Practices went back to more intense, physical competition after the Rutgers debacle (is anyone doing a running count on the adjectives used to describe that performance?).

“If we would have gone non-contact today, guys would have been upset,” senior guard Ronald Ramon said after the two-hour practice. “It was definitely good, especially after a loss. Guys want to get after it and want to respond.”

Coach Jamie Dixon, whose practices are closed to observers, is trying to reignite some of the aggressiveness and intensity that seemed to be missing in the second half of the loss to last-place Rutgers.

“Our thing is built on intensity and toughness and physicality,” Dixon said, “You can’t help but lose some of it in some of the practices. Plus, that’s what the guys want to do. They want to play five-on-five. It was good today, and it will be good tomorrow.”

To lessen the chance for injury, No. 18 Pitt has been focusing mainly on skill work and conditioning at practice in recent weeks. The Panthers have held only a handful of all-out, five-on-five competitive practices since losing Cook and Fields in late December.

None of those practices compared to yesterday’s workout, in which redshirt freshman Gilbert Brown estimated “90 percent” of the session was the same five-on-five drills that have defined Pitt’s program for many seasons.

It helped that Pitt actually had enough bodies to go 5-on-5 for the first time in a while. Even if the injury situation isn’t completely good.

G Keith Benjamin reopened the gash on his right index finger in Saturday’s loss to Rutgers and had to get his stitches replaced. He practiced Monday with what coach Jamie Dixon figured was more tape “than he had the other two games.”

C/F Cassin Diggs returned to practice Monday, but only briefly. Dixon said that Diggs’ injured hip wouldn’t allow him to complete the session. Surgery is still not out of the question.

“He’s still struggling,” Dixon said. “He’s not even close … He doesn’t feel comfortable, doesn’t feel good out there.

Getting Diggs back for some of practice along with new walk-on Ryan Tiesi. It also appears that Dixon did give a closed door (and with Dixon there rarely is any other kind) “discussion” of the work ethic and effort after Rutgers.