In the past, a conference home opener against Penn State would be one of the easier games on MSU's schedule. But for this season's Spartans, nothing has been easy.

But playing at home has brought back some of their swagger.

"We got to get back to the pride that the Breslin Center is one of the toughest places to play in the country, and when teams come in, they know that they're going to have a tough game on their hands," senior center Jason Andreas said.

Today's game will be MSU's first home game in more than two weeks.

"We definitely have to re-establish ourselves here and get used to here," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "We haven't even practiced down in Breslin in a long time, to be honest with you. It's just incredible how seldom we've been here this year."

The Nittany Lions (8-5) are atop the Big Ten with a 2-0 record, their best conference start since the 1995-96 season.

Penn State's fast beginning has been a surprise, considering it has a new coach, finished last in the conference last season and lost guard Sharif Chambliss, who averaged 14.7 points per game last season but transferred to Wisconsin.

First-year coach Ed DeChellis, said his team's confidence is the culmination of small successes the team has achieved.

"They may seem very minute, but when you haven't been successful the last couple years, all those things add up and are very positive to the way our players are thinking," he said.

Izzo said this season's Penn State team reminds him of the team he coached during the 1995-96 season, his first as head coach at MSU. That year, the Spartans had a 6-6 record going into conference play, then won their first two Big Ten games.

"We beat Indiana here, then we went on the road and