PITTSBURGH - A day later, Pitt's players still couldn't quite believe what happened. Not only did they lose at home - in the new arena where they had lost only once previously in three seasons - they lost to Bucknell.

Pitt's football team is supposed to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. Pitt's then-No. 10 basketball team, a winner of 41 of its previous 46 games, is not supposed to lose at home - especially to an opponent that hadn't beaten a Big East team in 30 years.

"I bet everybody in the world didn't think we were going to lose to Bucknell," point guard Carl Krauser said Monday, less than 24 hours after Pitt's stunning 69-66 loss. "But it's like I was telling the guys two days ago, the best thing about basketball is you never know what's going to happen. You can't just go out there and say, 'We're going to win by 30,' and win by 30."

Bucknell, of the Patriot League, joined Syracuse as the only visiting team to win at Pitt since the Petersen Events Center opened 27 months ago. The upset loss not only was one of the biggest in Pitt's history, it ended the Panthers' 48-game home-court winning streak against non-conference teams and dropped them from No. 10 to No. 16 in the latest AP poll.

"We feel offended losing in here," senior forward Chevon Troutman said.

Coach Jamie Dixon liked how the Panthers (10-1) responded Monday with one of their best practices of the year - Troutman called it "unreal" - but certainly didn't like what it took to get his players' attention.

Dixon has fretted for weeks that a team that relies heavily on three sophomores and a freshman wasn't mastering the basic strengths that have keyed Pitt's 98-17 record the last four seasons: an aggressive, man-to-man defense, strong transitional play and a lack of mistakes.

Dixon finally abandoned the man-to-man in the second half Sunday, sensing that he had no choice as Bucknell became the second consecutive team to shoot better than 50 percent against what was the nation's No. 2 defense last season.

Dixon also was unhappy with the Panthers' 15 first-half turnovers and their 45 percent (9-of-20) free-throw shooting.

"We've known we're not where we needed to be - we've known that all year," said Dixon, who rarely says anything critical of his players. "We knew that last summer. We knew that in October, November, December. We're not nearly where we're expected to be."

The Panthers don't have much time to get there. They open defense of their Big East Conference regular-season championship Wednesday night against Georgetown (8-3), the first of six conference games this month. Upcoming in three weeks are consecutive games against No. 6 Syracuse (13-1) and No. 10 Connecticut (8-1).

Pitt's loss also illustrated the occasional dangers of playing a relatively soft schedule before conference play begins, as many Big East teams do. Sometimes, players get complacent and fall into bad habits because their competition usually isn't good enough to take advantage of the breakdowns.

"We just had to get refocused. Even though we've played a lot of these non-conference games, I think we lost the sense of how to come out and take care of the game early," Troutman said.

Neither Krauser nor Troutman thinks the loss will carry over to conference play and affect the Panthers' confidence.

"It's a good learning experience to have a loss like that. Now, they (the younger players) will look at us as leaders and listen and understand what it takes to win," Krauser said.