As a Hallmark magnet once read: "Confidence is what you feel just before you fully understand the situation."

Heading into this weekend's Northern Intercollegiate, the No. 9 ranked Penn State men's golf team is certainly packing some confidence coming off its 25-stroke win at the James Madison Invitational last weekend. After this weekend, the squad will have a better understanding of how they compare against some of the Big Ten's best.

"We want to go in there and see if we can maintain what we've been doing," Penn State men's golf coach Greg Nye said. "We want to go out with a couple key wins [and some] good confidence for the squad."

Held at the Indiana University Golf Course in Bloomington, the Intercollegiate hosts a field of 16 teams, including defending national champion Minnesota and Illinois, who finished 18th. In the latest golfweek.com collegiate rankings, Minnesota is No. 5, Michigan State is No. 11, and Indiana is No. 34. All will tee off against the currently No. 7 Nittany Lions.

"This tournament's important for us," sophomore Greg Pieczynski said. "We basically have to send a message to the other teams on our quality of a team. We have to be just looking to exhibit the kind of team we have."

Showcasing is a major theme of the weekend. The Hoosiers will also host the Big Ten Championship in May at the same course. Along with the presence of many of the top schools, in many ways this weekend serves as a preview to the Big Tens come spring.

In response to the pressure of such an event, the Lions are trying to be confident enough to play well but not overly confident to allow a letdown. The Lions seem to be doing so by keeping hungry for another superb showing.

"We can't be content," senior Jim Fuller said. "We're doing great but we have to keep trucking along."

"[We are] trying to keep striving to do better each tournament," Piecyzinski added. "We have to move on and try to accomplish greater things."

Nye pointed towards a differentiation between types of confidence that he's looking for. Besides a general team confidence, he said he is also trying to gauge individual confidence in each player's level of play.

"I think it's different for each guy," Nye said. "Guys who have some experience ... are wondering about competing against the top players and others about competing against all the players."

In practice leading up to this weekend, Fuller said that players have been working on their confidence by focusing on their play and their mindset.

"We go through the routine and practice," he said. "We're working on staying calm and taking it seriously, not lightheartedly. Each minute we spend is worthwhile."

With a good sense of confidence, the Lions are hoping to say that their trip to Hoosier Country is more than worthwhile.