Just two days after recording a career high in points, assists and rebounds in a win over Michigan, Penn State guard Talor Battle was lying face down in the training room, wincing periodically because of his sore tailbone.

Battle has taken a pounding this year, much more than he had ever experienced during his high school basketball seasons. But he has taken it in stride, becoming a key ingredient in the success of the Penn State men's basketball team while adjusting to college life.

The bumps and bruises are to be expected when facing the rigors of a full collegiate basketball season for the first time, but what was less than predictable was Battle's emergence as a go-to guy in recent weeks.

Battle represents one-half of a new-look guard tandem for the Nittany Lions. The freshman from Bishop Maginn High School in Albany, N.Y., has teamed up with Stanley Pringle, a junior college transfer from Pasco-Hernando Community College in New Port Richey, Fla., to form a backcourt with a level of speed and athleticism not typically seen in the blue and white jerseys.

"We're both new and we both had to adapt from our old team to this team," Pringle said. "We definitely have a bond, and playing on the court is easy because we both kind of do the same thing."

The impact of the newcomers can be seen through the faster pace on the court and tougher perimeter defense. It also shows up in the numbers.

Excluding an injured Geary Claxton, Battle is second in points this year, averaging 10 per game heading into last night's game. Pringle is fourth with 6.5, despite coming off the bench in all but nine games. The duo is also first and second in steals, combining for 65, which is almost 40 percent of the team's total before last night.

They have had an effect on the most important statistic as well -- wins. The Lions' six conference victories are tied for the most under coach Ed DeChellis, with a game still remaining in Big Ten play.

However, Battle and Pringle didn't simply come in and turn the Penn State program on its head. Division I basketball doesn't often show sympathy to the inexperienced, and DeChellis foresaw some of the players' growing pains before the season even began.

"They'll both have to pick their spots," the coach said during his preseason press conference. "At the different level they played last year, they could kind of do what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it and now that's not going to be the case."

He was right. The two showed early flashes of brilliance -- like Pringle's Bryce Jordan Center-record seven steals against St. Francis (Pa.) or Battle's 11 consecutive points at the end of a win over Seton Hall -- but also showed their lack of maturity with some horrific shooting nights and unforced turnovers.

It was the first day of practice, though, that really showed Battle how much he had to learn. The coaches put him, Pringle, Danny Morrissey and Mike Walker together in a defensive drill, and for 20 minutes Battle was unable to get a stop.

"I remember just going back to my room and the next day coming in and just moping around and not wanting to talk to anybody," Battle said. "I thought I was pretty good coming out of high school and they showed me how different it is here in college."

By the conclusion of the non-conference schedule, Battle and Pringle became much more comfortable on the court. They both have averaged more points per game in conference play and one of the two has led the Lions in scoring in seven of the last 10 games. It hasn't equaled a winning record in the Big Ten, but their play has been an upgrade to the backcourt.

That's a big step for a team that finished with a 2-14 conference record a season ago.

It's still been hard for Battle and Pringle to adjust to losing. They both spent last year at winning programs, largely because of their own play. But they knew what awaited them when they came to Penn State. And they're hoping to change the fortunes for the Lions.

Junior forward Jamelle Cornley, who hosted both players when they visited campus last year, wasn't shy about the stigma surrounding the Penn State program.

"I've hosted four or five of these kids that are out here now," Cornley said. "You can't hide it. Our record is what it is. I sit up there and I tell them everything."

The losing in the past did not scare away Pringle, though. It was the potential winning in the future that brought him to Penn State, as well as a connection to the players, including Cornley, his roommate.

Cornley convinced him and Battle that they could change the course of Penn State basketball, and now Pringle is trying to convince others of the same thing.

In his Employment Relations class (LER 100), Pringle met freshman Justin Ogden, a labor employment and relations major. The two became friends, studied together and talked basketball. Ogden said he wasn't an avid college basketball fan in the past, but Pringle convinced him that the Lions would have a new look this season and would be worth watching.

"I probably wouldn't have gotten season tickets if I hadn't met him," Ogden said.

Pringle not only earned a fan, but an entire cheering section. Since the Ohio State game, Ogden and his friends have been sitting courtside, dressed like a box of chips with the name "Stanley's Pringles" painted on the front.

Ogden told Pringle two days before the OSU game that he would be showing up in costume, but that wasn't what the guard had in mind.

"He shocked me when he did that," Pringle said. "I was thinking maybe just face paint or whatever, but when he came out with the boxes I was just like, 'Wow.' "

Pringle said he feels hyped up to play in front a cheering section, which is a much different atmosphere than at Pasco-Hernando CC, where 100 fans would be a good turnout.

Both he and Battle have gotten used to the limelight of Big Ten basketball, earning supporters along the way. If they help Penn State make another leap next year, students in potato chip costumes might become the norm at the BJC -- unless fans can think of a clever enough gimmick to support Pringle's backcourt mate.

"Battle asked why we didn't do something for him," Ogden said. "I told him we couldn't come up with anything yet."