Former Madison West athlete Candas Smith, who had been sidelined since late August with serious facial injuries suffered in a one-car accident, returned to the court Saturday for the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team.

Wearing a plastic facemask, Smith took part in the Badgers' scrimmage vs. a group of male practice players at the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion.

"It was kind of hard playing with that mask, because you have no peripheral vision down low,'' Smith said after Saturday's workout. "So it's kind of like wearing a divider. But I only have to wear it for two weeks, and in the long run it will probably help me with my ball-handling.

"But it just felt good to be back. It felt real good.''

Smith, who is still recovering from reconstructive surgery to her upper lip and nose -- which was severed -- was cleared by her doctors to return to practice. Smith, who still must undergo one more surgery at the end of the basketball season, has the OK to take part in all drills, but her playing time in team scrimmages will be limited for a couple weeks.

As for her future with the team, Smith said she still does not know if she'll try to play this season or simply redshirt. She said she will practice for a couple weeks, weigh her options and then decide.

"As far as playing, I have no clue what I'm going to do,'' said Smith, who had hoped to push senior Dee Dee Pate for playing time at point guard before her accident.

When asked what her odds of playing for UW this season were, Smith just shrugged.

"I really don't know,'' she said. "Right now it's a mind thing. Am I really ready?''

Perhaps as expected, Smith looked somewhat sloppy during her short stint in Saturday's scrimmage. The mask was causing her obvious problems, and she admitted afterwards that her legs aren't close to being in game shape.

The best news, however, was that she was back on the court. She even took a bump to the nose, but said it was no big deal.

"Getting hit in the nose didn't bother me,'' she said. "The tough part is just getting my legs back. I haven't run in about three months.''

UW coach Jane Albright says she won't push Smith into making a decision either way. But the regular season begins in less than three weeks, and Albright will need to know what her options are by that point.

As it stands now, Pate's primary backups are sophomore Tamara Moore, whose skills are better suited for the small forward or shooting guard positions, and sophomore Judy Ebeling, a former walk-on who has no significant playing experience.

"The best news is that Candas was finally cleared to return,'' said Albright. "And she was cleared a lot sooner than some people thought.

"But she's got to get back into basketball shape now, do some conditioning and fundamentals. We just really threw her in there (Saturday) so she had a taste of it. I'm sure she felt like she was really far behind.

"But we have a lot of time to decide what to do with her.''

UW mostly overlooked: Albright has great expectations for this year's Badgers. But not too many others around the Big Ten Conference do.

The media picked Illinois (19-12 overall, 10-6 conference last season) to win the league title at the Big Ten's annual media day Sunday in Chicago. The media picked Penn State (22-8, 12-4) to finish second, and defending NCAA champion Purdue (34-1, 16-0) to place third.

The conference coaches, however, did pick Wisconsin (18-14, 9-7) to finish third, behind top pick Penn State and Illinois. Penn State was rated No. 1 by nine of the league's 11 coaches.

"People knew what Penn State did a year ago and they knew what Illinois did, and they knew we didn't do those things,'' said Albright. "We certainly presented a lot of question marks last year. The people in Madison know very much what our success was late in the year (in the WNIT). But I don't think many other people in the country knew a lot about the WNIT.

"But not having the pressure of being picked too high, I think, is very positive.''

Sims preseason All-Big Ten: UW junior swing player LaTonya Sims was named preseason first-team all-conference by both the coaches and the media. Sims, the 1998 conference freshman of the year and a first-team all-conference selection last season, averaged 18.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last season as a sophomore.

The coaches named Penn State senior center Andrea Garner (14.4 ppg, 8.5 rpg) its preseason player of the year. Also named to the coaches' preseason first team was Purdue junior swing player Katie Douglas, Illinois senior forward Susan Blauser and Penn State senior point guard Helen Darling.

The media named Douglas (14.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg) its preseason player of the year. The media's preseason team also included Garner, Blauser and Illinois senior forward Tauja Catchings.

Same city, new building: This year's Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament will once again be held in Indianapolis. But instead of being held in the RCA Dome, this year's tournament will be held in Conseco Fieldhouse, home to the NBA's Indiana Pacers.

The tournament also will be played Thursday through Sunday (March 2-5) instead of the previous Friday-through-Monday format.