The biggest difference, at least on the outside, is what Matt Gaudio wears to work.

It used to be shorts, sneakers and a tank top was the required outfit -- a casual set for practice, a more formal one for the game. Now, the practice casual is a white collared shirt, the game-time formal is a coat and tie.

About the only thing left is the game face, but even that is distorted by the glasses. The round, wire-rimmed frames serve as yet another reminder that Gaudio's time in Rec Hall no longer involves playing basketball.

"It's just different being a coach," Gaudio said. "You see things different."

It has been just over eight months since the former power forward announced that the pain in his lower back would end his college basketball career, and about three months since he took his place as a student assistant coach on the Penn State bench.

When the Nittany Lions (13-5, 5-4 Big Ten) open the second half of their conference season against Illinois (14-7, 5-4) at 8 p.m. tonight in Champaign, Ill., Gaudio will once again take up his post, clipboard in hand.

Not the way he envisioned spending his senior year.

"It's just sad that I couldn't, this year and next year, be able to just go out there and be friends with everybody, do well, succeed," Gaudio said.

"That part kind of hurts a little bit."

By his own admittance, the pain of not playing didn't come close to the physical anguish he endured when he did suit up and take the floor. What Gaudio described as "a curse" had become unbearable by the end of last season, when he averaged 9.4 points and 4.7 rebounds in just over 20 minutes a game.

Now, even after an eight-month respite, Gaudio knows his back won't let him try again.

"I tried to play pick-up about three weeks ago now, and when I got done -- and I only played for about a half hour -- my back was absolutely killing me," he said.

So he is resigned to the bench, but not at all unhappily. It seems if Gaudio could be doing anything other than playing, it would be coaching. His current class schedule includes Exercise and Sport Science 493 -- Principles of Coaching. But even without the academic base, he seems a natural.

"I think he's done a great job," Lion Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "A lot of players don't think the game, they just go play. But Matt was a guy who thought the game. And I think as a result, he has a lot better feel for the game in general than most players."

But by coaching, Gaudio knows there is a threat he might lose some of the closeness with the men who were so recently his teammates. Even though he still lives with senior swingman Greg Bartram and is tight with the rest of the squad, Gaudio has his concerns. Friend and coach are two roles that don't coexist easily.

"At the beginning of the year, I don't think they respected me, or respected me as much as they do now -- not that I have an abundance of respect," Gaudio said with a laugh. "But you can kind of see it in the guys' eyes that they regard me a little bit differently. You can tell that there's definitely a change. It's just different."

But Gaudio may not have reason to worry, because his teammates say they still see him as one of the guys.

"I don't think it's changed an awful lot," senior center John Amaechi said. "I have the same relationship with him that I did before he stopped playing. Now, I rely on his counsel more than I did then, because before, he had his own problems to worry about."

Amaechi isn't the only one. Both coaches and players have called Gaudio invaluable for his leadership and knowledge of the game. And although the coach would rather have Gaudio back on the floor, out of the coat, tie and glasses and back into the tank top, Parkhill would gladly take him in any capacity.

"It's really fun having him," Parkhill said. "I've tried to talk him out of going into coaching, but if he decides to go into it, he would be a great coach."