If the Nittany Lions ever needed motivation to string together two wins, they got it Wednesday night after fans stormed the court.

"I saw one dude fall trying to chest bump Geary [Claxton]," forward Travis Parker said with a laugh. "It felt good. It shows that fans really care, so it helped us out a lot."

The Penn State men's basketball team will try to transform that motivation into a victory when it takes on Purdue at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow in West Lafayette, Ind.

The Lions haven't had back-to-back conference wins in two years. Penn State has already beaten Purdue once this season but hasn't swept a team since defeating Michigan twice in the 2000-01 season.

Parker said this meeting will be a little different, though, because the Boilermakers should come out angry. The Lions blew out Purdue by a 20-point margin last time -- and Parker can relate.

He said his team was furious when it had to play Wisconsin and Ohio State the second time around. Still, the Lions dropped both those second-chance contests.

"[Purdue] has been doing pretty -- well, I wouldn't say great -- but I think they've been doing some winning since the last time we played them," Parker said.

The Boilermakers (9-14, 3-9 Big Ten) have won their last two home games, including an upset over No. 22 Michigan last Saturday. Purdue coach Matt Painter has also made a few changes to his lineup.

Korey Spates, who accounted for six turnovers in the last meeting, was dismissed in late January for "conduct detrimental to the team." On the flip side, freshman Marcus Green has stepped up and recorded 23 points vs. Michigan. Against Penn State (12-11, 4-8), he accounted for four.

Penn State assistant coach Kurt Kanaskie said Purdue's personnel changes wouldn't affect the game plan too much. He said there are basically three keys to tomorrow's game: blocking out to prevent offensive rebounds, limiting turnovers and taking quality shots.

"I think we'll use a variety of defenses to create turnovers, but I can't say we're going to press the whole game," Kanaskie said.

The Lions' defense was instrumental in the last meeting. Penn State forced 19 turnovers, scored 20 points off those mistakes and recorded a dozen steals. Penn State may not have pressed the whole game, but a strong mixture of the trap and press caused fits for the Boilermakers.

Critics and fans alike may fear the dreaded "Illinois" complex, but Kanaskie said that wouldn't be an issue. In other words, Penn State may be coming off a big win -- but Penn State's learned its lesson after upsetting the Fighting Illini and then falling to last-place Minnesota.