Danny Morrissey lies back in the front corner of the Bryce Jordan Center trainer's room, the brace on his right knee expanding and contracting again and again.

Other athletes file in and out of the room receiving attention from trainer Jon Salazer, occasionally giving a quick wave to Morrissey.

He sits back and relaxes, reflecting on his roller coaster career. For the 24-year-old fifth-year senior, the knee rehab is just a typical part of life -- just another part of an unconventional basketball career.

"It's been a lot of ups and downs, and I would say few more downs than ups to be honest," he says, shaking his head and laughing. "It's really tested my character as a person."

How'd his character get tested? Arriving on campus as a freshman and winning one conference game -- seven overall for the 2004-05 season -- will do it.

The next season, the Nittany Lions more than doubled their win total by notching 15 victories and earning a bid to the NIT. Morrissey played zero minutes.

He tore the patella tendon in his left knee near the beginning of preseason practice and spent the year watching from the sidelines as the Lions played postseason basketball for the first time since 2001's Sweet 16 run.

When he returned to the floor for his redshirt sophomore season, Penn State had to go back to the drawing board: 11-19 record, two Big Ten wins.

"There's been ups, there's been downs. He's had good knees, he's had bad knees. He's made free throws, now he hasn't made some free throws," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "You can kind of joke about it all -- he's been through it all."

***

Morrissey stepped onto campus at Penn State in the second year of DeChellis' rebuilding project, but his unique basketball career began well before he arrived in Happy Valley.

The 6-foot-3 Cleveland, Ohio, native chose Penn State in part because he wanted to be closer to his family after spending two seasons playing high school ball at the IMG Group's Pendleton School in Bradenton, Fla.

There, at the age of 16, he adapted to a college lifestyle more than 1,000 miles from home and two years before taking his first college class.

So excited about the possibility of attending a basketball academy, Morrissey remembers nearly being in tears trying to convince parents Jim and Mary Ellen to send him there.

But in the end, the decision proved to be easier for his parents than one might think.

"More or less it wasn't hard to let him go down there because we knew what kind of player and student he was," Mary Ellen Morrissey said. "And the facility was just fabulous.

"How could we say 'No' to that?"

Refusing would have prevented Morrissey from learning alongside current NBA players Michael Beasley and Renaldo Balkman and former SEC stars Taurean Green and Ramel Bradley. And because of the academy's ties to NBA players, he played pickup games with the likes of Kevin Garnett, Al Harrington and Chauncey Billups.

"It was an incredible experience," Morrissey says. "I met so many great people and learned so much, not only in basketball, but how to manage my time.

"I mean, I lived like a college student at the age of 16."

***

Knee problems made an impact even before Morrissey enrolled at Pendleton

As a high school freshman at Cleveland's University School, Morrissey dislocated his right knee and eventually underwent surgery to clean it up before his freshman year at Penn State.

The 3-point specialist found a rhythm for the Lions by the end of his freshman year, starting 10 games and knocking down 53 shots from beyond the arc. While the Lions limped to just one Big Ten win, Morrissey at least entered the 2005-06 campaign with as much personal confidence in his game as ever.

Then came a reality check in the form of new knee troubles.

"I really was confident about what I was going to be able to do that year, and then I guess fate would have it, I got injured," he said. "It hasn't been the same since. I haven't played as well as I thought I could've played. And maybe I can blame that partly on my injuries."

The history of injuries has led to all the time spent stretching, rehabbing and what he calls "prehabbing."

Through all the trouble, Morrissey says he wouldn't change anything about his career because he's happy with his development as a person to where he is today -- a finance graduate working on a second degree, as well as a contributor to a 20-win team.

"It's easy to succeed and learn from doing that," he says. "But when you fail, that's when you really grow up."

***

When chatting with freshman guard Chris Babb recently, Morrissey came to an odd realization.

"I already knew how to read before he was born."

Morrissey is 5 years, 3 months and 13 days older than Babb.

And he's 2 years, 4 months and 4 days older than Stanley Pringle, the team's second-oldest player.

With the age difference comes jokes from teammates and roommates Jeff Brooks, D.J. Jackson and Andrew Jones, who like to call him "Uncle D-Mo" and the "grandpa of the house."

But his age and experience with so many ups and downs have molded him into a sort of player-coach.

"For me, D-Mo has been more of a coach than anything, with him being the older guy on the team," Brooks said. "He's been through a lot at Penn State. So to me, he's a very insightful player on this team, and I love to play with him."

Morrissey shares captain duties with Jamelle Cornley and Talor Battle, and even Cornley -- the team's clear vocal leader -- has relied on Morrissey to keep him in check.

"Danny has helped me in so many ways that I don't think a lot of people know, because he's the one who has mellowed me out whenever I needed advice," Cornley said. "That's what I try to do is take some of the stuff that he looks at and incorporate that in my own demeanor and then pass it down to some else.

"He doesn't say a whole lot, but he says enough."

***

Tonight, Morrissey makes his final appearance at the Jordan Center, barring a home game in the NIT.

He now sits third on Penn State's all-time 3-pointer list, passing Titus Ivory in last week's loss at Ohio State. With his knees acting up in a road game with Purdue and production dropping off this season, his numbers more resemble the start of his career than progress.

But for Morrissey, who plans to give basketball a shot in Europe before going back to school to get his advanced degree in business, one thing could wipe away any personal struggles: an NCAA tournament trip.

"It would make all of those years just kind of disappear," he says. "All of the 1-and-whatever, 15, we went that season in the Big Ten and seven wins, it would make all that just not mean anything. It would make my career."

The Lions aren't there yet, but the goal is within reach.

And just maybe, all the ups and downs will pay off, and "Uncle D-Mo" will see his dream realized.

"You're gonna have ups and downs in your life, and you gotta take the good with the bad because you can't have the good without the bad," he says.

"I would've loved to have been able to make the tournament every year, but then it wouldn't be as special to me if we make it this year. My last, senior year."