PITTSBURGH — There’s a certain nastiness that comes with the job when you play basketball at Pittsburgh.

Coach Jamie Dixon has built the Panthers into a Big East power not on the back of high-profile recruits but blue-collar players who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

So far this season, those hands have been much too clean.

Normally dominant in November and December, No. 22 Pitt (11-3, 0-1 Big East) has looked vulnerable instead, losing home games against Long Beach State and Wagner before opening conference play on Tuesday with a 72-59 setback at Notre Dame.

The Panthers have dropped three games before New Year’s Day for the first time since the 2000-01 season, when they went 19-14 and missed the NCAA tournament.

That’s the last time the madness went on without Pitt. While it’s certainly way too early to panic, the Panthers know they haven’t looked like themselves and can’t afford another slip at home on Sunday against resilient Cincinnati (10-3).

“You know the Big East is so deep and so good you don’t want to come out 0-2 and get the other teams trying to come at you, `Oh, they’re not that good,”‘ center Dante Taylor said.

To be fair, the Panthers haven’t been much more than average.

Never one to play a daunting nonconference schedule because of the brutal nature of the Big East, Pitt’s best victories this season have been so-so triumphs over rebuilding Tennessee and inconsistent Oklahoma State.

Both of those came away from the Petersen Events Center, a place where the Panthers have been virtually unbeatable in non-league games since it opened 2002.

Long Beach State became just the second non-Big East school to win there on Nov. 16, racing to an 86-76 victory. The loss was Pitt’s first at home against a nonconference team in more than five years. The second one came barely five weeks later, when Wagner grinded out a 59-54 win two days before Christmas.

Uh-oh.

While lingering abdominal and groin injuries to point guard Trayvon Woodall and the sudden departure of freshman center Khem Birch — who opted to transfer after playing just 10 games — have hurt, the Panthers aren’t big on making excuses.

Typically one of the best defensive teams in the country, Pitt is allowing opponents to shoot 44 percent from the field, up from 39 percent a year ago when it went 28-6 and won the Big East regular-season title.