Penn State men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis gave his team last Thursday and Friday off, after the loss to Purdue. The Nittany Lions (9-10, 3-5) were able to hang with the Boilermakers during most of the game, but in the last 10 minutes fatigue set in.

Freshman guards Marlon Smith and Ben Luber, who have played over 30 minutes each in every game this season, looked tired, shooting a combined 3-for-25. Jan Jagla and Ndu Egekeze played tired as well, combining for only 17 points.

Only sophomore Aaron Johnson appeared to have the wind to endure the entire contest, but he started the season several weeks after the rest of the squad due to his pre-season eye surgery.

DeChellis made reference to Johnson's late start on the season and said he is in a different position than a lot of his players. Johnson plays with less fatigue, but it took longer to fit him into the offensive schemes.

"Aaron is finally in what I would call basketball rhythm," DeChellis said.

However, one player is not going to win games for Penn State. The Lions were lucky not to have a game this weekend, so DeChellis took advantage of the fortunate scheduling and offered his team an extended break before hitting it hard in practice on Monday.

But the Lions declined the proposal.

They decided to hold a captain's practice on Friday evening, organized and run by the players. DeChellis said the break came at a good time but was pleased to see that his guys still wanted to work.

Now the Lions have been back at practice, under the coaches' supervision, for two solid days of practice and are set to take on Indiana at 6 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Hoosiers (11-9, 5-4), who were hot early in their Big Ten season, have lost momentum and enter tonight's match-up on a 3-game losing skid.

Defensively, DeChellis has found ways to keep opponents from scoring switching from man to zone in different games, or even rotating among several zone defenses against a single opponent. But offensively the Lions have had to rely on different players each night to get points. Not knowing who is going to step up on a given night makes it hard to set an offensive game plan.

"When we have a bad shooting night it's very hard for us to win because there's not a lot of margin for error," DeChellis said of the Purdue game.

This time of the year should be very crucial in preparation for the Big Ten Tournament. If they can win these home games they will have a more favorable seeding in the conference tournament.

Tonight, the Lions need to find a way to shut down Indiana guard Bracey Wright who is averaging 20 points a game. The quick sophomore will be yet another demanding test for Penn State's freshmen.

"[Wright] shoots it from deep and he shoots it better on the road than he does at home," DeChellis said. "We've got to understand that there can't be an open three from him. There is no range."