It is the end of an intense practice the day before the Penn State men's basketball team's home game against Purdue, and all of the players have hit the showers and begun to rest up for the next day's game. However, four players are still on the court taking shots. Three are walk-ons who will not dress the next day, and are getting all they can out of their time on the basketball court. However, the fourth is senior captain Tyler Smith.

Even with just seven games plus the Big Ten tournament left in his career, and so much of this season written off as a learning experience for younger players, Smith is still working on developing his outside shot. He takes shot after shot from behind the arc, practicing taking jumpers off the dribble and rolling off of phantom screens. He shoots remarkably well for a player of his 6-foot-8 stature, with the shots he doesn't make coming close. All the while he is chattering with the managers who are getting his rebounds, contrasting his dogged work ethic with a temperament that keeps it from looking like work.

It is moments like this that show that Smith may be the perfect fit as captain of this young Nittany Lion squad. The constantly hard worker has become more vocal thus far this season, and he has maintained a sense of humor that prevents him from allowing the lows of the Lions' 6-16 season to get to him.

As the only returning starter from last season's Sweet 16 team and one of only two seniors, Smith was thrust into a situation much different than the one he faced last season -- that of team leader. Fortunately, he learned a lot about leadership in his years with graduated Lion stars Joe Crispin, Titus Ivory and Gyasi Cline-Heard.

"I've tried to be a leader the entire season," Smith said. "My role has just been to provide stability. I knew I needed to do more than just step up my scoring, I needed to become a player that the other guys could look up to to see how I handle things, see how I handle the hard times."

Last season Smith was able to sit outside the limelight, doing the team's dirty work while seniors Crispin, Ivory and Cline-Heard got the glory. Smith's statistical contributions were average at best -- 7.6 points per game, 4.5 rebounds, but his hustle and scrappiness were as indispensable to the team as Crispin's three-point shooting. Smith provided a player who could bang around inside for rebounds, but also go to the floor for loose balls.

His efforts may not have been noticed outside the Penn State basketball family, but they were by teammates and coaches. After the season, he received the Dave Phillips Memorial Award, presented annually to the team's "unsung hero." He also received an award for being the team's scrappiest player.

"He had more of the intangibles than probably showed up on his stat sheet," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said during a Big Ten teleconference in January. "He hustles and plays with great intensity on both ends of the floor. He made some big plays that probably went unseen by most, but it made a big difference with the guys he was playing with."

Smith is somewhat quiet, but at least one person knew for sure that he could step into his role as a leader.

Bill Donlon, Smith's high school coach at Lake Forest H. S. in Lake Bluff, Ill., saw how Smith operated in such a role. Smith was a three-year starter at Lake Forest, and in his junior season, led his team to a 23-7 season, which included a regional title and a berth in the sectional finals. He was a three-sport athlete and a Wendy's High School Heisman State finalist in his senior year. However, in his senior basketball season, before which he was named captain, he suffered a major ankle injury that kept him out of all but six games. His ankle may have been injured but his role as a leader never changed as he went to every practice and game to cheer on his team.

"He was always keeping them upbeat and cheering for them," Donlon said. "That to me is the truest example of his leadership qualities. He earned so much more respect from his teammates for what he did off the floor. He was just a gem to coach. He has tremendous work ethic and great pride in everything he does."

He has showed the same qualities this season. Along with fellow captain Ken Krimmel, Smith has kept this team from unraveling. As bad as some defeats have been, the Lions have yet to give up on a game, and much of that has been credited to Smith.

Several players, including guard Sharif Chambliss, have said that Smith has become more vocal, and that his hustle gives them a good example to follow. As much as it was a jump for Smith to switch from a role player to leader, the change in his contributions to the offense was as much of a pressing issue on a team that lost players that contributed 78.4 percent of the squad's points last season. Smith has had his load lessened by the improvements of guards Chambliss and Brandon Watkins, but he has upped his production to 12.4 points per game thus far.

He started to develop an outside game during his freshman and sophomore seasons when he was getting most of his time at small forward. By shooting 20-45 from beyond the arc this season, ranking him second on the team with a 44.4 shooting percent, he has forced teams to defend him inside and outside the paint.

The season has had its effect on Smith, like everyone else on the team. The whole team is frustrated and Smith admits that it is hard to leave Penn State with a season like this. However, Smith has handled it well. He still cracks jokes at practices and at press conferences. The blonde, pale-skinned Smith often makes facetious cracks about the trials and tribulations of being a "big, tall, white guy" in the Big Ten. His sense of humor has kept the season's disappointment from getting to him.

"If you don't have a sense of humor, I don't see how you survive," Smith said. "I've been looking back on my years here and thinking 'did I have fun?' because if you're not having fun, you're wasting your time. Obviously, there's a time to have fun, and a time to be serious, but some times things get too serious and you have to have a sense of humor to deal with that."

Smith would obviously rather match last year's team success, and be able to leave Penn State with a bang, but he has enjoyed his expanded role this season.

"I'm glad I had a chance to do some different things for this team, and that I had a chance to develop my game a lot," he said. "Plus, I like the team chemistry better on this team."

He also understands that how he performs as a leader now will affect the way the young players hang together and deal with hard times in future seasons.

"This young group has a lot of ability," Smith said. "We were in a similar situation in my freshman year when we went 13-14, and you saw how that team improved. If that's the way it happens, that this is a learning year, and if this team becomes even more successful in the future, I'll be proud to have been a part of it."

If the team follows Smith's example, they likely will be.