They won't come out and say it, but the Penn State men's gymnastics team just wants to get through this weekend and get home to Happy Valley.

They are devastated by injuries. They started training late due to renovations in the White Building and still have not worked out their routines.

And for the second time this season, they have to go up against the best team in the country.

The No. 7 Nittany Lions travel to Arizona State for the South West Cup 7 p.m. tomorrow. The Sun Devils lost their funding and are now a self-sustained club team, but they remain a strong program.

No. 5 Michigan State and No. 13 Stanford will also be in attendance.

Oklahoma will be there, too. The Sooners are currently ranked first in the country and have topped the 215-point plateau in each of their last three meets.

"Outside of the Big Ten, they're without a doubt the best team in the country," Josh Malecki of Penn State said.

The Nittany Lions lost last weekend to then No. 2 Ohio State. The Buckeyes have since dropped to third, with Michigan moving up the second spot. All seven of the Big Ten gymnastics teams are ranked in the top nine.

Injuries continue to be the big story for Penn State this season. They will be without Kevin Donohue, who is currently ranked first in the country in the vault. Team captain Dom Brindle is still sick and Jose Palacios has multiple injuries.

"Jose is a wreck, that's all you can say about him," Malecki said. "Truth is, I've never seen it this bad in all my years here."

Without a healthy Palacios, Penn State has struggled to compete in the all-around. Their total scores have also dropped without Palacios, who turned down an invite from the Spanish Olympic team to report to Penn State in September.

"I don't want to make excuses," he said. "It's part of the sport. You get beat up. All the teams are like this."

Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said he wants his team to make a statement. Malecki and Palacios said they need to go out and remind people why they are the defending NCAA champions.

But all three agree that mostly the Nittany Lions need to get out of this meet healthy.

"After this meet we have two weeks until the Michigan State meet," Jepson said. "And there's no doubt that those two weeks will make or break our season."

The team will spend spring break in State College, attempting to polish and tweak routines.

"It's nice to be able to concentrate on gymnastics as opposed to trying to deal with three tests here, three papers over there," Chris Lakeman said.

Lakeman is currently tied for first in the country on the rings. He won a head to head battle with then top-ranked Daren Lynch last weekend to tie the Buckeyes in the overall standings. This weekend he will face third place Brett Covey of Oklahoma.