PITTSBURGH - Since the first Big East Conference basketball tournament 25 years ago, only one school - Syracuse, from 1986-90 - has played in five consecutive championship games.

No. 22 Pittsburgh can become the second team to do so, even though these Panthers (20-7) go into this afternoon's quarterfinal game against No. 19 Villanova (21-6) as only the fifth-seeded team in a loaded tournament.

That's a switch from each of the last three tournaments, when Pitt went into Madison Square Garden as either the Big East regular-season champion or co-champion.

Of course, all that success didn't necessarily help the Panthers come tournament time; while they were winning conference regular-season titles, Syracuse (2003) and Connecticut (2004) were winning NCAA championships. Pitt, by contrast, has lost in each of the last three NCAA rounds of 16 and is 1-3 in Big East tournament finals since 2001.

That's why point guard Carl Krauser said Pitt's uneven regular season makes no difference now. The losses to Bucknell, Georgetown, St. John's and West Virginia (twice) mean nothing, just as the late-season road victories over Boston College and Notre Dame don't, either.

"It's tournament time," Krauser said. "This is when it all counts."

Pitt is 4-2 against the four teams seeded ahead of it, easily beating top-seeded Boston College, splitting with second-seeded Connecticut, sweeping third-seeded Syracuse and losing to fourth-seeded Villanova.

Villanova is 5-1 against Pitt in Big East tournament play but lacks the Panthers' recent track record. The Wildcats were a combined 4-4 in the last four Big East tournaments, advancing to the semifinals only once.

If the Panthers get past Villanova, they will play either Boston College or eighth-seeded West Virginia in Friday night's semifinals.

Despite the Panthers' relatively low regular-season finish in the Big East, they appear to be playing better than last season's team was at this stage of the season.

Then, despite finishing 31-5 during one of the best seasons in school history, the Panthers scored more than 62 points only twice in their final nine games as their season-long inability to score from the outside proved their undoing in the postseason.

Pitt made only 17 of 69 3-point attempts in its six Big East and NCA tournament games, a 24.6 percent accuracy rate that was far lower than its 30.6 percent conversion rate during the season. Pitt finished as the seventh-worst 3-point shooting team among the 326 that competed in Division I last season.

This season, Pitt ranked second in the Big East in 3-point accuracy, making nearly 39 percent of its shots beyond the arc. Krauser, Antonio Graves and Ronald Ramon have all shown the ability to hit key 3-pointers in pressure situations.

Pitt also got strong play down the stretch from senior forward Chevon Troutman, a first-team all-Big East player who averages 15.3 points, and center Chris Taft, chosen as the conference player of the week after scoring 26 points against Notre Dame and 12 in a 72-50 rout of Boston College.

The Panthers also have some added incentive against Villanova after playing one of their worst games of the season against them, losing 80-72 on Feb. 20 as the Wildcats made 12 of 23 3-point attempts.

"I have revenge on my mind," Graves said.