It's not an original sentiment, but as George Orwell once said, "To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle." The famed author wouldn't mind, then, if yet one more basketball writer made the obvious but necessary point that's rippling through the hoops world: Jamie Dixon is the leading candidate for 2010 Coach of the Year in Division I-A men's college caging.

He lost DeJuan Blair and his machine-like rebounding.

He lost Sam Young and his combination of defensive length and inside-outside scoring.

He lost point guard Levance Fields and his essential late-game toughness honed by the mean streets of New York.

Yet, Dixon is coaching the Pittsburgh Panthers to one Big East victory after another, and very likely, another NCAA Tournament bid. Wednesday night's 10-point pasting of a more talented Connecticut crew at the XL Center in Hartford showed, for one thing, that a Jan. 2 win at Syracuse was no aberration. More importantly, however, the victory in New England vaulted Pitt to 4-0 in the Big East, making the Panthers one of only two unbeaten teams in the league. (Villanova is the other one.) And precisely because this win comes on the heels of the win at Syracuse and another road conquest at Cincinnati, it's clear that Pitt's 4-0 league mark has not been the product of an easy schedule. Playing tough opponents away from Western Pennsylvania, these Pitt pupils have used the Dixon Doctrine of defense and determination to fight their way to the top of a 16-team superconference.