After Ed DeChellis reflected on his team and himself following the Nittany Lions' lopsided defeat to Michigan State, the Penn State men's basketball coach figured it was time to make a much-needed phone call.

If there were one person who could give him an honest assessment of Penn State's 27-point loss, it would surely be Tom Izzo, DeChellis' longtime friend and coach of the Spartan team that exploited the Lions' every weakness.

"Tell me what you think about my team," DeChellis said he requested of Izzo yesterday morning.

Unfortunately, DeChellis said, Izzo did not give any keys to a new vault of information.

Izzo, the coach of the 2000 national champions, said Saturday's game was the best his team played all year. Before that, the Spartans had not been shooting the ball particularly well, Izzo said, so he would have played the same defensive zone scheme that the Lions (10-8, 1-4 Big Ten) used.

"Some of the things he told me is what we thought all along," DeChellis said. "I'm not trying to validate what we're doing by saying another coach said it's OK. What I'm trying to get at is ... maybe we aren't as bad as we showed on Saturday. I don't think we're that bad."

But confidence is understandably low, DeChellis said. Four consecutive defeats and two straight losses by 20-or-more points have left many searching for self-assurance, hence DeChellis' call to Izzo.

"I can't go to our guys, 'Let's go have confidence' because we haven't had any success," DeChellis said. "I have to make sure that we're working hard to have some success."

At the same time, DeChellis acknowledged that some players, like junior swingman Geary Claxton, might be trying too hard in search of a win. After the largest margin of defeat this season, the fourth-year Penn State coach asked everyone in the locker room, including himself, what he could do differently. Ben Luber, one of two seniors on the team, sensed the Lions weren't playing loosely enough.

"We need to get back to having fun and playing basketball for the right reasons," Luber said. "I think we're taking it a little too serious right now, and not playing the game of basketball like it's supposed to be played."

Claxton agreed with that statement. DeChellis has actually felt it.

"When you lose games, everything is wrong. The training table meal is wrong, strength training is wrong, the colors the media is wearing is wrong," DeChellis said minutes after remarking on a green shirt, resembling Michigan State's color, worn by a reporter.

"When you win, you masquerade a lot of stuff that might be bothering you, but it's not that big of a deal at the time, he said. "When you lose, everything comes to the forefront."

That's why a phone call to an opposing Big Ten coach served its purpose, to a point.

DeChellis said he has previously sought the opinions of Illinois coach Bruce Weber and Northwestern's Bill Carmody. He also got a phone call from former Penn State coach Bruce Parkhill, who coached the Lions from 1983-95, on Sunday morning.

"Sometimes you can't see the trees through the forest," DeChellis said. "Sometimes, I want to get another person's perspective."