It seems as if the Penn State men's basketball team has found a strong suit.

Don't get too high after the wins or too low after the losses.

They will hope to continue that mastery tonight at 8 p.m. when they travel to the Value City Arena in Columbus to battle first place Ohio State.

The Nittany Lions (5-9, 1-2 Big Ten) are coming off of their biggest win of the season, a come from behind win against Wisconsin, hoping they can turn around the season from an abysmal start.

It won't be an easy task to get to .500 in conference play as the Buckeyes (12-2, 3-0 Big Ten) have won ten straight regular season conference games dating back to last year.

"We have to be very happy with how we started in the conference," Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien said. "Since the New Year, we have had four games, three being on the road. We have been fortunate to win all four."

Led by the senior combo of Brian Brown and Boban Savovic, the Buckeyes have already upset No. 17 Iowa and will lock up with Indiana on Saturday in a battle of unbeatens if they can avoid overlooking the Lions.

Sophomore forward Zach Williams anchors Ohio State in the post, and, with his .610 field goal percentage, is the main reason that the Buckeyes lead the Big Ten in field goal percentage at .501.

"Ohio State is a very good basketball team," Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said. "Jimmy O' Brien has done a great job with them. They run their stuff very, very well and we understand that we got to do a real good job defensively to have a chance to be successful."

Williams' play is slowly making up for the loss of All-Big Ten center Ken Johnson. Johnson tormented the Lions' defense last season with 20.5 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Although he does not provide the imposing block presence that Johnson did, he plays solid team defense. The Buckeyes defense is holding teams to just 58.2 points per game, which ranks first in the Big Ten.

"We have played well defensively because of a team concept more than anything," O'Brien said.

"Guys are more accountable for themselves as opposed to knowing that if they got beat, Ken was there to take care of things. When we struggle it is when we have trouble on the offensive end. Our defense has been consistent."

The Lions will need to look to the hot hand of sophomore Sharif Chambliss if they are to score on the Big Ten's best scoring defense. Chambliss is ninth in the conference in scoring at 14.6 points per game and first in three-point field goals made with 53.

Junior Brandon Watkins, who broke out of a slump at the end of the Wisconsin game, will look to carry over that performance, as he will be forced to step up when Chambliss is commanding much of the defense's attention.

"If definitely feels good to come off a win like that after my performance against Indiana," Watkins said.