According to Coach Ed DeChellis, sophomore guards Marlon Smith and Ben Luber have smiled more in the past three days than they did all last season.
That's because the Penn State men's basketball team has practiced five times in the past three days. But it's a different type of practice -- one that players enjoy going to.
"It's been like night and day for [Smith and Luber]," DeChellis said yesterday at media day. "They feel much more comfortable and more confident and they know what they're doing."
On the surface, things don't appear to be much different than that of last year's Nittany Lions that finished 9-19. Minus starting center Jan Jagla, who left the team to play professionally for Panellinios in Greece, and plus five freshmen and a junior college transfer, the nucleus of the team has barely been tweaked. Yeah, the Lions lost two other starters, but Ndu Egekze's 21 minutes and 6.2 points per game along with Rob Summers' 22 minutes and 3.9 points per game won't be the toughest vacancy to fill.
It's the little things that add depth to this team like actually having bodies to scrimmage against instead of using the coaching staff to fill in for drills, as they did last season. It's the idea that this team enjoys each other's company and jokes like when junior forward Aaron Johnson complemented Luber and Smith for playing 40 minutes a game -- at 4 foot 11 as he said with a laugh. Or the fact that Luber was delighted when he heard Johsnon mention his name during a television interview.
All of this comprises a newfound chemistry and cohesiveness DeChellis and the players kept referring to. One that couldn't be found among the team DeChellis headed in his first year as the Lions coach.
Last year was a kind of like a trial run for the squad. There were no expectations but to improve upon the previous season's 7-21 overall record.
"This year, you can feel [the chemistry] because it's real," Smith said. "It's a real feeling compared to last year when it was really fake and you didn't feel like you wanted to be there."
Penn State returns two starters, Smith and Luber and six lettermen. The leadership roles seem to be distributed evenly among Johnson and the backcourt duo, which averaged 37.6 minutes a game.
Just three days into practice, Smith already seems to have the mentality that will keep him and his teammates smiling.
"In order to be a winner, you have to be a loser," he said. "We lost a lot of games last year but our team only learned from those games and come into this year with a positive attitude. We can only get better."
