All the best women's college bas-ketball programs in the nation use them.

No, it's not some revolutionary strength-training regimen, a particular piece of gym equipment, or a brand of cross-training shoe that brings greatness.

Rather, the top programs use men.

Every time the Penn State women's basketball team has practice at the Bryce Jordan Center each week, the players run the court with a practice squad composed entirely of men.

Undergraduate men, that is, complete with all the physicality, aggressiveness, and raging hormones typically associated with being a member of the male gender. The guys in their late teens and early twenties match up in drills and scrimmages against players like Kelly Mazzante and Tanisha Wright, in an attempt to help the Lady Lions develop their overall game.

"[The men] are part of the program," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "We just think that they're a little quicker and savvier than our second five.
The fact that they're a little bigger really helps us be a better basketball team."

For as long as Portland has been coaching at Penn State, she has utilized an all-male practice team to work with her players. Throughout her tenure, she said that the one area the men aid the most in is the speed of the game.

"They're relentless, like they don't get tired," she said. "Their feelings aren't hurt. Sometimes so many of them show up, that they have to sub. They enjoy every bit of what is happening on the court. Their great attitudes really show."

There is no tryout to be on the practice team. However, all of the men are required to sign student-athlete forms, like all other Penn State student-athletes, before participating and must be cleared by the NCAA. Instead of filing as a "male athlete," they all register as "female athletes" because they work with the women's basketball program. Once all of the paperwork is filed, if a player does not
compete at the high level of the program, Portland simply asks them to leave.

"Right now we have 10 that are on this practice squad," said Penn State women's basketball coordinator of operations Cara Consuegra. "We have turned people away because we don't want to have the guys sitting down. We want them actively involved. We try to keep the number relatively small for that purpose."

Some of the guys join the squad for exercise, some join for the love of the game, while some signed up a little more reluctantly.

"I got involved last fall. My dad just wanted me to do something, and I had nothing else to do," Marc Liveratti (junior-kinesiology) said. "I had always played basketball in high school. I knew there was a practice team so I decided to try it out."

Liveratti is "well known" to the Lions on the practice court. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is another question.

"One kid, they hated him last
year, and they like him this year," Portland said. "They hated Marc last year."

So, Liveratti became a marked man on the practice court.

"We know all their names," sophomore forward Ashli Schwab said. "We know who we like to play, and we know who we don't like to play."

Like Portland said, a year ago Liveratti was one of those players who Schwab and the rest of the Lions did not like to play.

"They kind of hated me last year," Liveratti said. "Last year I didn't know what to expect. I always wanted to play my hardest. At times I was playing my hardest, but it may have seemed like I was out of control."

During a typical practice session, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Liveratti works with Jess Brungo, one of Penn State's post players. Their relationship on the hardwood is give-and-take, but always professional.

Well, almost always professional.

"Jess is hard to play against because she shoots threes more," Liveratti said. "I have fun with it. She'll drain a three in my face, and she'll talk trash. Then I'll block a shot and she'll be mad."

Liveratti said that trash talking between the men and women during practice is part of the fun. They rib on each other not in a malicious sense, but purely for fun. It allows both sides to laugh a little during an otherwise intense and strenuous workout.

"Last week I was hitting all my shots and Jess had commented that she was going to kill me if I kept making them," Liveratti said. "I just had a good day. Usually I shoot horribly. She usually makes fun of me because I'm not a good outside shooter."

But who talks the most trash?

"Probably Tanisha [Wright], but I don't think it's that bad at all," Liveratti said. "It's not personal or anything. She does it more for fun, like we all do. I think a lot of the practice guys trash talk each other."

Aside from having the honor of playing alongside some of college basketball's most prolific players -- and sometimes getting a earful from them -- there are other perks to playing as an adopted Lady Lion.

The free gear.

"They get us shoes and sweats and shirts when they have them," Liveratti said. "They hook us up nice, I'll tell you that. We get a lot of nice stuff.
It's one of the things I enjoy. They don't have to give us anything but they do."