In the wreckage of a 106-51 defeat against Louisville that represents the single lowest point of the modern era of Pitt basketball, which stretches all the way back to its entry into the Big East Conference in 1982, one can find a fundamental truth that can apply to college basketball programs in any conference, at any level.

It’s possible you have it better than you think.

Through the first three seasons of its membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and even reaching back before that to its time as one of the Big East’s premier programs, there was a lot more discussion surrounding what the Pitt basketball program wasn’t accomplishing than what it was. I know this for certain because nearly all of the many interviews I did with radio shows in the city devolved into a discussion of Jamie Dixon’s performance as Panthers coach.

Many Pitt fans openly longed for a new head coach to replace Dixon, even though he’d led Pitt to the NCAA Tournament 11 times in 13 seasons, even though they’d been only a periodic participant in March Madness – eight times in the first 18 years of the expanded bracket – before he took charge. So now they have one, and they have on his record their worst defeat in more than a century and the worst home defeat in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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Imagine that: Only four years into the ACC, and the Panthers are record-setters!

Pitt basketball beat writer Craig Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette presented a statistic that underscores how horrid this 55-point loss to Louisville was: It took six years’ worth of home defeats combined following the opening of the Petersen Events Center in 2002 to exceed the margin of Tuesday’s defeat.

Ultimately, this is what many fans of Pitt basketball agitated toward. They believed they could do better than the greatest coach in their history. They were wrong.

Not every fan who wonders if his or her favorite team could do better is wrong. If your team has yet to win a conference game and is losing those games by an average of 9.33 points, there’s a good chance you can. But what so many fans appear not to understand is how money and conference expansion have changed the game.

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When membership of the elite conferences was more exclusive, there was enough prestige for one of those coaching jobs to have automatic appeal. At that point, it also was rare for programs in competitive but less televised leagues to pay exorbitant salaries to coaches. So there always was a ready supply of coaches eager to move up, and progressing through that “food chain” helped assure there always were quality candidates for the big-timers to harvest.

Look around, now: Gregg Marshall is earning more than $3 million annually at Wichita State. Archie Miller is earning well into seven figures at Dayton. Will Wade is a first-time head coach at VCU and is making more than $1 million.

They’re rich now. They may wish to become richer, but they’re willing to wait until the opportunity presented to them is ideal and presents the likelihood of becoming richer and more successful. Richer no longer is enough.

That’s what Pitt and many in its media and many of its followers failed to recognize last March. They thought they might convince Arizona's Sean Miller to walk away from one of the top jobs in college coaching because he is an alum, or his brother Archie to leave UD because he is a native of Western Pennsylvania. There was never a chance. The lack of appreciation of Dixon’s achievements – and the understanding among fellow coaches of the great work he’d done – also dissuaded candidates.

And so they wound up with a coach with a solid-but-not-overwhelming performance in 17 seasons at Vanderbilt: seven NCAA bids, two Sweet 16s. He was perhaps even more out of favor at Vandy than Dixon was at Pitt.

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Dixon had arrived at Pitt in 1999 as an assistant under Ben Howland, then took over the program when their stunning success at building the Panthers into a Big East force helped Howland move back home to California as UCLA coach in 2003. And, though he had been a consolation-prize hire when the administration declined to consider John Calipari and preferred candidate Skip Prosser turned them down, Dixon immediately turned the Panthers into a league power in a league that included seven different members that made Final Four appearances following the turn of the century.

Instead of focusing on Pitt’s two Big East regular-season championships under Dixon, its Big East Tournament title, its four appearances in the Big East title game or its 11 NCAA Tournament appearances in 13 seasons, Dixon largely was criticized for his failure to make the Panthers one of those Big East programs with a recent Final Four appearance. And for his style of play, which they considered too oriented toward defense. And for his demeanor with the media. And for not signing more big-name recruits.

Ultimately, though he’d turned down much better jobs because he wanted to be in Pittsburgh, loved the school and his position and raising his children there, changes in the athletic director’s office and at the chancellor level and the prevailing atmosphere among the fans and media covering the team, Dixon decided it would be foolish to decline an attractive offer to coach at his alma mater, TCU.

The only downside to coaching there is having to be in charge of a team called the Horned Frogs. Otherwise, it’s a lovely area in which to reside, the pressure is not immense because the history is not impressive and there is a truckload of nearby talent in the state of Texas. His team is 14-6 after starting 9-11 under Trent Johnson last season.

One might say Dixon has it better than he expected.

No one would say that about Pitt basketball now.