildcats’ game against Purdue on Feb. 15, Purdue coach Kristy Curry called NU a “dangerous team,” even after the Boilermakers had just blown out the Cats (8-19, 1-15 Big Ten), 80-45.

“I don’t think we have any respect yet,” McComb said. “There is no reason for anybody to respect us. But I think when we’re on, we are a deadly team, and we can come in there and upset some people. I don’t think people want to play us.”

NU coach June Olkowski said the comment was “nice,” but she didn’t take the compliment to heart.

“It’s still better if you win more games,” she said.

The Cats are coming off 15 losses in their last 16 games, but they said the Big Ten tournament is an opportunity to decide whether their season will end on positive note.

For the Cats to make any sort of serious run in the tournament, they will have to get past Minnesota (20-7, 9-7). The Cats get their chance tonight, in the third and final game of the tournament’s first round, at 6:15 p.m. at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

“This is the start of a new season,” junior center Sarah Kwasinski said. “Anything is possible at this point.”

But Minnesota has destroyed NU twice this season. The most recent beating came only a week and a half ago, on Feb. 22 at Minnesota. Even without leading scorer Lindsey Whalen, who was out with a broken right hand, the Golden Gophers scored 45 points in the first half on the way to handing the Cats a 73-46 loss.

“In the first half of the second game, we played very intimidated,” McComb said. “They came in there and, from the tip-off, dictated what we were going to do.”

McComb said it’s important the Cats not allow that to happen again.

“We have to come in with an attitude saying that, ‘We can play with you guys,’ and we showed that in the second half of that game,” the floor general said.

Whalen, a First Team All-Big Ten selection, will be out of the lineup for tonight’s game as well, but the Cats will have to deal with Second Team All-Big Ten player Janel McCarville, who dominated NU in both of the teams’ previous outings.

McCarville averaged 17.5 points and nine rebounds per game in the two meetings against the Cats this year.

“We have to limit McCarville inside,” senior forward Michelle Zylstra said. “She’s a very good basketball player, along with (point guard Shannon) Schonrock.

“Our game plan is to limit the points from those two and make the other three people beat us.”

The Minnesota trap defense also has wreaked havoc on the Cats this season. NU committed 43 turnovers in its two games against the Gophers.

“We have been working on the trap, and we handled it well against Michigan (on Feb. 26),” Olkowski said. “But we’re working on it not only to break it but to score on it as well.”

NU may have a slight advantage coming into the matchup because the team had a bye on Sunday and hasn’t had to play in a week. At the end of the season, a bye can be an important factor in getting players healthy and ready for an important Big Ten-tournament game.

“The week helped us more physically than anything,” Zylstra said. “We had Friday and Sunday off, and we took the time to rest.”

Olkowski stressed that the Cats are planning for the possibility they will play four games in five days — in more ways than one.

“Just in (packing more) clothes and underwear,” she said.

Otherwise, the team is preparing for this game like any other.

“We are just concentrating on ourselves and Minnesota,” Olkowski said.