At the end of Tuesday morning's practice, Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman told his team it had to look sharp -- no untidy facial hair, and don't forget the tie and blazer.

As the No. 15 Nittany Lions (10-6-2, 6-0 Big Ten) travel to Evanston, Ill., for this weekend's Big Ten tournament, they can only hope their games have the same clean appearance.

Gorman said there is a lot of parity in the conference. And if the regular season is any indication, a series of tough and hard-fought games will be played before a champion is crowned.

"Nobody wants to lose, so we have to beat everybody," junior defender Markku Viitanen said. "It's really an even conference."

Penn State enters the tournament as the regular season champion and No. 1 seed for having gone undefeated in Big Ten play. It received a bye in the first round for the accomplishment and will get the advantage of scouting teams in today's three games.

All of that makes the Lions out to be the tournament favorite. But they went to overtime in five of their six conference games, including two in double overtime. While that makes for exciting victories, it also provides every team in the conference with the hope of an upset.

"I'm sure there's not a team in the Big Ten that doesn't think they can beat us," Gorman said.

Indiana (11-1-6, 2-1-3 Big Ten) figures to be chief among them, entering the tournament as the No. 3 seed and No. 2 in the country. The defending national champions haven't lost since Penn State defeated them on Sept. 30, but had three of the games since end in a tie.

The Hoosiers have been battle-tested lately, earning a tie and a win vs. national powers No. 1 Maryland and No. 5 Akron, whose combined record is 30-4-2. Add all that up, and Indiana figures to get some attention -- perhaps too much.

"We don't get that much respect over there right now, so I'm glad to go there and show them what we're all about," Viitanen said. "That we didn't go undefeated for no reason."

But before any Nittany Lion-Hoosier rematch takes place, Penn State will have to play in the tournament's second-round game tomorrow, facing the winner of the game between fourth-seeded Michigan State and fifth-seeded Michigan.

The Lions needed overtime goals to defeat both -- by junior forward Simon Omekanda in the 1-0 win vs. the Spartans, and by freshman forward Jason Yeisley in a 3-2 double overtime victory vs. the Wolverines.

Both games against the Lions' Great Lake State opponents were tight contests, but Viitanen said he thought the team gave up weak goals vs. Michigan, and would rather face Michigan State, defending tournament champion.

"I think we had solid defending against them. Michigan is maybe more ready to come after us," Viitanen said. "We have a bit of a headlock on Michigan State already."

Should the Lions win that semifinal-round game and advance to the championship round, they will have to see who comes out of the other half of the bracket. In the first round, Indiana faces sixth-seeded Wisconsin, and second seed Ohio State plays seventh seed Northwestern, the tournament host.

But the championship game is three days and one unpredictable mess away. Rather than focusing on that, Penn State is focusing on making sure everyone is healthy and playing its sharpest.

Another factor that could potentially increase the untidiness of the weekend is the weather. The climate in mid-November Illinois does not paint the prettiest picture, but it looks like the tournament will at least avoid snow -- a four-letter word to Gorman.

But the forecast calls for possible showers starting Saturday and Sunday, which could make for an extremely saturated championship round. Still, this is beyond Penn State's control.

Viitanen said the Lions are "coming and ready to go," which, combined with how he also said every team's going to be playing at full speed, might mean the eventual champion will be standing on the podium bruised and battered.

"I like playoffs, I like the idea of you have to get a result on the game," Gorman said. "It puts an onus on the team to score, it puts an onus on the team to play well defensively and stay focused."