PITTSBURGH - Two weeks ago, Jamie Dixon looked to be caught in the first real crisis of his two seasons as Pitt's basketball coach.

A Top 15 team for most of four seasons, the Panthers followed a 10-0 start with a remarkable series of upset losses to Bucknell, Big East underling Georgetown and St. John's, arguably the conference's worst team last season.

Especially troubling were the losses to Bucknell and Georgetown at the Petersen Events Center, where Pitt had lost only once previously in two-plus seasons.

The team chemistry Dixon and predecessor Ben Howland carefully spent years building seem endangered because of Carl Krauser's insistence on dominating the ball and forcing shots.

Chris Taft, a 6-foot-10 sophomore center considered to be Pitt's next NBA player, was visibly underachieving. Power forward Chevon Troutman, usually the team's most consistent player at both ends of the court, wasn't involved in the offense nearly enough.

There was an unaccustomed problem off the court, too, with the arrest of starting guard Yuri Demetris following an incident at a former girl friend's apartment.

Then, just when it seemed things couldn't go much worse for the team with the nation's best overall record the previous three seasons, they did. The Panthers' problems compounded as they fell behind Connecticut by 17 points in the first half of a Jan. 22 game played amid a howling snowstorm in Storrs, Conn.

Crisis mode, indeed.

"But, then, things started clicking for us," backup center Aaron Gray said.

Though the Panthers had little time to regroup at halftime of that potentially season-wrecking game at UConn, they did exactly that.

Krauser became intent on setting up teammates for baskets instead of scoring them himself - "I just went back to playing the way I play," he said. Troutman, now back in the offense, became a force the Huskies couldn't handle. Taft, though still erratic, began asserting himself more.

Suddenly, what looked to be Pitt's worst loss in years turned out to be a season-renewing 76-66 victory. Their confidence restored, the Panthers shrugged off a similarly terrible start against then-No. 4 Syracuse to rally again from 17 down and win 76-69 Saturday - one of their biggest wins in seasons.

"The guys really responded and made plays," Dixon said. "It's a great sign for us."

And a bad sign for Big East tailender Providence, which came to Pitt (15-3, 5-2 Big East) Monday night with a nine-game conference losing streak that would soon become a 10-game streak. With no comeback needed this time, Taft had 25 points and 15 rebounds in an 86-66 rout.

Crisis? What crisis?

"They've got it going now," Providence coach Tim Welsh said. "They look like their old selves."

Or the team the Panthers looked to be when they were 10-0 - a record built against a soft schedule that, Gray said, may have given the Panthers false confidence.

Krauser credits a three-hour team meeting before the UConn game for aiding the turnaround. And Dixon may have straightened out some chronically poor free throw shooting by installing a new drill that forces players to run when a teammate misses a foul shot in practice.

Since putting in the drill, what was the Big East's worst foul-shooting team is 42-of-51 at the line in two games.

Demetris' absence - he is suspended and not expected to return - has allowed Dixon to give more minutes to freshman guard Keith Benjamin and redshirt sophomore Levon Kendall. Both are contributing more offensively than Demetris was. And Krauser went from having 28 assists and 30 turnovers in a five-game stretch to 26 assists and nine turnovers in his last three games.

Next up is Saturday's game at rival West Virginia, followed by home games next week against St. John's and Notre Dame.

"I think we definitely turned the corner, and we're going to keep going straight on that road," Krauser said. "It's definitely a different look we have now. We had our meetings, and everybody took a look at themselves. Now, we're all believing in one thing and that's winning every time we play."