PITTSBURGH — Rutgers coach Mike Rice spent a season working under Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon five years ago, and freely admits borrowing heavily from Dixon while trying to make the Scarlet Knights respectable in the crowded Big East.

Considering the current fortunes of both teams, Dixon might be the one digging into Rice’s playbook in the near future.

Eli Carter scored 14 points, Dane Miller added 11 points and 12 rebounds and Rutgers crushed the reeling Panthers 62-39 on Wednesday night.

“We’re not where we need to be and there’s a variety of reasons, some obvious ones,” Dixon said. “But no one wants to hear reasons. We’ve got to get it done. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to go forward.”

At this point, there’s no other direction to go.

Picked to finish fourth in the Big East in the preseason, Pitt (11-6, 0-4) is now the only winless team in conference play. And given the way things are going, relief may not come for a while. The Panthers travel to No. 25 Marquette on Saturday then play at No. 1 Syracuse on Monday.

“We’ve just got to want it more,” Pitt guard Ashton Gibbs said. “Playing hard is something you can change as a player.”

And the Panthers need things to change after the improved Scarlet Knights (10-7, 2-2) held Pitt to 21 percent shooting (12 of 57) while sending Pittsburgh to its fifth straight loss, the longest losing streak in coach Dixon’s nine years on the bench.

Coming off a 67-60 upset of defending national champion UConn last week, Rutgers backed it up with an even more impressive win over the defending conference champions. Pittsburgh (11-6, 0-4) never led over the game’s final 30 minutes while suffering its worst loss in 10 seasons at the Petersen Events Center.

“I thought it was as good of a 40-minute performance as we’ve played all year,” Rice said. “We’re getting better. A young team is starting to figure out how to win basketball games, how important every possession is, every rebound.”

The Panthers used to be unbeatable at the Peterson Events Center, winning more than 90 percent of their games there since it opened almost a decade ago. They’ve now dropped four games there this year.