Some teams from major conferences can go years without facing two top-five teams in the same season; Pitt has the pleasure of playing two in the span of 10 days.

It's all part of the membership in the Big East Conference.

Pitt begins another challenging stretch tonight when No. 5 West Virginia visits Petersen Events Center. Nine days later, No. 4 Villanova comes to town. Road games against Marquette and Notre Dame, two teams fighting for spots in the NCAA tournament, await, as well, in the next two weeks.

When Pitt played three ranked teams in a five-game span early in the Big East schedule, it was viewed as the most difficult portion of the schedule for the Panthers, who came through that initial stretch with only one loss.

Those five teams -- Syracuse, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville and Georgetown -- had a combined record of 34-22 before Thursday. The next four opponents on Pitt's schedule have a combined record of 30-14.

Junior forward Gilbert Brown said Pitt is ready for the next challenge.

"This team is capable of doing anything," Brown said. "It's about how we handle ourselves on the court. It's the Big East. We're always going to have a tough stretch. We had one at the beginning and we handled it well. Now there is another one. We have to pick it up and hopefully play with same type of intensity we [had] in the first five games."

That focus and intensity led to impressive road victories at No. 2 Syracuse, Cincinnati and Connecticut as well as a home victory against Louisville. The only loss in that five-game stretch came against No. 7 Georgetown.

The Cincinnati and Connecticut victories don't appear as noteworthy now because both are struggling in conference play, but the Syracuse and Louisville victories remain impressive.

A victory tonight against West Virginia would look impressive on the NCAA resume, as well. The Mountaineers enter the game with only four losses on the season and beat the Panthers, 70-51, last week in Morgantown.

If Pitt has any hopes of finishing among the top-four teams in the conference and landing one of the four double byes in the Big East tournament, the game tonight is a must-win. A victory would pull the Panthers into a tie with West Virginia in the conference standings. A loss would put the Mountaineers two games ahead with six to play, and they would own the edge in a head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of the season sweep in the series.

To win the rematch, Pitt must do a better job of rebounding. The Mountaineers outrebounded the Panthers by 15 in the first game -- the first time Pitt had been outrebounded by that margin in almost two years. The Panthers also mentioned several mental errors that allowed West Virginia to score easy baskets after Pitt had pulled within two points with 10 minutes remaining.

"We felt as though we could beat them," Pitt senior Jermaine Dixon said. "Some of the lapses we had -- like not rebounding, guarding the ball and leaving the ball -- that's something we don't do. I don't know what we were doing. We definitely won't do that again."

Pitt has not lost twice to West Virginia in the same season since 2005. That year, West Virginia advanced to the Elite Eight and Pitt lost in the first round to Pacific.

Adding more motivation for the Panthers, the setback last week in West Virginia was the worst loss to the Mountaineers in 32 years.

"We didn't play well and that was brought to their attention," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "They understand they need to get better. Our goal is to get better. It's one thing to strive for it and it's another thing to do it."

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