Titus Ivory said last week that Penn State needed to take advantage of some of the teams that were playing at a disadvantage. Teams like Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern.

So far the Nittany Lions (16-7, 6-6 Big Ten) have taken Ivory's advice with a 20-point win against the Golden Gophers last Wednesday and 21-point drubbing against the Boilermakers this past Saturday.

"We have some momentum heading into the final four games of the regular season," Penn State head coach Jerry Dunn said yesterday during his teleconference. "But we still have to take one game at a time and know that our most important game right now is Northwestern."

Dunn went on to praise his team's performance last week.

In both of the games, Penn State received solid play from both the perimeter and the post-positions.

"It seems like every player on the floor is scoring right now for Penn State," Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said.

Senior leadership

Early on, much of the Penn State season was said to be left up to Joe Crispin.

The media and followers of the Penn State program said the Lions could only go as far as Joe could take them.

They were wrong.

Leading the way for the Lions has been Gyasi Cline-Heard, who scored 17 points in Saturday's win and 21 points against Minnesota.

Throughout much of the season, Cline-Heard has proven to be asset inside by taking the hard foul, grabbing a tough rebound and knocking down the key foul shot. He is considered to be the most improved player on the team and in the Big Ten.

Several teams now have to guard the perimeter and the post due to his aggressive presence.

Bye week helps

Some of the team's solid play can be attributed to the bye week the Lions had last week.

Dunn gave the team three days off to relax and do whatever they wanted to. While coaches who were 4-6 in the conference might push their team a little more during the time off, Dunn gave his squad some more needed rest, which seemed to have paid off.

"It gave them a chance to get away from basketball both physically and mentally," Dunn said.

Dancing, anyone?

In case you have missed it Penn State is receiving votes in The Associated Press poll this week. The Lions are ranked 29th RPI and 33rd in the Associated Press.

With four games remaining on their schedule and the Big Ten Tournament just two weeks away, Penn State could be dancing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.