On Saturday, Pitt scored an impressive 85–68 win over Oklahoma State, running the Panthers’ record to 10–0 for the year and securing their top-10 ranking. But the schedule heats up in a hurry from here: They next face undefeated Duke at Madison Square Garden, and then they go on the road against a Dayton team that ranks among the best mid-majors in the country. The New Year then brings the start of Big East play, which promises to be brutal as ever.

Jamie Dixon embraces the challenge. Now in his fifth season at Pitt, Dixon sports an impressive 115–30, having executed a seamless transition from the successful reign of his predecessor and mentor Ben Howland. Dixon recent took time out of his busy schedule to discuss the emergence of junior forward Sam Young, the stellar play of homegrown freshman DeJuan Blair, and the Panthers’ transition to a smaller, more athletic team.

What’s your stance on scheduling? How do you balance a desire to give your players exposure to top opponents and to raise your team’s RPI, versus easing them in more slowly?

Last year we had [one of the] toughest schedules in the country, overall. Our schedule from within the conference is always tough. It’s also been unbalanced in the past, with the top teams playing other top teams more often. Some schools may play some road games and talk about them, but we’ll play one of the toughest schedules again this year, and go on the road a lot too.

Do you think scheduling highly ranked non-conference opponents early in the season toughens players up for later in the year, and for tournament time?

You’re telling me that a game in November is going to help you in March, when we have 18 league games in play? We have 18 league games to play in January, February and March, those are what will get us ready. Our schedule is going to have us pretty toughened up by the time we’re done with conference play.

You lost your two biggest players from last season in Aaron Gray and Levon Kendall. How have those losses changed the team’s style of play?

We were probably the biggest team in the country last year with Levon and Aaron. This year we’re smaller, but also faster — you definitely don’t want to be smaller and slower. We’ve always pushed the ball and looked for good shots, every year. So there’s not too much of a change, other than it might give us more flexibility and versatility than we’ve had in the past.

The most improved player from last season to this year has to be Sam Young (17.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game this season, compared to 7.2 and 3.0 last year). Is this just a case of him getting more minutes, becoming more of a focal point for the offense, or has his game materially changed?

He’s a better player, but he’s also getting more minutes. He’s the hardest-working guy we have out there. He’s really a guard, but he’s playing bigger than all the 4 men that are guarding him. He’s a guard who has the ability to guard a number of other people.

Bringing in DeJuan Blair, who grew up just down the street from the Pitt campus, was obviously a coup for the program. But did you expect this big a contribution (11.8 ppg, 9.1 rpg), this soon?

You never know with a freshman. DeJuan’s got good instincts, he’s a good listener, and a good teammate. We knew about the physical tools and the competitiveness that he had, that he’d be a very good player. But yes, it’s great that he’s picked things up so quickly.

Levance Fields’s assist to turnover rate has gone up every year he’s been at Pitt. What’s been the biggest difference for him since Carl Krauser left?

He was already playing a lot of point when Carl was here. The assist to turnover improvement is good, but the biggest thing right now is that he’s in better shape. He’s become a much better defender because of his improved conditioning.

You’ve got a big matchup with Duke coming up — that’s another team that’s changed its style to something more up-tempo with their big man gone. Do you see this as an emerging trend in the college game, the way it’s been in the NBA with teams like the Suns and Raptors going with smaller guys at the 5 spot and athletes all around them?

Maybe there was a time when there were a lot of quality big men around, but that was before I started coaching. I think the three-point line being more and more used, teams spacing the floor, using quickness to defend more so than size, all of that has become pretty common. On the other hand, nobody’s turning down a big guy if you can get one.

How does the Big east look to you as we approach the start of conference play?

I don’t look at it too much because I know there’s going to a lot of strong teams. Some of them will do better than predicted at the beginning, some maybe not as well. The Big East’s depth makes us the toughest conference, year in and year out. The Pac-10 can make a strong case this year, since teams are returning a lot of guys. But our conference is always right there at or near the top.

Mr. Keri (jonahkeri@gmail.com) is a writer for ESPN.com’s Page 2.