Joe Crispin has the chance of a lifetime when he is finished playing basketball at Penn State.

The First Team All-Big Ten senior guard has a chance to play in the NBA.

With his fiery attitude, deft touch from behind the three-point arc and a winner's mentality, the 6-foot-1, 177 lb. guard will have a fighting chance of latching on with an NBA team when his collegiate career is complete after this season.

Chris Monter, one of the most respected draft experts in the business and publisher of Monter Draft News, said Crispin's chances of being drafted depends on the pre-draft camps that college players attend after their senior seasons.

Crispin will have his first chance to impress scouts in April, where Monter expects to see him in Portsmouth, Va., before evaluating him two more times, once in May at the Desert Classic in Tempe, Ariz., and finally at the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp which is held in June.

Monter fully expects Crispin to be invited to all of the pre-draft camps and show his varied abilities in front of the NBA talent scouts.

"He has great tenacity, and as we've seen against Kentucky and others, he can shoot the ball," Monter said. "He's having an outstanding season."

Big Ten coaches are also impressed with Crispin's play and his name has grown almost synonymous with beating the Nittany Lions. In Penn State's losses to Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina State, Crispin has averaged only 10.6 points and is the obvious key to the Lions success.

Northwestern men's basketball coach Bill Carmody said the sign of a good basketball player is if he can step up when his team faces adversity.

When Carmody's Wildcats were beaten by Penn State, 73-66, on Jan. 13, Carmody finally realized how good Crispin can be.

"I'm always worried when he shoots the ball," the first-year coach said about Crispin. "Good players make good basketball plays and it was the time for him to do it. And he did it."

However, as good as Crispin looks on the court against his collegiate opponents, there are aspects of his game Monter said the guard needs to work on before he is a legitimate second-round selection.

Monter points out that Crispin doesn't have tremendous foot speed on defense and needs to work on becoming more athletic, but he is quick to add that many pros lacked these qualities and were great players in the NBA.

"Scott Skiles wasn't the most athletic guy in the NBA, but he was a tremendous NBA player."

Crispin's and Skiles's game are interchangeable.

Both are hard-nosed, under-sized guards who were underrated throughout their careers and who pride themselves on being gritty, feisty players.

After a much traveled 10-year stint in the NBA as a member of the Milwaukee, Indiana, Orlando, Washington and Philadelphia franchises, Skiles is now the head coach of the Phoenix Suns.

Another problem that Crispin faces by playing at Penn State is that he has to be the point guard and the main scorer simultaneously.

Monter said this might spell trouble because he doesn't have the time to work on the things he needs to do to impress the NBA people come spring time.

But Monter said Crispin should be optimistic about his chances because he is a talented player who has a lot of potential if he works on the things he needs to improve to become a legitimate NBA player.

And everyone knows Crispin is a hard worker.

Monter predicts the Pitman, N.J., native will probably be drafted somewhere in the middle to late second round or be picked up as a free agent, but he said Crispin's play at the pre-draft camps will play a factor on his draft status.

"After a certain point in the draft, you are just picking the best players," Monter said. "And Crispin is definitely one of the better players."