PITTSBURGH — Most seasons, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon looks down his bench and sees multiple players who will start within a year. This season, he'll see mostly freshmen and, beyond them, more freshmen.

Attrition is a way of life among college basketball's elite, which commonly lose their best players to the NBA before their senior seasons. At Pitt, the recruiting classes are crafted to prevent a substantial drop-off in talent, and the strategy has led to eight consecutive 20-win seasons and NCAA appearances.

While the Panthers previously rebuilt without truly rebuilding, they are beginning their biggest reconstruction project in the 10 years since former coach Ben Howland inherited a program that had averaged only 12 wins the previous five seasons.

The Panthers started preseason practice Friday without two of the best players in school history, NBA second-round draft picks DeJuan Blair and Sam Young. Two other starters, point guard Levance Fields and forward Tyrell Biggs, also are gone from a team that went 31-5 and was ranked No. 1 in February.

Because of an injury (guard Jermaine Dixon's broken foot) and an academic issue (Gilbert Brown can't play until late December), the Panthers may play their Nov. 13 opener against Wofford without top six players from last season.

"I know what it looks like on paper, but for us we've never looked at that," Jamie Dixon said. "We've always had guys elevate their games. We've always had guys surprise people. We've got good players in the program and we're ready to go."

If Jermaine Dixon isn't ready next month, Pitt may take the floor with only two players who appeared in their 78-76 loss to Villanova in an NCAA regional final on March 28: guards Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs. Wanamaker averaged 5.8 points last season and Gibbs 4.3.

Dante Taylor, Pitt's first McDonald's All-American recruit in 21 years, and fellow freshmen J.J. Richardson, Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna all might play immediately. Taylor is expected to take over inside for Blair, who averaged 15.7 points and 12.3 rebounds.

Jermaine Dixon, who broke his right foot during the summer and broke it again shortly after school started, slumped in tournament play last season and needs to catch up once he is healthy. With Fields gone, sophomore Ashton Gibbs — Pitt's most reliable outside shooter last season — may move to point guard.

Gibbs, a sophomore, played for Jamie Dixon's world champion 19-and-under team in New Zealand last summer.

Because the Panthers are such an unknown quantity, this could be only the second time in nine seasons they aren't nationally ranked when a season starts. The last time it happened, junior center Aaron Gray led the Panthers to a 15-0 start in 2005-06.

Such a start probably isn't realistic this time, not with Wichita State, Indiana and either Iowa or Texas to play next month, plus a three-game Big East road trip against Syracuse, Cincinnati and Connecticut in early January.

No doubt Dixon will use the 12 games before Pitt's Big East opener against DePaul on Dec. 28 to sort out which of his young players are ready and which can't be counted upon.

"With some guys, it just clicks," assistant coach Brandin Knight said. "You never know how a guy's going to be when there's 12,000, 13,000 in the stands."