Growing pains.

It's what the Penn State men's basketball team is having right now. That is to be expected when the starting lineup features two true freshmen.

Jan Jagla and Daren Tielsch started for the Nittany Lions alongside junior Brandon Watkins, sophomore Jamaal Tate and senior Tyler Smith.

That starting lineup has a total of 47 games started, with 45 of them by Smith. With the Lions starting so much youth in their 86-66 exhibition loss to Team Nike Elite, it is apparent Coach Jerry Dunn is looking to find some combinations that will work come the regular season.

"I'm sure there are going to be some combinations that were a little bit more effective than others," Dunn said. "You know I like to use these two games in particular because we do have so much youth and new faces, I like to get a feel of what everybody can do."

Jagla put up some big numbers in his first game scoring 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field, including 3-for-4 from behind the arc. Jagla also grabbed 12 rebounds, but was not much of a force at all in the post. The majority of his time on the offensive end was spent out on the perimeter.

"I didn't think much of him (Jagla)," Team Nike Elite Coach Glenn Sergent said. "He doesn't have a game, except he is big. He really needs to work on his footwork. He doesn't have a pivot game, doesn't have a block game, at least not tonight. Now he may have one later in the season but he doesn't have one now."

Tielsch took just four shots, scoring four points in his starting role. He was paired up down low with Smith, and showed the ability to bang down low.

Jason McDougald, who played well in the Blue-White game, struggled a little bit in his 15 minutes on the floor against Nike Elite. He scored four points and had three rebounds, but shot just 1-for-4 from the foul line and committed four turnovers.

"I think you're going to see a lot of young mistakes, and certainly there were times when I saw good things on the floor," Dunn said. "We were pretty efficient on the offensive end and we made some stops defensively, but were not consistent with any of it and I think that's what you see when you have a lot of young faces."

Kevin Fellows, the biggest of the freshman class at 6-10 and 245 pounds saw his first action of the season after missing the Blue-White game with an ankle injury. In nine minutes of court time he had one rebound.

It looks as if Dunn will not be reluctant to look to this year's freshman class for quality minutes.

The majority of the team that is returning did not see many minutes in their freshman year, but with the team's youth that trend might be forced to change.

"I think the entire freshmen class is really good this year," Jagla said. "I mean every single player can flat out come in here and play. It's coach's decision who's gonna play, but pretty much everybody can step up and be a starting five player."