In the long, storied history of the Big East Conference, Syracuse holds the record for most consecutive seasons with double-digit league wins -- 11 from 1985-96. Pitt is second with nine and counting. No other school has had more than six.

Pitt's streak, among many other accomplishments, makes coach Jamie Dixon most proud. "Consistency," he said with no small measure of satisfaction. "It's easy to have a good team for a year or maybe even two years if you have some seniors. But doing it year after year is the challenge."

This is how great the Pitt program has become:

If I'm ranking the most consistent schools in America, I'm putting Pitt No. 3 behind Kansas and Duke. North Carolina? It's having a down year. UCLA? Down year. Connecticut? A second down year in the past four.

Pitt never has a down year under Dixon, who's in his seventh season and is the Big East's all-time coaching leader in winning percentage in league games.

In the past nine seasons, playing in the roughest conference in college basketball, Pitt has won more games than any school but Kansas, Memphis and Duke. It will go to its ninth consecutive NCAA tournament this season, an ongoing feat that will be matched only by Kansas, Duke, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Texas and Wisconsin.

"This isn't surprising," Villanova coach Jay Wright said Sunday after Pitt beat his third-ranked club, 70-65.

"They have the same kind of team that they always have."

It wasn't supposed to be this good this season. Pitt had to replace four starters -- including DeJuan Blair and Sam Young, now in the NBA -- from last season's 31-5 team which made it to the NCAA tournament's final eight before losing to Villanova. A down year seemed inevitable. The Big East coaches picked Pitt to finish ninth in their preseason poll, behind Cincinnati and Notre Dame among others.

But there Pitt is this morning, in third place in the conference, a game behind Villanova and two behind first-place Syracuse with four regular-season games remaining against teams with losing records in the league and all of the tiebreakers on its side. Because of the win against Villanova and one Thursday night at Marquette, Pitt jumped to No. 12 in The Associated Press poll released Monday. It is ninth in RPI, the truest measure of power in the college game.

Wright might not be surprised, but I am.

"I'm not," Dixon said. "I believe any team can be as good as it desires to be. Maybe that's naive, but I truly believe it. If you have a group that commits to one another, there's no limit. This group wants to get better and believes it can get better. We've probably improved as much as any team in the country from November to February. And we still have room to improve."

Dixon makes it sound so easy, but it's not. Wright knows that. He was the Big East Coach of the Year last season, an award Dixon surely should win this time around. Wright said the key to any good coach is always having his next group of players ready to replace those who leave.

Dixon agreed.

"We're coaching the Lamar Pattersons and the J.J. Richardsons and the Talib Zannas as hard as we're coaching the Jermaine Dixons and the Brad Wanamakers."

The results have been staggering.

Who would have ever guessed that an NCAA tournament bid would become just another part of Pitt's schedule?

Those of us who are old enough remember when a bid for Pitt seemed like an incredible gift from the basketball gods, so rarely did one come.

"Now," Dixon said, "people want more from us."

That's the blessing that goes with having a great program, but it's also a curse. Dixon smiled a sad smile and said, "It's never enough."

No, it isn't.

Not all of the regular-season wins. Not Pitt's 130-11 record at the Petersen Events Center, including 7-0 against Top 5 teams. Not its long runs in the Big East tournament. ...

Before last season, Dixon was widely criticized for not getting a team past the NCAA tournament's round of 16. He'll always be criticized by some until he gets Pitt to a Final Four.

"I don't care about Final Fours. I care about national championships," Dixon said. "People don't remember who made it to the Final Four. They only remember who won the national championship. A national championship is what separates you. We don't have that yet."

Notice the man said "yet."

"I'm going to work as hard as I can to make it happen," Dixon said.

Sure, it seems impossible this season despite Pitt's wins against three then-Top 5 teams -- Villanova, West Virginia and Syracuse. For all its success, Pitt isn't as strong as it was a year ago.

Not that Dixon will rule out a championship.

He'll never rule it out.

I believe any team can be as good as it desires to be ...

That's all Dixon knows.

It's how he lives and coaches.

It's the rock-solid foundation upon which Pitt's great program is built.

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