PITTSBURGH - Oh what a difference a seed makes.

Pittsburgh can only look wistfully to other brackets where a wave of upsets washed away top-seeded Stanford in Phoenix, then Kentucky in St. Louis. In Atlanta, No. 2 Mississippi State fell Sunday to Xavier.

No one knows where the Panthers would have ended up if they got the seed they think they deserved. But it probably wouldn't have been East Rutherford, the only bracket where all four top-seeded teams remain in the hunt for a national championship.

The Panthers, the Big East champion and a No. 3 seed, boarded a bus Tuesday for New Jersey, where they will take on No. 2 Oklahoma State.

Coach Jamie Dixon said the seed no longer matters.

"Once we get on the floor, who's picking who is not a big concern," he said. "Not to our guys."

The only numbers that will matter to the Panthers Thursday are points.

Pitt scored only 58 points in a loss to Connecticut in the Big East title game, 53 points in a win against Central Florida in the first game of the NCAA tournament and 59 points to squeak by Wisconsin in the second round.

Over its last six games, Pitt has scored more than 62 points only once, a remarkably low figure for one of the final 16 teams vying for the national crown.

Julius Page, Pitt's shooting guard, said the Panthers have allowed themselves to be taken out of their game, a mistake the team must avoid Thursday to get past the Cowboys.

"We've just got to slow down a little bit a play at a pace we want to play at," he said.

Page has scored in double figures only three times in his last nine games, though two of those games were in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

With its offense sputtering, the Panthers have leaned on point guard Carl Krauser not only to run the offense, but to supply most of it. Krauser has averaged 17 points for the Panthers.

Krauser said the Panthers are due to break out.

"It's coming," he said. "It's fate. It's destiny."

Destiny or not, Dixon said the Panthers need forward Chris Taft to play well against Oklahoma State's Ivan McFarlin and Joey Graham. In two games for the Cowboys, McFarlin totaled 33 points and 20 rebounds.

"I think (Taft has) been an impact all year long, and I think that they have very good inside guys that might play bigger than they're listed," Dixon said.

The winner of Thursday's game advances to the semifinals Saturday to take on the winner of the second game in East Rutherford between Saint Joseph's and Wake Forest.

Pittsburgh is 3-2 against Oklahoma State all time. The teams last met on Nov. 17, 1991, when the Cowboys beat Pitt in the preseason NIT.