Huskies already looking at must-win situation

It's short of the epic showdowns of a year ago when top five teams met in two highly anticipated games.

Nevertheless, any meeting between UConn and Pittsburgh, the Big East's best teams (record-wise) since 2001-02, holds significance.

Just ask the Huskies, who are looking to rebound from a tough loss at Georgetown last Saturday and fighting to remain in the pack of league title contenders.

"For us, it's a must win," point guard Kemba Walker said. "We need a win for right now. Pittsburgh is playing well right now. They're 3-0, so it's going to be a very important game for us."

No. 15 UConn (11-4, 2-2) hosts No. 16 Pittsburgh (13-2, 3-0), winners of six straight, at 7 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford.

The Huskies are in the midst of a difficult stretch that includes two upcoming nonconference games - at Michigan on Sunday and home against No. 1 Texas on Jan. 23.

It's not too early to think about building an NCAA tournament resume.

"It's an incredibly important game for us as every single game would be," coach Jim Calhoun said. "I said a long time ago with 20 games to go that we need to get our share. We've got two (Big East wins) thus far. We've got to get our share. (Tonight's game) kind of speaks to that."

Both programs have undergone a transformation since last season when Pittsburgh beat top-ranked UConn twice. Key combatants have changed but styles remain the same.

Picked to finish ninth in the Big East preseason poll after losing four starters, the surprising Panthers and No. 4 Villanova are the only unbeaten teams in league play.

Coach Jamie Dixon has easily plugged in new players and bypassed the rebuilding process. Sophomore Ashton Gibbs went from a limited reserve role to leading the team in scoring at 17.5 points per game.

Since the return of veterans Jermaine Dixon (foot injury) and Gilbert Brown (academic suspension), the Panthers are 4-0 including consecutive road wins against No. 5 Syracuse and Cincinnati.

"Jamie Dixon probably has done as good a job of getting his team ready (as anybody)," Calhoun said. "They lost some very, very good players certainly as we did ourselves. … But we have some good players back and they have some good players back.

"They've been able to avoid a couple of losses that we haven't been able to avoid. … They probably are at this particular point a little more mature than we are as far as their offense goes and they still play really good defense."

The key tonight may be UConn's halfcourt execution against the No. 1 scoring defense in the Big East at 58.0 points per game.

An inability to run a productive halfcourt offense contributed to UConn's demise at Georgetown. In the second half, the Huskies managed just three assists and only scored 29 points while blowing a 17-point lead.

Senior Jerome Dyson said Tuesday that he's still not over Saturday's difficult loss.

The Huskies will need to play a complete game to score their first win over a ranked opponent this season, according to Dyson.

"We just haven't put two halves together," he said. "Sometimes we get caught running up and down the court too much. When we had the lead (Saturday), we really didn't run the offense late in the game and we made it easy for them to come back because we missed some shots and they made shots.

"We've just got to run offense and stay with it."