Pittsburgh made it to the top of The Associated Press' college basketball poll for the first time, and it wasn't even close.

The Panthers (14-0) took advantage of losses by season-long unanimous No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Connecticut to make the jump from third to first today, receiving all but two of the first-place votes from the national media panel.

Pitt had been ranked second nine times since 1987-88 but had never reached No. 1 until this week.

"I think it means a lot to our fans and our city, and it means a lot to our university, much more so than to me and our players," Panthers coach Jamie Dixon said.

The Panthers have a lot of familiar names in the Top 25 with them as they are one of a record nine Big East teams in the poll.

The 16-team league had a record eight schools ranked for three weeks earlier in the season, but the return of Marquette and the first appearance of West Virginia made it nine Big East teams.

The Panthers opened Big East play this week with road wins over Rutgers and Georgetown.

They won't play again until hosting St. John's on Sunday.

Duke (12-1) jumped from fifth to second to start a run of three straight teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

North Carolina (13-1), which lost 85-78 at home to Boston College on Sunday and received the other first-place votes, was third and Wake Forest (13-0) fourth.