Noam Shaham hosted a small group of his gymnastics teammates Monday night in his off-campus house to watch the Olympics.

Shaham, a native of Israel, doesn't really care too much for the U.S. men's national team -- except for Kevin Tan. While teammates cheered on their country's best gymnasts, Shaham kept quiet, trying to get some homework done.

But when Tan came on the screen, grasping the still rings and mounting the pommel horse, Shaham dropped his pencil and watched his assistant coach help his team to a bronze medal in the team finals at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

"I'm not a fan of the American team; I'm a fan of Kevin Tan," Shaham said.

The United States' score of 275.850 was just more than three points behind silver medalist Japan. China took the gold medal. Tan, who captains the U.S. squad, was the first to perform on the pommel horse -- the final event of the evening for the US -- and ran into trouble during his routine. Near the end of his routine on the horse, Tan fell -- at one point sitting on the apparatus -- putting the most damage into his 12.775 score on the pommel horse. The score measured well below the average scores for the rest of the field.

Senior NCAA all-around champion and Penn State gymnast Casey Sandy, who watched with Shaham, said Tan stumbled during a difficult skill.

"When I realized the US was finishing on the pommel, my heart dropped a little," Sandy said. "I was like, 'Uh oh,' pommel horse is probably one of hardest events to finish on."

Shaham's eyes were fixed on the screen with thoughts of "Oh no," racing through his head. He admits he didn't think the lackluster performance would keep the American team off the medal podium, but from knowing Tan's self-expectations, Shaham can see his coach beating himself up over his disappointing routine.

In fact, had Tan completed a clean routine, perhaps he would be bringing a silver medal back to State College to show off to Shaham and his teammates.

"Overall, getting an Olympic medal is something that not everyone gets," Shaham said. "I believe as time goes by, he will be just as proud as we are."

Earlier in the night, Tan scored a 15.425 on the still rings, considered his best event.

Shaham said Tan was bothered by minor injuries in his hand. During Tan's practice session in the White Building a couple of weeks ago, he wrapped his hand in tape before mounting the pommel horse. Also, Tan had been changing a few parts of his routine, Shaham said.

"We know what he's capable of," Shaham said. "None of us have been in that kind of pressure. We all seen him do his routine over and over again, and it happens, people fall."

What Tan and his teammates accomplished is being hailed as nothing short of spectacular by the media and fans. Late injuries to Paul and Morgan Hamm forced the only gymnasts who competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens to withdraw.

Even with the depleted roster, Shaham thought the U.S. team still had just as good a chance to earn a medal as any other country in the field, specifically because in a three-up, three-count situation, there is no room for error.

"Anyone else could've taken that third place," Shaham said. "A lot of other teams screwed up. [Jonathan] Horton did a great job, stuck everything. I've never seen him that good, it looked like he was really at his best, everybody actually."

Shaham and the Nittany Lion gymnasts in his home should know. They competed against Horton and the University of Oklahoma the last couple of years for the NCAA championship. Horton and the Sooners prevented the Lions from repeating as national champions last spring.

Now, Horton and Penn State share a common bond. When Tan returns to the gym in the White Building, he will have the same bronze medal Horton does. Shaham joked that when Tan tries to show him technique on the pommel horse, he may imitate the slip up his coach had in Beijing.

"Not until a couple weeks have passed," Shaham said with a chuckle.

Tan is finished competing in Beijing. He just missed qualifying for the individual on finals in the still rings -- an event in which Sandy figured Tan would contend.

"It's definitely gonna be frustrating," Sandy said. "He was anticipating making the event finals for rings. The only thing bad he did was his dismount, they took five-tenths off for that one step. I think he'll definitely be thinking about that one for a while."