Ed DeChellis is beyond counting sheep.

If the Penn State men's basketball team loses a game, then its third year head coach will, without a doubt, lose a good deal of sleep.

"[All losses] hurt," DeChellis said after Saturday's 80-76 loss to Iowa. "Won't sleep after losing by 50, won't sleep after losing by three or four."

In October it was about establishing confidence for his young team, the youngest in the Big Ten. Now that the Nittany Lions (9-5, 1-2 Big Ten) are fairly confident in their abilities, it's about getting over the hump, getting that win against a good team, ending the program's run as the butt of Big Ten jokes.

A fortunate bounce here, a different call there, and the Lions might have been the ones laughing this past weekend. Instead, though, it's back to the drawing board for a team whose confidence has skyrocketed since last Wednesday's road victory over Northwestern.

But it's not so simple for the coach. For DeChellis, it's back to Saturday's game. It's back to that good crowd. It's back to the lack of execution on an entry pass in the waning moments against Iowa, the failure to secure a rebound or two at the end of the game.

"We were one rebound away from winning the game, and we didn't get that rebound," DeChellis said. "I won't sleep all night, and I'll watch it, and it'll still be one rebound."

But perhaps when DeChellis replays the game on film and in his head, he'll see more than just a few missed opportunities and defensive lapses. Perhaps he will find a team that was not only confident it could beat the Hawkeyes, but a squad that expected to from the start.

"It hurts a little more [than the blowout loss to Ohio State] because we

were right there in the game," freshman forward Jamelle Cornley said. "It hurts me because we came into this game very energetic and very confident."

Travis Parker pointed out a few positives from the game.

"Even though we lost, we gained respect from Iowa and everyone in the Big Ten," the senior forward and captain said. "We gained more confidence by this game we played today. We're never out of a game unless we want to be out of the game, unless we quit, and we didn't do that.

"I feel like they know that we should have won, but, hey, it happens."

Even Iowa's coach, Steve Alford, said no team this year had outplayed the Hawkeyes on the glass like Penn State did. And Iowa has played teams like Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina State, Wisconsin and Illinois.

But DeChellis can't rest on moral victories, he must worry about the program's every last detail, and he knows the biggest detail -- the win-loss columns -- might take care of things like attendance, recruiting and so on.

On Saturday, Penn State's season-best home crowd of 8,293 was supportive and, at times, quite loud. But DeChellis must now lament over how he had the fans there, but couldn't secure their return trip to the Bryce Jordan Center because the team could not secure a victory.

"Our students are critical to us," DeChellis said. "The people in the community are critical to us. We had a great crowd, good energy, and now I feel responsible. We've got to make a play and maybe get them back. I told the staff after that it was right there, and I feel responsible because we didn't make that play and somehow I've got to figure out why."

And now DeChellis gets to worry about the challenges of playing Purdue tomorrow. How will the student turnout be for a 6 p.m. game? How will the Lions play at that unusual tip-off time?

Confidence, though, no longer seems to be the problem.

"We're gonna come back on Wednesday, so we ain't worried about it," Parker said.

And perhaps, after gauging the attitude and mentality of his squad, DeChellis won't be worried about that either.