This is a scary game for Pitt. They are the road favorite by 1.5 to 2 points. They are facing a team that has won 9 straight home games dating back to last year’s thrashing they gave Syracuse before the Big East Tournament. I’ve repeated this numerous times, but DePaul at home is a very different team. 8-0 at home, 2-6 road.

Then you look at their two best players, and further reasons to worry. Wilson Chandler at Power Forward can be a beast, when focused. He is averaging 15.8 points and 6.6 rebounds, and can even shoot 3s (37%). Then there’s leading scorer, Guard Sammy Mejia — apparently he could have been a Pitt player — who at 6′ 6″ presents huge match-up problems for Pitt. He feels confident about the game.

“We match up with them well,” guard Sammy Mejia said. “It’s going to be a dogfight.”

A key to the game will be how the Blue Demons defend Pitt’s 7-foot center Aaron Gray, who averages in double figures in points and rebounds. Ordinarily, DePaul has a trio of centers to throw at a big guy like that, with coach Jerry Wainwright choosing among Lorenzo Thompson at 6-8, 290 pounds, Wesley Green, 6-9, 295 pounds, and Keith Butler, 7-1, 255 pounds.

However, Thompson’s father died Monday and it isn’t known if the senior will suit up.

Mejia is also playing the whole underdog part.

“This is a huge game for us,” Mejia said. ”We’ve always been the underdog, and we thrive in those roles. [The Panthers] have a bushel of confidence now, but we’ve won six out of seven. We want to show we belong.”

The match-up issue is something that concerns DePaul Coach Jerry Wainwright.

Wainwright could take the obvious route and steer DePaul’s defense toward bottling Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray, the Big East preseason player of the year. After all, Pittsburgh’s last four opponents limited Gray to 6.5 points per game.

And they all lost.

Alternatively, Wainwright could go small, using DePaul’s backcourt size to curtail a group of Pitt guards he calls “vastly underrated.” But that approach would free up Gray (eight double-doubles) and dangerous forward Levon Kendall (5.8 rpg).

The fix has left Wainwright misquoting Scripture (“For everything given, something else is taken away”) and gushing over the seventh-ranked Panthers, who tonight visit the Allstate Arena (6 p.m., ESPN2).

“They’re so consistent, it’s painful,” Wainwright said. “They just beat you up.”

Wainwright’s praise for Pitt makes sense. He wants the same things said about DePaul down the line.

“They’re what we want to be,” Wainwright said.

DePaul does go 9 deep in the rotation regarding double-digit minutes, so they likely won’t be facing depth issues. The issue always seems to come down to which DePaul team will Pitt face.

Fields is wary of DePaul’s athleticism and versatility, but he ponders the same question many Demons fans are asking.

“Which team are you going to get?” he said. “They have some big wins and some upsetting losses. But they’re a very talented team.”

Damned if I know, but I expect the dangerous DePaul team.