These are trying times for the Penn State men's basketball team.

Not much was expected from the Nittany Lions this season, but that doesn't make the team's current 5-12 record and losses in six of its last seven games any easier to take.

"This is pretty much as low as I've felt since I've been here," senior co-captian Tyler Smith said. "We've just been so few and far between lately."

The season began with the first home non-conference loss in 53 games and might well have hit rock bottom with a 85-51 loss to Indiana Wednesday at The Bryce Jordan Center that matched the worst home loss in school history.

"It just seems like we have been setting the wrong kinds of records this year," Smith said.

But both these dubious records came at home. The Lions begin a three-game road swing with a game at Wisconsin tomorrow in the Kohl Center at 12:15 p.m. Penn State then plays at Minnesota next Wednesday and at Iowa Feb. 2.

Usually, a brutal three-game stretch away from the BJC in Big Ten play would not be looked forward too. But considering the way the team has been playing lately at home (including last Saturday's 77-65 setback against Michigan State), could it be that the team is actually looking forward to playing on the road?

"I don't know why but it seems like we play better on the road than we do at home," sophomore Sharif Chambliss said.

"The way we played at home here (Wednesday night) we don't deserve a home game right now," head coach Jerry Dunn said. "We need to go on the road and we need to toughen up."

While the change in scenery might indeed do the Lions some good, locales such as Madison, Minneapolis and Iowa City aren't exactly the best places to go to cure what ails. Penn State is 5-17 all-time in those cities.

"This is the way it is in the Big Ten," Dunn said. "We put ourselves in this situation (of having to win on the road). We've got to fight back."

Despite the bleak picture, the one thing the Lions do have going for them as they prepare for the Wisconsin game is that they have beaten the Badgers already this season. The thrilling, come-from-behind 51-49 win Jan. 9 represents Penn State's lone conference victory.

Chambliss expects this fact to at least keep the team's morale out of the deepest doldrums.

"A little but, but it's going to be tough to keep everybody's confidence up," he said. "A loss like (Wednesday's), in a way it teaches you a lot but you can't keep waiting that long to learn. Sooner or later you've got to step up."

Despite the win over the Badgers two weeks ago, Dunn isn't expecting an easy game tomorrow.

"I don't think you can take any team for granted," he said. "Just because you beat one team once before doesn't mean you then can go on the road and (beat) them. I think we've got to take it one game at a time and we've got to play the very best that we are capable of playing on both ends of the floor in order to give ourselves a chance to win."

If the Lions are to have a chance to win, they also must believe in themselves playing on the road in one of the nation's better conferences.

Dunn thinks that effort and determination alone can get the Lions out of their slump.

"You have to continue to work," Dunn said. "There is no time (for his players) to feel sorry for themselves, or for me to feel sorry for myself. We've got to continue to work. We've got to continue to get better."