The first play of freshman Evan Smotrycz’s Big Ten conference career was eye opening, to say the least.

“It was definitely one of those ‘Welcome-to-the-Big-Ten’ moments,” Smotrycz said Thursday at Crisler Arena. “I think their first play was a lobb, reverse dunk to JaJuan Johnson and I was like, ‘Oh, all right.’ ”

Michigan (0-1 Big Ten, 10-3 overall) dropped that contest to No. 12 Purdue but is looking to even its record when the Wolverines host Penn State on Sunday at 4 p.m.

The Nittany Lions (1-0, 8-4) are coming off a big conference-opening win over Indiana in Bloomington where, they too, posted a big lead in the first few minutes of the game. Penn State jumped out to a 25-11 advantage after hitting their first four 3-point attempts.

“I saw their loss against Maine (on December 21), and then they came back and beat (Indiana) at IU and that’s never an easy task,” junior Stu Douglass said. “No matter how down people say IU is, it’s never easy to win at Assembly. (The Nittany Lions) have a lot of weapons. They have a lot of experience.”

Penn State’s most valuable weapon and experience comes in the form of senior guard Talor Battle. Battle, a two-time All-Big Ten selection, led the Nittany Lions in scoring during his first three seasons. And this year doesn't appear to be much different. He entered the season 612 points short of Penn State’s all-time scoring record and has already scored 246 of those points in just 12 games.

Douglass will probably receive the formidable task of containing the lightning-quick Battle, which Michigan coach John Beilein described as “trying to guard Denard Robinson out there.”

But Battle has had a lot of help this season. In the three games that Battle hasn’t led the team in scoring, fellow senior Jeff Brooks has put up big numbers. The 6-foot-8 forward is also the team’s leading rebounder, averaging 7.8 rebounds per game.

The Nittany Lions bring a wealth of experience to the court, starting two redshirt seniors, two true seniors and just one sophomore — that’s 15 seasons of college basketball experience. On the other hand, the youthful Wolverines have just four seasons combined in their starters, not counting their game experience this year or their European trip this past August.

But time and time again, Beilein has said how impressed he is with how quickly his team has adjusted to playing college ball, and he said if there was to be a game that really exposed his squad to the Big Ten, their game against Purdue was perfect.

“You’ve gotta get used to that style,” Beilein said on Thursday. “(Purdue is) probably the most aggressive of anybody in the league. They’re probably gonna lead the league in defense and just physical play, and so you get it and then you’ve experienced it and now you know what you’re in store for.”

The Wolverines are hoping they have a better idea of what’s in store for them with this second game of the Big Ten slate.