HARTFORD, Conn. -- Somewhere along the line during his fabulous career, Don Hennon might have had a better game. Or Billy Knight. Or Charles Smith. Or one of the other great players in Pitt history.

Now that I think about it, Jerome Lane turned in a dandy at Syracuse late in the 1988 regular season. His 29 points and 15 rebounds against Syracuse big guys Rony Seikaly and Derrick Coleman led Pitt to an 85-84 win and its first outright Big East championship.

But DeJuan Blair's surreal performance last night trumped that.

I'm here to tell you it was the greatest individual performance in Pitt history.

Until someone can dig deep into the past and tell me otherwise, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Blair's work came in No. 4 Pitt's 76-68 win against Connecticut, its first win against a No. 1-ranked opponent in school history. It came on the road in the incredibly noisy XL Center in front of 16,294 passionate Connecticut fans who fully realized first place in the Big East and perhaps a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament were at stake. And it came against 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet, a giant who many consider to be the top player in the college game.

"It's not that I heard too much about him going into the game," Blair would say afterward. "It's that I didn't hear enough about me."

Touche.

That won't be a problem again.

Not after Blair's 22-point, 23-rebound night in front of ESPN's Big Monday cameras.

And Thabeet? He might have 8 inches in height on Blair, but he was no match for Blair's brute strength. He banged his left shoulder early in the game after a nasty tumble to the floor over Blair's back. In foul trouble much of the game, he finished with five points and four rebounds.

A question seems appropriate here:

If Thabeet is a player of the year candidate, what does that make Blair?

"I really felt like I was the underdog coming in," Blair said. "You know how I am with that underdog thing. I hate it. No, wait, actually I love it. Look what happened tonight.

"I think I showed everybody what I can do."

It was just Saturday that Thabeet went for 25 points, 20 rebounds and 9 blocks in a win at Seton Hall, prompting Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez to call him "the No. 1 player in America," and Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun to say, "The difference tonight was that there were nine players and Hasheem."

This game was a little different.

Blair had plenty of help. Forward Sam Young popped for 25 points. Guard Levance Fields hit two huge 3-point shots late to turn a 61-61 tie into a 67-61 Pitt lead. Forward Jermaine Dixon played his usual steady defense and added 11 points and five assists.

But none of that would have mattered if No. 45 hadn't done his amazing thing.

"Blair is a great, great player, a terrific player, a warrior. He's a man," Calhoun gushed. "When he's allowed to roam through the lane like that and use his physicality, he's a nightmare for every single coach."

It should be noted Calhoun made it clear that he thought the officials let Blair play a little too rough, comparing the game to the slugfests the Big East routinely featured in the 1990s. He might have had a point. "That's the most physical game I've ever played in my life," Blair said and had a watery left eye to prove it after taking an elbow in the second half from Connecticut's Stanley Robinson.

But good teams and good players adjust to the way a game is being called. Pitt and Blair did. Thabeet and Connecticut didn't.

Blair was simply phenomenal late in the first half when he scored 13 consecutive points for Pitt to turn back one Connecticut challenge after another. He made a hook shot over Thabeet, powered in a layup over Thabeet, hit a fall-away jump shot over Thabeet, made a left-handed hook shot over Thabeet, got a layup over Thabeet with a free throw to boot and, with Thabeet on the bench, beat Gavin Edwards on the base line and made a sweet reverse layup.

The layup-and-one was especially impressive. Thabeet -- the nation's leading shot blocker -- rejected Blair's jump shot only to see Blair retrieve the ball and immediately power into the lane for the score.

"I felt like an animal at that point," Blair said. "I felt like I wanted to kill."

Basketball-speaking, of course.

"So I killed," Blair said, shrugging.

Before the game, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon preached rebounding to his team. "I think that was a hint to me. 'DeJuan, go get the ball,' " Blair said. Obviously, Blair took it personally. Pitt had a 48-31 rebounding edge and Blair wasn't all that far away from matching Connecticut's total by himself.

"I've said it before; I don't care if you're 4-6 or 7-8, I'm going to play hard regardless," Blair said. "That's how I am."

As a result, it's all there for Pitt to take with three weeks to go in the regular season -- the Big East title, a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and that precious top seed in the NCAA tournament.

"This team is for real," Blair said. "We deserved what we got tonight."

Of course, there will be at least one rematch with Connecticut. It comes to Pitt in the final regular-season game March 7.

"I'm sure [Thabeet] will come in with a chip on his back," Blair said. "But I'll be there, too, you know? I'm not going anywhere."

Lucky us.

Not so lucky Thabeet.