Ken Davis

The Pittsburgh Panthers are on a mission to create separation between themselves and the rest of the Big East Conference. They keep taking major steps in that direction.

The youthful UConn Huskies are desperately trying to grow up before their season spirals out of control. All they did against Pitt, Indiana and Louisville was dig a deeper hole.

Those may sound like brazen assertions midway through January, with so much of the regular season remaining to be played. But a giant leap of faith wasn’t necessary to reach those conclusions after the Panthers defeated UConn 63-54 at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center.

No. 6 Pitt improved its conference record to 5-0, but it’s way too early to declare the Panthers regular season champions in the Big East. As we wait for the other precincts to report, it seems that Pittsburgh is better positioned to run away and hide than any team in any Division I conference.

“They are the best team in the league, and they did nothing tonight to disprove that,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said of Pitt.

Funny thing. That’s exactly what Georgetown coach John Thompson III said Saturday after the Hoyas lost 74-69 in the same building.

“They are clearly the best team in the league,” Thompson said. “After that everyone else [in the Big East] is right there together.”

Here’s another funny thing. Back in October, the Big East coaches were saying the same thing in their preseason poll. Pitt sat on top in that poll with 10 first-place votes, followed by Georgetown, Syracuse, Marquette, UConn and Louisville.

When the conference schedule was released, no one could have recognized the neat opportunity the Panthers would have during a three-game homestand that began with Georgetown and ended Sunday with Marquette. Now it is crystal clear. Pittsburgh already has a win at Syracuse and, thanks to the Big East’s unbalanced schedule, doesn’t have to worry about playing Notre Dame during the regular season.

That leaves Marquette as the Big East team with the best chance of keeping Pittsburgh within reach. Just a week ago, the Golden Eagles were on the verge of being written out of the conference race. Consecutive losses by disturbing margins (74-59 at Providence and 70-58 against Syracuse) put Marquette in a must-win situation at UConn on Jan. 10. The Golden Eagles responded by returning to their early-season form, when they beat Texas Tech and Duke in Kansas City, Mo., and they left UConn’s Gampel Pavilion with a stunning 73-69 victory.

Guard Dominic James is the star player for the Golden Eagles but the fact that coach Tom Crean has three other guards — Jerel McNeal, Wes Matthews, David Cubillan — who can dictate the tempo of the game is what sets this Marquette team apart. Against UConn, forward Ousmane Barro had 17 points and 13 rebounds and the Golden Eagles will need him to play a smart game against Pitt’s Aaron Gray.

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The Golden Eagles followed up their win at UConn with a home victory over West Virginia and a 74-65 win at Louisville on Monday. And thanks to that UConn victory, Marquette will have plenty of confidence when it plays at Pittsburgh.

“Not to take anything away from the teams that beat us, but we were doing a lot of things we usually don’t do,” James said. “We just went back, were very efficient in practice, and go back to doing the things we did when we were getting victories. Coach did an excellent job making us understand how we’re supposed to play Marquette basketball.”

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