Forget about Temple and West Virginia. The Atlantic 10 has a new powerhouse, and it's setting its sights on Rec Hall tonight.

The men's basketball team (9-4, 3-2 in the A-10) gets a rematch with the A-10's new No. 1 team, Massachusetts (10-3, 6-0 in the A-10), at 7:30 p.m..

The last time the teams met, almost two weeks ago in Massachusetts, the Minutemen beat the Lions soundly, 64-52. Coach Bruce Parkhill has been working his team hard ever since, and knows beating the new wonder won't be easy.

"UMass has an excellent team," Parkhill said. "They have a balanced scoring attack and two kids who could score 30 if they aren't guarded well. They're a good, all-around team, and they are legitimate. I don't think they're a fluke. They could challenge for the league title."

The two high scorers are Jim McCoy and Tony Barbee. McCoy earned last year's A-10 Freshman of the Year honors and Barbee shows every sign of following in his teammate's sneakerprints. With some help from their teammates, the two combined to shatter the Lions' defense and stifle their offense two weeks ago.

Since then, UMass beat West Virginia, 83-79, to continue its A-10 unbeaten streak. But five of the team's six wins have come on its home court. Now the Minutemen face an extended road trip of their own, and the tables may be turned.

"We're hoping that (the home court advantage) will make a difference," Parkhill said. "We've played pretty well at Rec Hall, and this is an important game. We're really hoping that we'll play our best game of the year."

The last time the teams met, the Lions were in the midst of a mini- slump and the only player who had a decent game was Freddie Barnes, who scored a career-high 21 points.

But the Lions turned the ball over 19 times and shot only 45 percent from the field. The Minutemen also outrebounded Penn State, 30-27.

"We don't have any definite strategy yet," swingman Michael Jennings said. "We're just going to play hard. The last time we missed shots and had a lot of turnovers. So this time we're just going to concentrate on reducing our errors."

Penn State is 6-0 at Rec Hall this season. As an added bonus, the Lions have only played two other games since UMass beat them and have had plenty of time to work out some of the kinks in their game.

"We had a week off after that game, and it was really good for us because we finally got the chance to have a couple of days to get back to some basic things," Parkhill said. "As young as we are, it's important for us to do that.

"We felt like we lost some concentration defensively while we were up there, and had some mental lapses. In that next week, we were able to shore things up, hopefully. I think we're playing better now than we were the last time we played UMass."

Both teams are relatively young and have a long time to keep developing their individual programs. Visitors to Rec Hall tonight could ostensibly be getting a glimpse of basketball's future. At the very least, getting a glimpse of what a team with willpower can do to itself in barely two weeks.

"We're looking for a big improvement," Jennings said, "especially now that we're playing at home. We've been looking forward to this ever since the last game. They're a young team also, so having them here is going to be as much of a challenge for them as it is for us."