It's always tough for a team to lose its first game when it's started the season winning 16 in a row.

And it's even harder for a team to relinquish the No. 1 position in the polls after occupying the spot for the first time in school history.

That's the situation that Pittsburgh was in after falling to Louisville over the weekend in a back-and-forth brawl at Freedom Hall.

So with the fourth-ranked Panthers needing to prove to the rest of the Big East that one defeat wouldn't faze them, Jamie Dixon's team returned home to the Steel City and put a thumping on No. 8 Syracuse Monday night with a 78-60 win.

"The big thing in this league (the Big East) is not turning one (loss) into two," Pitt point guard Levance Fields said afterward.

Of course, when you play in the Big East, there's never time to relax.

The Orangemen, after all, were coming off an impressive 93-72 victory last Saturday at the Carrier Dome against No. 19 Notre Dame, and with less than two days to rest, Jim Boeheim's team was looking to add another signature win to its r