It's been a tough week for Sharif Chambliss, but now he's going home.

Tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., the Penn State men's basketball team (5-12, 0-6 Big Ten) will take to the road to face Wisconsin (14-4, 4-2) in Madison.

Chambliss, a Racine, Wisc., native, has endured a tough stretch as of late, dealing with the loss of his aunt. He's understandably excited to go home tomorrow.

"It's nice to go home," he said. "A lot of my family and friends are going to be there, I have to get 10 to 20 tickets for the people close to me."

Still, coming off such a dissapointing loss as the Nittany Lions experienced on Wednesday night against Minnesota can be extremely tough for any team. Guard Brandon Watkins fears that some of his teammates will start to get down on themselves.

Watkins said that a lot of guys get discouraged because they work so hard, but then look up at the scoreboard and it's still another mark in the "L" column.

"I try to keep my teammates' heads up," Watkins said. "And they try to keep my head up."

One of Penn State's biggest problems this season, both at home and on the road, has been getting off to slow starts in the first half. Freshman Aaron Johnson, who is basically the Lions' only low-post presence, starts every game on the bench, despite being Penn State's leading rebounder. He believes the problem is lack of energy.

"I think the problem is that as a team, we don't come out with enough energy as a whole," he said following Wednesday night's loss. "I think we talk too much, and we have to be more about action than talking."

Against Minnesota, Penn State led by six points late, but blew the game by scoring just two points in the last five minutes. Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said his team was consciously trying to run the clock down as much as possible, and then get off a good shot. Everyone in the arena knew that it wasn't working.

"A lot of our players are not comfortable off the dribble," Dunn said. "Watkins is the most consistent and most effective off the dribble. He wants to pass and create shots."

Though Penn State has been especially ineffective on the road so far this season, Johnson is not worrying about a letdown following the Minnesota game.

"It's going to be tough [to go on the road]," he said. "But for me, I don't really care -- I just love playing."

Wisconsin's main weapons are three guards -- Kirk Penney, a senior from New Zealand, Devin Harris, a sophomore, and Alando Tucker, a 6-foot-5 freshman swing-man. All three average over 30 minutes a game, score in double digits, and crash the boards.

Watkins, who was beating himself up following Penn State's most recent collapse, still has hope for the future.

"It's going to happen one day," he said. "We have 10 or 11 more games left, it's possible to come out .500. Just take a look at Michigan."

He was refering to Michigan's 13-game winning streak, which just came to an end against Illinois.

"We have to come, and play, and show results, and stop just talking about it," he said. "Until we do that, we're not going to win."