AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- This matchup of Pitt and Kent State wasn't so much March Madness as it was Methodical Manhandling.

No bracket-buster here. It wasn't 2002 all over again.

What happened at the Palace of Auburn Hills last night in the first round of the NCAA tournament is what's supposed to happen when a fifth seed meets a 12th seed, when a Big East power takes on a Mid-American Conference counterpart.

It was 9-3 before the game was three minutes old, 18-9 before nine minutes had passed, 40-27 at the half and 53-29 with 15 minutes remaining. Kent State rallied to make the final score, 79-64, but during that surge its only reasonable goal was respectability, not victory.

This is what happens when a consuming passion for unyielding defense and relentless rebounding converges with excellent shooting. It's called a blowout.

Defense and rebounding are what built the Pitt program under Ben Howland, and Jamie Dixon made no changes in that formula when he took over in 2003. If anything, Dixon has accentuated the athleticism necessary to play Pitt's kind of game.

Left behind, too often, is shooting. Howland cherished it when he coached at Northern Arizona but virtually ignored it when he came to Pitt, opting for athletes over shooters. Dixon has done the same. Just two days ago, he dismissed Aaron Gray's atrocious shooting in the Big East tournament when he said, "We really don't look at shooting as it is the last thing we look at."

Such an emphasis has resulted in Pitt becoming an elite program. But it also makes you wonder what might have been in Pitt's recent NCAA tournament losses, most notably in 2002 when it was upset by Kent State in the round of 16, if the coaching staff had felt a little more comfortable with recruiting an occasional shooter or two.

Dixon had a fistful of shooters last night as Pitt upped its record to 25-7. Gray shrugged off his miserable shooting last week in Madison Square Garden and made all of his six shots. So did Ronald Ramon, who was shooting from a considerably further distance. Levon Kendall made 5 of 6 shots, Sam Young 5 of 7 and Levance Fields 4 of 6.

As a team the Panthers shot 67 percent, a season's best -- by far. At one point, early in the second half, Pitt had converted 23 of 32 shots -- 72 percent.

It was an astonishing performance, particularly for a team not known for its shooting ability. Even Dixon was impressed.

"Our guys responded [to Kent State's efforts] in a lot of ways," he said. "Offensively, we made great passes. We had 18 assists. We did a great job of passing it, finding the open man, recognizing the double team."

It's not against his philosophy to praise shooting. In fact, he did. "We shot great," he said. But then added, "I thought it was passing more than anything."

Kendall had more to say about the shooting. "I think it's contagious. I think we've had that a few times this year. Once a couple of guys get going, it makes it a lot easier."

Gray, who had a game-high 17 points to go along with 13 rebounds, has had similarly outstanding shooting games. He made 9 of 9 against Providence Feb. 15. But this was particularly satisfying considering he missed countless easy baskets in the four games Pitt played in the Big East tournament.

"We didn't do anything special or anything different this week than we've done all season," Gray said. "We just put in the hard work. We came out and expected to make those shots. That's what you have to do. You have to have confidence when you shoot."

Ramon, who equaled his season high with 16 points, said: "We were in the flow of the offense. We were just trying to execute our plays. We were open and the shots went in."

An interesting sidelight to the game was that Dixon got to nurture his seeming infatuation with playing small. Since benching 6-foot-6 small forward John DeGroat at the start of the Big East tournament, he has gone with 6-2 Keith Benjamin or 6-3 Antonio Graves at that position. And it's not as if he has tall guards. None of the three he used last night stood taller than 6-2. Of the six players with the most minutes last night, four of them -- Ramon, Fields, Graves and Carl Krauser -- have started more than one game at point guard for Pitt.

The strategy has worked well and gives Pitt another look against some teams.

The look that Pitt really want to stay with, though, is the one they displayed last night when those shots just kept on falling.