Before the season started, sophomore guard Marlon Smith said that in order to be a winner, you have to first be a loser.

Three months later, an inactive Smith watches from the bench as his Nittany Lions teammates continue to experience more than their fair share of losing -- and winning has yet to follow.

"I don't think there's anything in the locker room in terms of guys who've been successful to say, 'This is how it was,' so our kids just have to believe," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "It's just not easy to believe you can win when you haven't won."

Senior forward Jason McDougald and senior center Kevin Fellows arrived a year after Penn State's run to the Sweet 16 in 2001, and along with junior forward Aaron Johnson and sophomore guards Ben Luber, Smith and Dan Adler, they haven't seen more than nine wins in a season. But Johnson refuses to talk about the losses, let alone cope with them.

"If the losing gets easier, then you're not a competitor," he said.

Before the season started and prior to the opening of Big Ten play, there were five Penn State players who were accustomed to winning, and who rarely experienced that losing feeling -- the four freshmen and a junior college transfer.

The beauty in the youth of Penn State's rookies was that they were ignorant. They didn't know how to lose.

Throughout his entire high school career, freshman guard Danny Morrissey's squad lost just 16 games. In 23 collegiate contests, he's already matched that total. Freshman guard Mike Walker was on the losing end of just four games in high school.

"The way I feel right now -- I'm not getting more comfortable with it at all," Morrissey said. "I took the loss Saturday probably the hardest. It's starting to really sink in, how much it really hurts. I'm not used to it. I can't even explain how it feels. You don't want to move. You don't want to eat. It's probably one of the worst feelings."

With just five Big Ten games remaining in the regular season, the odds of Penn State (7-16, 1-9 Big Ten) improving on last season's 9-19 record are slim. The Lions haven't won a game since beating Northwestern on Jan. 22, and it's been harder to deal with each of the six most recent losses.

"We can't dwell on [the losses]," DeChellis said. "We've got to move on, accentuate the positives and try to coach our guys and try to make them better to give us an opportunity to win."

With No. 1 Illinois coming to the Bryce Jordan Center tomorrow night, that task won't be easy. And for a team that has picked up one win in a month and a half, optimism isn't easy to find.

"You know you are close enough to win it, but yet you are so far," Morrissey said.