STATE COLLEGE — Three straight upsets at home over Top 25 teams have Penn State fans buzzing again about basketball.

What could really get the NCAA tournament talk going is if the Nittany Lions can score a signature win or two on the road.

Amid all the buzz, high-scoring guard Talor Battle said the team remains grounded as it prepares for tonight’s game at Illinois (14-7, 4-4 Big Ten).

“We’ve got a goal, and we set that a long time ago,” Battle said. “That’s the one thing we worked on this whole year, staying focused, and not allowing a couple of wins get you too high, trying to stay level.”

Still, these are exciting times for Happy Valley basketball fans, who typically get disappointed with a team stuck in the lower division of the Big Ten. Penn State (12-8, 5-4) boasts victories over Michigan State, Illinois and Wisconsin — squads either ranked, or ranked at the time of the respective game — along with close calls on the road against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 11 Purdue.

The encouraging run is exciting students on the snowy campus and generating talk that perhaps this may be the year Penn State finally returns to the NCAA tournament. They’re ranked 46th in the RPI, a key barometer for teams hoping for an at-large bid, and have the sixth most-difficult schedule in the country.

The school’s last NCAA appearance was in 2001.

“We don’t want to put eggs into the basket too soon,” forward Jeff Brooks said. “We’re trying to be mellow and content about everything.”

Good thing, because this is the same team that lost to Maine by 10 points at home on Dec. 21, a loss that then appeared to have severely weakened their postseason aspirations.

Instead, it could be a defining point. Battle and his teammates went home for Christmas break stewing over a lost opportunity. They returned to beat Indiana on the road, 69-60, for their only victory away from home, then lost at Michigan, 76-69, after leading for most of the game.

Penn State was defeated soundly by Purdue at the Jordan Center, 83-68, before good things started happening Jan. 8. First, it was the 66-62 upset of then-No. 18 Michigan State. Then came the 57-55 victory over then-No. 16 Illinois. And then, following back-to-back road losses to the Buckeyes and Boilermakers by a combined four points, the Nittany Lions beat Iowa, 65-51, and then-No. 17 Wisconsin, 56-52.

Battle was the key component. In fact, he was named Big Ten co-player of the week, sharing with Michigan’s Darius Morris, after posting 20-point games vs. the Hawkeyes and Badgers.

The win over Wisconsin perhaps showed just how far the team has come in the fans’ eye. After all, more than 14,200 showed up for the victory, the biggest crowd at the 15,000 plus-seat Jordan Center in two seasons.

“It’s a confidence level,” coach Ed DeChellis said. “I think guys understand their roles much better. Everybody has stepped up and made plays when we had to have a play.”