Polished steel: College basketball: toughness and steadiness form the foundation of Pittsburgh's mettle, but this team has more flash than past panthers squads.

A remote control rests in Jamie Dixon's left hand, but it might as well he a magic wand. As he watches tape on a flat-screen TV in the hack of his office, Dixon makes dead air disappear. As one play unfolds, he points his right index finger at the screen and makes an observation. When it ends, his left hand zaps the players into a fast-forward frenzy until more action is found. Dixon never misses a significant bounce of the ball. And you think you're good at skipping over the commercials. "Good screen there," Dixon says as he points to his junior forward Chevon Troutman. Zap.

"Chris can't fade away like that; he's ending up near the 3-point line," as freshman ...