Purdue presents chance to end losing skid:
“If there was ever a time for the Penn State men’s basketball team to break out of its conference road-losing funk, tonight may be it.
“It will be a battle of Big Ten Conference bottom-dwellers when the Nittany Lions (7-14, 1-7 Big Ten) take on Purdue (5-15, 1-8) at 8 p.m. at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. The Lions have possibly their best chance to end their 28-game road conference-losing streak against the struggling Boilermakers, with road contests against Northwestern (10-11, 3-6), Michigan (12-11, 3-6) and Michigan State (15-4, 6-2) remaining.
“‘If we come out and play with intensity, get the scouting report down with what the coaches have to say, you never know what can happen,’ Penn State guard Mike Walker said. ‘Especially a game like this, they’re kind of down with us in the conference, it’s a good chance for us to get a road win.’
“The Lions should be well rested after coach Ed DeChellis gave the team a rare weekend off.
“‘I didn’t even know what to do with myself,’ Walker said. ‘It was the first time we had two days off since the beginning of the year.’ …”