After a win or a loss, the next game is always the most important.

For the Penn State men's basketball team, that's a play off of cliché sports mottos like "play one game at a time" or to live in the present, but not the past or future. If it were possible to look past Stony Brook (1-1) at 7:30 tonight in the Bryce Jordan Center for a preseason top-25 team like Bucknell this Tuesday, the Nittany Lions (2-0) know better.

A couple skirmishes with the likes of Morehead State and UNC Greensboro, and an exhibition loss to Division II Shippensburg far in the past, Penn State takes every opponent seriously. Even if it's tiny Stony Brook from the American East Conference.

Honestly, sophomore forward Milos Bogetic, from Bodgorica, Montenegro, had never heard of the Seawolves until Wednesday, nor had he known much about the Lions' last two opponents until the games were actually played.

"I can't judge someone who I don't know," Bogetic said. "If they are playing us, they are a Division I team, and they probably deserve to be there, so it's going to be interesting."

Stony Brook has two guards who are putting up 20-plus points per game early this season. Mitchell Beuford, a 5-foot-11 junior, leads the Seawolves with a 22 point-per game average, while 6-foot-4 junior Ricky Lucas averages 20 per contest.

Both seem magnetically repelled by the paint, as Beuford and Lucas have combined for 27 three-pointers in their first two games. Stony Brook is another challenge, another game for head coach Ed DeChellis' club to gauge improvement.

"It's early, I felt that we made improvement from Game 1 to Game 2, from the first week of practice to now and that's what it is about," DeChellis said after beating UNCG, 69-56 on Monday. "Trying to get better one game at a time and a couple practices at a time."

The 6-foot-10 Bogetic is still trying to find, in the next few games his own potential in the paint.

Yes, the big-man is thinking big-man things with a freshly-shaved dome.

"This is my first practice, but if I start dunking," Bogetic said, "I'm going to keep it."

The only shot he has taken inside the three-point line this season was missed, he missed both of his two free-throw attempts and he has only drained one of his trademark big-man threes.

The new hairdo at Wednesday's practice wasn't a huge statement, just a modest change in style. While Penn State has averaged 39 rebounds per game, and a .33 three-point shooting percentage, Bogetic wants to join the party on the boards.

Last week wasn't his best. Bogetic was starting to come down with a flu, which he thinks he successfully fought off. This still caused him to be dragging his feet, as he has only stayed on the court an average of 7.5 minutes in the first two games.

And for that one, the usually delighted Bogetic was only able to manage a down trotting jog to the other end of the court. There are probably bouncier days ahead.

"I was really low on energy and really wasn't able to help the team very much," Bogetic said. "I hope that it is going to be better next game."