In the tri-state area, there are two hot spots for basketball talent. The obvious one is New York City, with its five boroughs and its famous streetball legacy. Penn State infiltrated The Big Apple two years ago with the signing of Bronx native and current Nittany Lions guard Marlon Smith.

Even with the plethora of talent and the successful recruitment of Smith, New York is still a hard area to crack for a school with a low national prestige like Penn State, so the Lions' recruiting staff has to look elsewhere for hidden gems.

To find that place, Penn State only has to cast a glance 200 miles to the southeast for the other hotbed of basketball talent -- Philadelphia, a city that has also produced some of the greatest and most recognizable players in the NBA.

Rasheed Wallace and Aaron McKie attended Public League powerhouse Simon Gratz High School; 2004 Associated Press National Player of the Year and Wooden Award winner Jameer Nelson was a hidden gem at suburban Chester High. It wouldn't be a list of Philadelphia players without mentioning arguably the greatest player ever, Overbrook High graduate Wilt Chamberlain.

With that type of legacy, there is a myth that Penn State is unable to recruit in the City of Brotherly Love and that is a reason why the team has struggled, but that notion is quickly dismissed by the coaching staff.

"I don't think it's hard to get into Philly," Penn State assistant coach James Johnson said. "We're into Philly. There's a perception that Penn State is not in Philly. Penn State is the state university, it's in the Big Ten Conference and it's an attractive place for the student-athlete to come."

When the school went on a search for a new head coach after Jerry Dunn resigned, Penn State pursued St. Joseph's head coach Phil Martelli and life-long Philadelphian Fran Dunphy, whose Penn teams have dominated the Ivy League. When both coaches opted to stay with their teams, Penn State hired former assistant Ed DeChellis, who knows the importance of the city and how much of a challenge it is to create an inroad there.

"It's not an easy thing to do," St. Joseph's Prep coach William "Speedy" Morris said.

"Penn State is a tough sell and I don't understand why," Morris continued. "They have a fabulous new arena and great facilities; they are only one or two players away. After that it should be a domino effect with recruits."

DeChellis and assistant coach James Johnson have made multiple visits to Philadelphia and its surrounding area to do just that -- sell Penn State. But the Lions have yet to land that first player to trigger the chain reaction.

DeChellis said that his goal is to recruit as many players from within the state as possible, so why not start in the city with biggest pool of talent?

Johnson and DeChellis have been making the four-hour trip across the state to get down there. They try to make this trek as much as possible and have been down to the area more than any other team, according to Saints John Neumann-Maria Goretti High School assistant coach John Mosco.

And Jim Fenerty, head coach of traditional basketball powerhouse Germantown Academy, attested to the work of the Penn State coaching staff.

"James and Ed have been down here an awful lot," Fenerty said. "They've been here so much that I know them on a first name basis. I even know Ed's favorite food."

Penn State's main focus at Germantown's junior forward Andrew Ott. Ott is a 6-foot-10, 230-pound power forward and is averaging 11.4 points per game for the third-ranked team in the city, according to Amauro Austin of the high school basketball Web site Tedsilary.com.

The staff has made just as many visits to Neumann-Goretti to check out its tremendously talented quartet of players: juniors Earl Pettis and Derrick "D.J." Rivera, and sophomores Antonio "Scoop" Jardine and Rick Jackson. They have led the Saints to a 21-1 record and a No. 12 ranking in USA Today's national high school poll.

Pettis appears to be Penn State's main focus, but he is also being recruited by Connecticut. The 6-foot-5 guard/forward is eerily similar to Geary Claxton in terms of style of play and versatility. Pettis can play either wing position and has the unique ability to create his own shot.

Rivera -- seemingly second on the list -- is a pure scorer (averaging 16.1 points per game) and the Saints' best true guard. Adding to his attractiveness is that he is quite possibly the best defensive guard in the city. Scoring and defense just happen to be two things the Lions need most.

There are a couple of other big guys from Abington Friends High School that the Lions are pursuing. The first is Andrew Jones, a 6-foot-8 forward who is a tremendous rebounder and a solid shooter. He is still working on getting stronger, but he does have another year of weight lifting to improve on that.

His teammate Jason Love, on the other hand, is a very strong player who already has a Big Ten body. At 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, he would be a perfect fit for the Lions, but Penn State, naturally, isn't the only team recruiting the big junior, and that's one of the bad things about recruiting in a metropolitan area.

"It's not just the Big 5 schools that are in there," Johnson said, referring to the five universities in the Philadelphia area. "Philadelphia's a big city, [and] it's a huge market for basketball, so you're not just competing with Big 5 schools and in-state schools; you're also competing with the nation's best."

With such competition in the recruiting game, Johnson seems to understand what is at stake in Philadelphia.

"Now we have to close the deal now with a couple of kids," Johnson said. "We have to convince them that this is a special place to be and they can help turn this program around."