The pundits want to doubt Pittsburgh. They say the Panthers lost too much from last season to be true Big East Conference contenders.

They say Pittsburgh, which has started the season 17-0 under first-year coach Jamie Dixon, hasn't proven it can win the big road game yet. The Panthers have had it too easy, they say, playing 15 of their first 17 games in Pittsburgh and 14 of those games on their home court at the Petersen Events Center, where Pittsburgh is 30-0 all time.

The pundits are right.

Pittsburgh hasn't fully proven itself, but that's no fault of Pitt's, which is ranked No. 13 in the nation entering today's game (at home no less) against Rutgers. With Creighton and Mississippi State both losing this week, Pittsburgh is the lowest-ranked unbeaten team.

The Panthers have done what they were supposed to do with their schedule, which featured several major nonconference opponents, including Alabama in New York City. They've won.

But it's not as though Pittsburgh is alone in playing most of its early-season schedule at home. It's common practice among the major-conference schools, but Pittsburgh has been given less credit so far because the Panthers have a first-year head coach and a previously obscure point guard.

"Some people were caught off guard by us," said Dixon, who needs a win today to set an NCAA record for the best start by a rookie head coach. "Usually teams that are successful have an experienced point guard."

Pittsburgh has Carl Krauser, a redshirt sophomore point guard who bided his time the last two years under franchise point guard Brandin Knight. Krauser could not have made a bigger impact so far this season in leading the team with 15.8 points a game. But it's still hard to look past departed players such as Knight, Ontario Lett and Donatas Zavackas, as well as former coach Ben Howland, who took over at UCLA.

"We've really only got a few guys that played last year," Dixon said. "But I think we've found out a lot about ourselves so far."

The rest of us are about to find out how good Pittsburgh really is. The Panthers' Big East schedule is one of the toughest in the conference and includes two straight road games this week at No. 1 Connecticut and No. 17 Syracuse. Because of the league's weighted scheduling format that pits its marquee teams against each other more often, the Panthers play Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame twice and the rest just once.

ACC and SEC

Forget the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. What we really need to see after Atlantic Coast Conference expansion is a series of tipoffs between the ACC and the Southeastern Conference, by far the two most competitive leagues this season.

Each conference could send at least seven teams to the NCAA Tournament, and they rate No. 1 (ACC) and No. 2 (SEC) in the ratings percentage index.

Traditional power teams such as Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Maryland give the ACC a high profile that's hard to match. But the SEC has six teams in the top 30 of the RPI and seven in the top 50, according to collegerpi.com. Only one of 12 SEC teams, Mississippi, is outside of the top 100.

But all nine of the ACC's schools are in the top 60 in RPI. The SEC has a higher nonconference winning percentage by two-tenths of a percentage point.

We'll know by April which league prepared its teams better for the NCAA Tournament. Right now, the ACC appears to have the edge. Duke and Wake Forest are early No. 1-seed considerations. Only Kentucky in the SEC is in position to warrant a top-two seed, but Florida, Mississippi State and Louisiana State have the potential to do so. Of course, so do the ACC's North Carolina, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State.

Player of the week

Desmon Farmer in a landslide. Southern California's senior guard went off for 40 points in a 99-90 upset of No. 7 Arizona Thursday.

Farmer hit seven 3s and made 11 of 12 free throws. The 40 points came on just 19 shot attempts.

C-USA Notes: Tigers' Calipari vents

Coaching basketball in college isn't what it used to be, according to Memphis coach John Calipari, whose Tigers are off to an 0-2 start in the league after losses at Southern Miss and at DePaul.

"Your best players are with you one or two years," Calipari said. "Getting kids to play the right way is hard. Now the NBA is so ingrained, if you don't let a kid take 20 shots you're messing with his career.

"It's like a 50-member marching band marches out onto the field. Forty-nine turn left and Johnny turns right, but Johnny's people say, 'What's wrong with those 49?' And they yell at the band director and say he should be fired. We deal with that. That's part of what it is right now."

• Last week, Charlotte's Devon Brown became the second player in the league's history to make 300 career 3-pointers. Charlotte's Jobey Thomas is first with 346 career treys.

• East Carolina, in its third year in the league, is still looking for its first conference road win. The Pirates are 0-17 away from home. "We've been making progress, but our margin of error is so small," East Carolina coach Bill Herrion said.

---Bill Koch

A-10 Notes: Hawkins a top scorer

Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson is the obvious favorite for Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, but Temple's David Hawkins is doing his best to get on the first team. Hawkins is second in the league in scoring at 23.0 points a game and scored 24 in a win against Rhode Island Wednesday. He scored five straight points late in that game to push Temple to a five-point win.

• Rhode Island certainly missed leading scorer Brian Woodward against Temple. The Rams committed 19 turnovers and scored their fewest points of the season (53). Woodward, who will return today against St. Bonaventure, was serving a one-game suspension for punching Xavier's Justin Doellman on Sunday.

• Dayton lost three of four games entering Atlantic 10 play, but the Flyers have moved into first place in the West Division by winning their first three conference games against St. Bonaventure, Temple and Richmond. Dayton isn't tearing through its opponents, though. The Flyers' three wins have come by an average of 4.3 points.

---Dustin Dow

MAC Notes: Buffalo rises, then falls

After a promising December that included five consecutive wins, Buffalo endured a five-game losing streak. The Bulls also lost three players Monday. Senior Jason Walcott, a Toronto, Canada, native who has struggled academically, was dismissed for "conduct detrimental to the team." Two freshmen, Parnell Smith and walk-on Marcus Henderson, were declared academically ineligible for the rest of the season.

• St. Xavier graduate Craig Cashen, who earned honorable mention on the Enquirer's Division I all-area team last year, averaged 7.8 minutes and 2.1 points playing in 10 of Eastern Michigan's first 12 games. The 6-foot-8 forward-center and EMU play at Miami on Jan. 24.

• A persistent strained back muscle has limited Akron junior forward Darryl Peterson, who played at Western Hills, to just four games this season. The 6-5 Peterson will petition the NCAA for a medical redshirt.

• A win by West Division-leading WMU at EMU today would give the Broncos a seven-game road win streak, their longest since the 1975-76 team won eight in a row.

---Mark Schmetzer

Numbers game

35: Consecutive games won by Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The second-ranked Blue Devils will host No. 4 Wake Forest there at 1 p.m. today (Ch. 9, 2), and the winner will be the only Atlantic Coast Conference team to be undefeated in conference play this season.

Must-See TV

Xavier vs. Saint Joseph's, 2 p.m. today (ESPN): Not every day a top-10 team visits Cintas.

Pittsburgh at Connecticut, 7 p.m. Monday (ESPN): This is why they call it Big Monday.

Oklahoma at Texas Tech, 9 p.m. Monday (ESPN): Make it a really Big Monday.

Kentucky at Tennessee, 8 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN2): As it's their 195th meeting, we can safely call it a rivalry.

Cincinnati at Louisville, 7 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN): Could

anything be bigger than UC-Marquette? Yeah, this.

Thumbs up

Texas: The Longhorns finally broke through and beat a big-time team, Tuesday at Wake Forest.

WAC: Six teams are capable of winning this league, which makes for an intriguing season.

Josh Childress: The All-America candidate is making a big impact off the bench for Stanford after returning from a foot injury.

Gene Keady: First the Purdue coach beat former assistant Bruce Weber (Illinois), then Keady picked up his 500th win at Purdue, Wednesday against Wisconsin.

Thumbs down

Memphis: Not a good way (0-2) for John Calipari's team to start its C-USA schedule at Southern Miss and DePaul.

Arizona State: The competition was tough, but the Sun Devils lost three straight Pacific-10 home games.

Ohio State: Needs a couple home wins this week against Minnesota and Indiana to save its season.

Florida State: Still hasn't figured out how to win on the road, as evidenced by its 17th straight ACC road loss, Tuesday at Clemson.

The Enquirer's Sweet 16

Rank	Team	Comment
1.	Connecticut	Showed dominance against Oklahoma but visits UNC today.
2.	Duke	ACC power struggle against Wake Forest today.
3.	Stanford	Can any Pac-10 teams slow the Cardinal?
4.	Saint Joseph's	Must have well-balanced play today at Xavier.
5.	Kentucky	Higher level of confidence playing in the SEC.
6.	Wake Forest	Ugly loss at Texas, but it gets tougher today at Duke.
7.	Cincinnati	In great shape for C-USA run after big win at Marquette.
8.	Louisville	Stomping all over C-USA, but Cincinnati visits Wednesday.
9.	Georgia Tech	Challenging week vs. Maryland, Wake Forest and N.C. State.
10.	Gonzaga	Bulldogs have to keep interest in West Coast Conference.
11.	Syracuse	Blasted Missouri, now goes to Notre Dame.
12.	Pittsburgh	Rough road ahead at UConn and Syracuse.
13.	Kansas	Jayhawks have it easy for a couple weeks in the Big 12.
14.	Texas	Freshman P.J. Tucker is taking over as the team's leader.
15.	Texas Tech	Andre Emmett making a run for player of the year.
16.	Arizona	Needs to regroup after losses to Stanford and USC.

THE LIST

Xavier's Tara Boothe lists her top five pro sports teams.

New York Yankees

Cincinnati Bengals

Los Angeles Lakers

Cincinnati Reds

Orlando Magic

The best glass cleaners

1. Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State: Coach Rick Stansbury's biggest offseason find averages 11 rebounds a game.

2. Kris Humphries, Minnesota: As if this freshman weren't talented enough, he also crashes the boards relentlessly, averaging 10.4 rpg.

3. Emeka Okafor, Connecticut: Such a well-rounded big man, rebounding (11.6 rpg) is a natural strength.

4. Jaime Lloreda, Louisiana State: More than one-third of his rebounds come on the offensive end, which is why he shoots almost 60 percent.

5. Paul Millsap, Louisiana Tech: The nation's statistical leader, with 12.4 rebounds a game, is only a freshman.