It’s the start of Pitt’s Big East gauntlet.

No. 1 Pitt is about to embark on a five-game stretch that will feature four ranked teams. And the one opponent that is not among the nation’s top 25 dropped out last week after losing to another of the Big East’s ranked teams.

The Panthers will begin running that gantlet tomorrow at No. 20 Louisville. That will be followed by games against No. 8 Syracuse, West Virginia, No. 23 Villanova and No. 12 Notre Dame. Three of those games are on the road.

For Pitt, the most consecutive games against ranked teams was four in 1990. If West Virginia rejoins the ranks next week, a record could be set.

“Everyone is talking about this stretch and that stretch for different teams,” Dixon said. “We can’t spend all preseason talking about it like it’s the toughest conference in history and all the great teams … and then when it comes up, you have to play them. You can’t talk about it. You have to play them.

The Pitt players are going to keep it up with the “no respect” card for as long as possible.

The Panthers didn’t sneak up on anyone — they were No. 5 in the preseason Associated Press poll — but many still think it’s a little surprising the Panthers are No. 1 for the first time, even considering Pitt’s steady progress and North Carolina’s unexpected vulnerability.

“It’s obvious,” Pitt point guard Levance Fields said yesterday. “They’re always talking about who else should be No. 1. When Carolina was No. 1 you didn’t hear about anybody else that should be No. 1. That’s just how it is at Pittsburgh. It’s something we get accustomed to.

“We have to just keep on winning. We don’t have to say nothing to people.”

I’m good with that.

The Cards are looking to fire up the fanbase further, by honoring the 1983 Final Four Cardinal team at halftime.

You know DeJuan Blair is looking forward to the chance to go against another “young cat” in Samardo Samuels. Well, Samuels is looking forward to the challenge.

“I don’t want it to get any easier,” said Samuels, who’s coming off an 18-point, six-rebound and four-block performance against the Fighting Irish. “I want to play against the best. I think of myself as the best and I want to go against the best. It gets me more fired up.”

The inside game should be fun. The refs for this game are Pat Driscoll, Ed Hightower and Brian O’Connell. Yay. No Burr and Higgins.

Of course, Samuels is a freshman and one of the most sought after recruits last year. This goes back to the whole, Pitt does it without big name recruits (at the moment) along with  players with a chip on their shoulder.

“To be honest, some of us got snubbed, if you really want to look at it that way, from being those kind of recruits,” Fields said. “We’re a bunch of guys who won, who are hard-nosed, and I think we are a great example that you don’t always need the McDonald’s All-American on your team. You just need a group of guys who are willing to work and want to win.”

Added plus, since the game isn’t the “primetime” ESPN game no Dick Vitale. The playcalling crew is the superior pairing of Sean McDonough and Bill Raftery with Fran Fraschilla.

Under all news is local: another NY sportswriter discovers that Pitt has a lot of local NY products.

And as the wins pile up for the Panthers this season – right now they’re 16-0 heading into Saturday’s Big East showdown at Louisville – we would also like to point out that two of the Panthers’ leading contributors are a pair of local products, guard Levance Fields and forward Tyrell Biggs, a tandem lured to western Pennsylvania by current Manhattan coach Barry Rohrssen while he was toiling as a Pitt assistant.

Fields, out of Brooklyn’s Xaverian HS, is averaging 10.3 points a game while the 6-8 Biggs, out of New Jersey’s Don Bosco Prep, has chipped in with 8.5 points and 5.3 boards, third best on the team.

Good news, while Seth Davis puts Fields-Blair as the best inside-out combo in the country, he’s picking the Cards tomorrow. My sense is, that most are picking against Pitt. Or at least leaning that way.

The funny thing, about the Miami-UNC game being the WWL feature, is that it is — at best — the 4th or 5th best offering on ESPN/ABC. Wake Forest-Clemson might be the top of the list with both teams undefeated. Pitt-Louisville is a close second, though.