It's an exciting time to be a sports fan in Pittsburgh. Both the Steelers and Penguins have championship-caliber teams. There's no guarantee either will win a title, but at the same time, no one would be surprised to see the Steelers in the Super Bowl and the Penguins in a return to the Stanley Cup final. The Pitt football team won't win the national championship, but it has a good chance to win the Big East title and play in a major bowl game.

It's hard to get it any better than that ... but it's possible the best has yet to come.

The Pitt men's basketball team opens its regular season tonight at the Petersen Events Center against Fairleigh Dickinson and it could be the start of a special ride.

The Panthers are ranked fifth in the nation in The Associated Press poll and sixth in the USA Today/ESPN poll. They are behind Connecticut and Louisville, two other Big East Conference teams that are ranked second and third in both polls. Additionally, four other Big East teams are in the AP top 25: Notre Dame is ninth, Marquette 16th, Georgetown 22nd and Villanova 23rd.

Pitt plays Connecticut twice and the other four ranked teams once. That virtually guarantees some downtimes this season, but the conference schedule should serve to make Pitt better, even if it adds some losses to their record.

Coach Jamie Dixon has a deep, versatile and talented team. Forward Sam Young was first team Big East last season. Center DeJuan Blair and point guard Levance Fields have the kind of talent to achieve the same honor.

That's the solid core of the team, but there's more behind them. Senior Tyrell Biggs, an important contributor coming off the bench for the past three seasons, could win a starting job at power forward. Sophomore small forward Gilbert Brown is one of the team's best athletes, and if he can build on his outstanding play late last season, he will be a major force.

Sophomore guard Brad Wanamaker could start and will get plenty of playing time. Newcomers Jermaine Dixon, a junior college transfer; and freshmen Ashton Gibbs, Travon Woodall and Nasir Robinson all could make contributions.

Jamie Dixon is in the process of sorting out his starting lineup and rotation and that process could continue until mid-December, particularly with Fields and Brown injured and currently unable to play. The starting lineup tonight looks like Blair at center, Biggs at power forward, Young at small forward, Dixon at shooting guard and Gibbs at point guard. When Fields returns, he'll take over at point guard. When Brown returns, Jamie Dixon has to make some decisions.

He has been known to, and in fact seems to favor, starting seniors even when they are not one of the five -- or even six or seven -- best players.

It's a tribute to Dixon that he does so. Rare is the college coach who puts winning anywhere but first. But in 2005-06 he did just that by starting John DeGroat 27 times. DeGroat usually came out after about five minutes of each half, but Dixon stuck with him as a starter all the way until the Big East tournament. In 2003-04, senior Toree Morris started 11 games before Dixon did what he had to do and put the extremely talented Chris Taft into the lineup.

There's a finer distinction this year. Biggs is a quality player. Pitt would be a strong team with him at power forward and Young at small forward. But Brown is a more talented player than Biggs.

Pitt would probably be better with Young at power forward and Brown at small forward. That would leave Biggs available to back up Young and Blair.

He'd get good minutes in such a role.

Making this dilemma even more hazy is the fact Young figures to have an NBA career and he'll have to play small forward as a pro. Dixon would be helping to prepare one of the best players for a pro career and at the same time allowing another senior, Biggs, to start.

It probably will all sort itself out, although it won't be easy. Brown is so talented he'll have to get more minutes than just ones he'll receive by backing up Young.

Those are the kinds of problems coaches love to have -- too many good players.

Dixon is proud of what the Pitt program has accomplished the past seven years. He was an assistant for the first two and head coach for the past five. During that span, Pitt has the fourth-best winning percentage in college basketball, behind only Memphis, Kansas and Duke.

Dixon's winning percentage of .767 is fourth among active coaches. He's behind Roy Williams, Mark Few and Bo Ryan and ahead of Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino.

But he understands major success in the NCAA tournament, the ultimate test, is missing.

"I don't feel we've accomplished all we can," he said.

This is the season they can do it.