Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said this week that he and his staff knew from the beginning that the Panthers were not playing winning basketball on a consistent basis. They had watched the team squeak by with narrow victories after some unlikely comebacks. They had watched some glaring weaknesses develop as some of the program's previous staples disappeared.

Somehow, the Panthers had crafted a 7-1 record, with a close loss to No. 2 Texas only serving to sustain false confidence. But now that the Panthers were embarrassed by an equally deficient Indiana team, Dixon is hoping the message got through to his young team.

"Sometimes, you need a setback," Dixon said. "It wasn't getting through in the close wins we had. Maybe this is a step in the right direction."

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Today

• Game: Pitt (7-2) vs. Kent State (5-3), 2 p.m.
• Where: Petersen Events Center.
• TV: ESPNU.

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The Panthers get their first opportunity to respond to the Indiana loss today when Kent State visits the Petersen Events Center for a non-conference game.

The truth is that the Panthers (7-2) have not played typical Pitt basketball through the first nine games, which is forcing Dixon to contemplate some changes. The program was built on man-to-man defense, but it has been one of the main culprits in Pitt's struggles.

The man-to-man defense has been leaky through the first nine games. In the 74-64 loss Tuesday to Indiana at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Hoosiers shot 44 percent from the field. The biggest problem was Pitt's inability to stop Indiana's guards from penetrating. When they weren't driving to the basket for easy buckets they were dishing off to teammates for equally easy baskets.

In the end, the Hoosiers scored 40 points in the lane, an almost unheard of amount for a Pitt team to allow.

"We weren't executing well on the defensive end for long periods of time," Dixon said.

The deficiencies in the man-to-man defense are forcing Dixon to think about using zone more. Dixon does not use zone a lot, but it has been successful this season when implemented.

Against Duquesne Dec. 2, the Dukes dissected Pitt's man-to-man defense to the tune of 48 percent shooting in the first half, which yielded a 13-point lead at the intermission. That prompted Dixon to use a zone defense for most of the second half.

The switched stymied the Dukes, who shot 22 percent in the second half and two overtime periods as the Panthers came back to score a victory.

"We're working on [the zone]," Dixon said. "It's something we'll think about. Maybe we should have used it against Indiana. But we held them to a low shooting percentage in the first half. And we were rebounding well. At the end of the day, we gave up too many transition baskets. We'll continue to work on it."

Another problem has been offensive execution. Opposing coaches have found out that the Panthers are having trouble against zone defenses. Indiana coach Tom Crean used it extensively and the Panthers shot only 31 percent.

Not only did the Panthers miss outside shots, but they missed easy shots on the interior after grabbing offensive rebounds. The Panthers have endured poor shooting performances in previous seasons, but they always cleaned up on the offensive boards and converted those into baskets.

"It was amazing," Dixon said. "We had 21 offensive rebounds yet we didn't get a lot of putbacks on those rebounds. You have to get that against a zone. We move the defense, have them rotate and then we get off rebound opportunities. We didn't have any bad possessions against the zone. But we missed a lot of open shots and layups."

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