BENCH PLAYERS COME THROUGH TO SPARK UPSET

Shon Morris, the analyst for Wednesday night's game against Illinois easily had the call of the night late in the second half after the Illini committed a flagrant foul. Play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee said that Talor Battle appeared to be hurting after he was taken to the ground by an Illinois defender and Morris, without missing a beat, chimed in, "He's hurting so good, Wayne."

John "Cougar" Mellencamp references aside, Ed DeChellis must have been feeling the best out of all the Lions after finally finding some productivity from his bench. One of the biggest roles a coach has is to find the right combination to give his team the best chance to win, understanding that that combination could change from night-to-night or even minute-to-minute. Wednesday night, Eddie D pushed the right buttons when he gave freshman Chris Babb a season-high tying twenty minutes of playing time, including the final seven-plus minutes.

Babb responded with seven points (just one off of his season-high, but nearly 20% of the Lions' scoring on the night) as well as a monumental steal that led to a Stanley Pringle layup to give Penn State a lead it would not relinquish. In total, the Lions' bench players produced 13 points and only had two turnovers in 57 combined minutes. By comparison, the five starters had 25 points and eleven turnovers in almost triple that time.

For much of the year, Danny Morrissey and David Jackson had been the sixth men. Now, with Jackson seemingly taking over the starting role from Jeff Brooks and Morrissey's knee bothering him, Babb might have become the first man off the bench after his clutch play against the Illini.

Andrew Ott deserves some praise too after playing inspired basketball on Wednesday. The big man chipped in four points, four rebounds and one huge block in just 12 minutes.