It was supposed to be different this year.

The Penn State men's basketball team entered the season with something that has been lacking around the program in recent years: high expectations.

The Nittany Lions were projected by many, including opposing coaches, to place in the top five in the Big Ten and make a run for the NCAA tournament.

But after a very sluggish 1-6 start in conference play, the Lions are struggling to regain some sense of respectability for the season.

And though the added attention the Lions received before even lacing up their sneakers may appear as a distraction, head coach Ed DeChellis is not against the added exposure.

"I don't know if [the expectations] had an impact," DeChellis said. "We have always had goals as a team and we try to commit to them. Whether they affected us or not, we just haven't won."

DeChellis pointed to the disappointing non-conference season as a possible cause for the team's lack of confidence.

The Lions were upset early by Division II Shippensburg and mid-major Stony Brook while junior swingman Geary Claxton was sidelined with a broken finger.

Both losses shook the team's confidence but were chalked up as lessons. The Lions were learning how to win without their best player.

When Claxton returned to the lineup, Penn State regained its expected form and beat the teams they were favored over, while narrowly missing upsets at Georgia Tech and Seton Hall.

A mid-December loss to Southeastern Louisiana served as a bump in the road, but the Lions quickly rebounded and reeled off three straight wins.

Then Penn State started on its current skid. Six straight and counting. However, DeChellis felt most of the damage was done after a 77-57 blowout loss at Michigan.

"After the third loss in the league, we had some deflated egos," DeChellis said. "Now, we need to reevaluate our goals, and I think that has affected us. Guys realized we might not be able to do what we talked about doing [before the season] and there was a little bit of a letdown."

The Lions are now searching for a way to regroup from the current disappointments. DeChellis said that Penn State is going to have to remain focused and calm if it wants to be able to rejoin the Big Ten battle, something sophomore forward Jamelle Cornley said is very conceivable.

"All of us individually, we got here by being able to respond to losses," Cornley said. "And we're here now, we're doing it, so we've got to find some way to get out of it."