University Of Pittsburgh
By Joe Bendel

Freshman guard Ronald Ramon stood beyond the 3-point arc and attempted three shots.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

'All day,' senior forward Chevon Troutman said. 'He's the best shooter we've had since I've been here.'

Ramon represents the new, and improved?, Pitt basketball team for the 2004-05 season. The 6-foot-1 combination guard can score in bunches.

'We've always had good teams, but they couldn't score in spurts like this one,' said Troutman, who joins Chris Taft, the 2004 Big East Rookie of the Year, and Carl Krauser, an All-American honorable mention, as returning starters. 'We can score 10 in row in a two-minute span. We can score all of these quick buckets.'

It remains to be seen if the Panthers can improve on last season, when they finished with a school-best record of 31-5, won the Big East regular-season title and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive year. They lost starters Jaron Brown and Julius Page, but they've added better outside shooting.

'Last year, we had one guy who could step outside and really hit shots,' Krauser said. 'Now, we have six, seven, eight guys who can.'

The Panthers were 21-of-58 from the field, including 3-of-17 from 3-point range, in a 12-point loss to Oklahoma State in the Sweet 16.

'We were one shooter away,' sophomore forward Levon Kendall said. 'This year we have a lot of them, and it will make a difference.'

Jamie Dixon's team is a contender for the Big East title. Krauser might be the league's top point guard, while Taft and Troutman form a powerful inside punch.

It will be difficult to duplicate lastseason, but this group might be equipped for it.

'I don't feel like we have a glaring weakness right now,' Dixon said.