If there's anything the Penn State wrestling team has learned over these last five days, it's that you cannot work like you did in high school and expect to win. Example: Friday's 21-17 loss to Ohio State.

Lesson 1: matches are not fought on paper. The Buckeyes were 0-7 in the conference prior to waltzing into the Bryce Jordan Center and stealing a win.

"We win one more match, we win the dual," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said following the team meeting he held after the loss.

That's been the case most of the season. The Nittany Lions have been one takedown in a crucial match away from being a top 10 team. Instead, they're eighth (3-5) in the conference, No. 16 in the nation and hovering barely above .500 at 11-10 overall.

Lesson 2: you're going to have earn your wins in the gym during the week. Raw ability on weekends won't be enough where everybody is so evenly matched, especially in the Big Ten.

So finally they're getting in tough workouts.

"We took them to their comfort level and pushed them a little over it," Sunderland said. "And that's what you need."

It's been long overdue, too.

"We needed this practice three weeks ago," Sunderland told the team following Monday's effort. He then told them to expect it again the next day.

The reason it didn't happen several weeks ago is simple: The athletes physically couldn't do it.

For the past month, the Lions have had two meets each weekend, except for one, when they faced the No. 10-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes at home.

"It was just a matter of scheduling it around our dual meet competition," Sunderland said. "We can't put them through a workout like they've just been through and expect them to recover in four or five days."

Now they have the time, as nothing is scheduled this weekend prior to the Big Ten Tournament, March 5-6.

Senior captain Adam Smith panted and crouched low, regaining his breath after Sunderland let them go. And he's one of the better-conditioned ones.

"That's the difference between high school and wrestling in college," Smith said. "Everybody works out. You just have to suck it up and wrestle guys in the Big Ten and the best guys in the country. You have to go out of your comfort zone all the time and get the confidence that you can go hard. If I get tired, the other guy's going to be worse."

It's these kinds of workouts that give him the mindset that he's the best-conditioned wrestler in the country.

If anybody could get off with a slap on the wrist, Smith should be that person after winning his match with a pin. That was not the case.

"We just wrestled poorly from top to bottom," Sunderland said. "Even the matches that we won we weren't as sharp as we need to be at the Big Ten Championships."

Smith agreed. He isn't where he needs to be a week-and-a-half from now.

"The last couple of matches, I've been letting guys shoot at my legs a little bit easy," Smith said. "I've got to work on my offense. Those are things that are correctable that I can work on in the next couple of weeks."

If the Lions have anything on which to fall back, it's that the flat-footed performance did not happen at the Big Ten Tournament or the National Championships, according to Sunderland.

"It could've been worse. We could've had an effort like this at the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City," Sunderland said. "[Ohio State] was a wakeup call, something to learn from, but not forget."

Smith in particular has a lot at stake. He's looking to have a strong postseason after the team had a mediocre regular season and he dropped out of the top 20 in the 125-pound weight class.

"The good thing is we have a shot at redemption in the Big Tens ... right now it sucks to have a pretty bad turnout against Ohio State and end on a bad note," Smith said. "We can come back and get refocused and get a bunch of guys to Nationals and become All-Americans. Hopefully that's all that matters. People won't remember Ohio State."