Mike Walker twiddled his fingers in the postgame press conference on Wednesday after just missing a last-second three-point shot that would have beaten No. 2 Ohio State.

"What if?" is a hard question to bare, as his eyes stared down beneath the microphone. Yes, Walker would go on to say this experience could end up helping the Nittany Lions next year, but those thoughts don't satisfy him just yet.

"It breaks a nine-game losing streak," Walker said after the game. "We have a lot more confidence [tomorrow]. We would have a great opportunity against Wisconsin, but, you know, it didn't go in, and it wasn't meant to be tonight."

Penn State (10-14, 1-10 Big Ten) cannot look any farther down the road than No. 3 Wisconsin (25-2, 11-1), which will serve as host at 12:17 p.m. tomorrow in Madison, Wis. A 10-game losing streak drags behind the Lions.

Lions head coach Ed DeChellis hasn't had the luxury of sleeping during the past couple of days. After falling to the Buckeyes, 64-62, he admitted that his team needs a win just to feel better once the Big Ten tournament rolls around in March.

With the Badgers up next and then Ohio State once again this upcoming Wednesday in Columbus, another win might not come soon. Instead of building on a true victory, DeChellis is forced to try and build off of a moral one -- not getting blown out of the Bryce Jordan Center by the Buckeyes on national television despite trailing 21 points at halftime.

"We are in a valley, we are in a huge valley," DeChellis said, "and we have to find out what kind of team we are. How we are going to dig ourselves out of this thing?"

After outscoring the Buckeyes 43-24 in the second half, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta called Penn State the "the best 10-14 team" he had ever seen. Walker knows teams like Wisconsin pay attention to those statements.

"You don't like to lose, but at the same time you look at the second half, and we just completely killed them," Walker said. "The other teams see that; we see that. So at the same time, it's obviously frustrating, but we'll come into the Wisconsin game more confident."

Now Wisconsin will know it can't shoot worse than 29 percent in the first half and win, as was the case against Minnesota on Wednesday. The Lions gained ground on a cold Ohio State team by hitting 47 percent from the field in the second half.

But Penn State knows that Alando Tucker, a 2,000-point scorer and a three-time conference player of the week during the course of this season, is capable of deepening the hole that DeChellis talked about.

Geary Claxton finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds against Ohio State -- only four points of which came in the first half -- and will surely be Penn State's counter to Tucker. And while it is late in the season to make a run at anything substantial, and loss after loss makes the past a bad memory, Claxton still said he feels as though a win could do a lot for the future.

"We can take this experience, and like Mike said, we can carry these games over to next year," Claxton said. "But we have to stay focused. We have to be focused on the Wisconsin game now. Hopefully, we'll upset them."

Notes: The Lions became homeless before hitting the road for Madison. THON will push Penn State's practice today into the Intramural Building, as the 46-hour Dance Marathon occupies the Jordan Center.