No matter what he does, the pain is always there.

He is in pain when he wakes up in the morning. He is in pain just walking around campus. He is in pain sitting in class. He is in pain when he tries to relax by playing Nintendo or watching television.

And he is in pain -- and defiant of that pain -- while he is out on the basketball court scoring points, hauling down rebounds and blocking shots for the men's basketball team.

Freshman forward Matt Gaudio has been as much of a pain to the opposition as his chronically-sore back has been to him this season.

"For the most part, you could say it's pretty much constant pain," Gaudio said. "I think if it was any worse, I couldn't play as much as I do. When it acts up, I just don't feel like doing anything. You just have to go out there and live with it."

Playing with what has been diagnosed as three degenerated discs in his spinal cord, Gaudio averaged 8.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game during the regular season as the Lions' sixth man.

"It's really tough, I think, for anyone to imagine what that's like," said Coach Bruce Parkhill of his gritty freshman's performance. "To be in constant pain . . . and to be going through what everybody else does as a freshman in college and to be doing what he's doing on the floor, I think, is really special."

Gaudio's road to success has been about as bumpy as it gets during the past two-and-a-half years.

Literally. The West Virginia native remembers lying stretched out on blankets on the floor of Brooke High School bus in December, 1989. The varsity squad was returning from an away game in which Gaudio's back had "acted up a little bit."

He was able to come back from that incident (in fact, he never missed a game in high school) to lead Brooke in scoring his junior year. But his situation took a turn for the worse that summer, when the 6-foot-7-inch power forward was trying to impress collegiate scouts during a Five Star Basketball Camp all-star game.

"I was playing really well -- I ended up with like 34 points," Gaudio recalls. "Then, with probably three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, I went to dive for a ball at half court and I kind of like hyper-extended my back. After that, I couldn't really move. I'd walk around all twisted."

The pain was such that Gaudio was unable even to shoot during July and August of 1990.

His back, however, healed enough for him to play his senior season at Brooke. And all he did was average 24.2 points and 13.4 rebounds per game on the way to being named the West Virginia high school player of the year.

Gaudio hasn't missed in a beat in making the jump to collegiate basketball.

He sees about 22 minutes of action per game in a platoon situation with junior Eric Carr. The two players, who could not be more dissimilar, average a combined 14 points and 7.5 rebound per game for the Lions.

"Eric has just an abundance of athletic ability and he catches all the alley-oops and he's quicker than me," Gaudio said. "I think when I come in off the bench, it's really hard for the defense to adjust because they're going from somebody who has great athletic ability and has great quickness and then they have to go to somebody like me, where I just try to use my strength a little bit more."

Gaudio said he has really come to admire the physical play of senior center Dave Degitz.

"Dave is so strong, he can just move you around any time he wants to," Gaudio said. "I'm kind of glad that he was here my first year, because I'm learning an awful lot from him. When I go home for the summer, I'm really going to work with the weights because I saw how Dave can move people around when he's in the post."

The freshman has also gained invaluable experience by playing his first season with the senior backcourt tandem of Freddie Barnes and Monroe Brown.

Against Marquette, for example, Gaudio was struggling to get into the flow of the game. During a timeout, Barnes pulled the flustered freshman over to the side and told him to relax.

"When I've screwed up, they've always been there to help," Gaudio said. "They're all kind of looking out for you."

One thing, however, that the seniors cannot teach Gaudio is how to play with pain. He's on his own.

Just getting his back in shape for the rigors of college basketball requires far more effort on Gaudio's part than the average student would have time for.

A typical day begins at 7:30 a.m., when Gaudio wakes up and does some light stretching. After breakfast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Gaudio goes to University Health Services for special treatment. Later in the day, Gaudio is almost always the first to show up at practice so he has extra time to stretch out and receive heat or ultrasound treatments.

And in between, of course, there are classes to attend, which present a unique problem for Gaudio.

"I get sore when I sit for a long time," he explained. "I don't mind going to class at all, because grades are really important. But it's just that when I sit I have to do a perfect posture. I try anyway. Sometimes I start slouching and my back let's me know about it."

Game days are the best days for Gaudio. For a couple of hours, he tries to put the pain in his back out of his mind and concentrate on the action. But sometimes the harsh reality of his situation is brought back into focus by the roughness of the game.

"There's times when I get hit in my back and I fall on the floor and I'll be really mad because I know that pain's there and I know it's going to limit my playing," Gaudio said.

As far as Parkhill is concerned, however, there is no limit to what Gaudio can achieve in the next three years at Penn State -- if his back allows it.

"He's shown us a whole lot this year," Parkhill said. "I really think that he's going to be a heck of a player. He just needs to get stronger. In my opinion, he's just scratching the surface."

Gaudio is a realist. He knows that his physical condition will most likely keep him from having a shot at a career in professional basketball. But for now he just wants to continue playing the sport he loves.

"I've been playing since I've been in second grade," Gaudio said. "I know after four years I'm going to be done so I'm just going to make the best out of the four years."