Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Levon Kendall: "This is huge. This is what you play for. It's basically for the Big East championship. Guys are excited." Click photo for larger image.

When the Big East Conference coaches released their preseason poll in October, Pitt and Georgetown were at the top, separated by seven points. There clearly was a debate among the coaches about which team was best.

When Pitt and Georgetown meet tomorrow afternoon at the MCI Center in Washington, the coaches finally will have their answer.

Pitt and Georgetown enter the game with identical 11-2 records in the Big East, and this game in all likelihood will decide the regular-season championship.

If Pitt loses Saturday and Louisville and Marquette stay in third and fourth place in the standings, the only way the Panthers can win the regular-season title is if they win their final two games against West Virginia and Marquette, and Georgetown loses its final two games against Syracuse and Connecticut. Georgetown holds the tiebreaker if it is tied with Pitt because of its record against Louisville and Marquette.

Conversely, the only way Georgetown could win the title if it lost was if Pitt lost its final two games and the Hoyas won their final two. Pitt would own the tiebreaker if it won because it would have swept the season series.

"This is huge," senior forward Levon Kendall said. "This is what you play for. It's basically for the Big East championship. Guys are excited."

	Listen In Members of the Pitt Panthers basketball team met with the media Thursday in anticipation of Saturday's game at Georgetown: Head Coach Jamie Dixon Dixon's entire press conference Forward Levon Kendall Kendall's entire press conference Guard Levance Fields Fields' entire press conference

Georgetown is trying to usher in a changing of the guard in the Big East. No team in the Big East has won more games than Pitt the past six seasons. The Panthers are 70-23 in Big East competition in that time, two games better than Connecticut and 10 games better than Syracuse.

In that same six-year period, Georgetown, a tradition-steeped program that won or shared the conference's regular-season championship four times in the first 10 seasons of the league, is 48-45.

Pitt is attempting to win its fourth regular-season championship in the past six years. The Panthers won the championship in 2004 with a 13-3 record, tied for the West Division crown (with Syracuse) in '03 and won the West outright in '02.

"It's a great thing," Dixon said of playing a game that will decide the conference championship. "No one else has done what we've done over the years. You're talking about the best conference in the country. Our university is at the top of that and battling for that year in and year out. Our players, fans and university should be proud of that."

Georgetown is trying to win its first regular-season championship in a decade. The previous time Georgetown won a title was 1997 when the Hoyas won their division with an 11-7 record. The most recent time Georgetown finished atop the standings with the best record in the league was '89.

"We have an opportunity. They have an opportunity," sophomore point guard Levance Fields said. "We have to see which team plays better on Saturday."

These two teams have been on a collision course since Pitt beat Georgetown at the Petersen Events Center Jan. 13, a game in which both teams shot an astounding 60 percent from the field. Georgetown has not lost since then, winning 10 consecutive games to tie Pitt atop the league's standings.

Pitt is 7-2 in the league since that first meeting and has won seven of its past eight games.

"We both played so well in the first game that's it has created anticipation and excitement for this game," Dixon said. "You have two teams that are playing well. It will be a great game."

This game could be completely different from the first because Pitt might be playing without senior center Aaron Gray, who scored 11 points and had four rebounds in 34 minutes in the first meeting.

Dixon said Gray could miss the game because his sprained left ankle is not responding to treatment. In that event, power forward Levon Kendall would take Gray's place at center and Sam Young would start at power forward.

"It's going to be tough," Fields said. "We'll just have to pull together like we did at Seton Hall. We just have to prepare the same way and everyone will have to do a little more. We still want to get the ball inside and play inside out. Everyone will have come together to make up for Aaron not being there."

Georgetown coach John Thompson III said his team's preparation for the game will not change.

"We're going to prepare as if Aaron is going to play," he said. "Our approach will not be any different."