Which cusp is Pitt basketball on?

Pitt basketball stands at a crossroads in its relatively short-lived time at the top of college basketball. The program has consistently ranked as a top team in the nation since 2002.

Compared to ageless wonders like UCLA, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Indiana and a few others, six years in the upper echelon of college hoops is child's play. For Pitt fans, it has been a fun ride, but things are getting more serious.

Most importantly, for head coach Jamie Dixon, 2008-2009 is a transformative year. The 07-08 season was the first campaign that Dixon had a roster of just his players, meaning the seniors were the first class he fully recruited and signed himself. After this year, the second wave of stars will be gone, too, with Tyrell Biggs, Levance Fields and Sam Young all graduating.

And while it's almost certain that Pitt will be at the very least a competitive club in the Big East this year, what's more evident is that the program stands on the brink of stepping forward or stepping backward. The old guard has one more crack; the new guard waits on the bench.

Led by instant star DeJuan Blair (pictured above), the future of Pitt basketball looks, well, beastly. The Panthers, who have always competed with scrappy above-average talent and a team philosophy, are starting to pull in stars, guys who can score with the best of 'em and still rebound and defend the way Dixon wants them to.

Five-star power forward Dante Taylor will arrive on campus next summer. Dixon and his staff are hoping five-star shooting guard Dominic Cheek will join him. If Cheek comes, a three-headed monster of Blair, Cheek and Taylor will usher in the new era at Pitt. And that doesn't even mention Nasir Robinson, a freshman, who is expected to be a star at some point in his career, and incoming wing Lamar Patterson, who is also considered a good perimeter guy. Meanwhile, the tradition of no-nonsense floor generals will be passed from Fields to freshman Travon Woodall, who, after a year of seasoning, should be more than capable of taking the reins.

In short, the program seems as though it is ready to burst into an even higher group of elite teams, not just loiter around them until the NCAA Tournament, then drop out when the going gets tough. Watch this year's team to see how the transition is going. If a combination of elder statesmen (Fields, Biggs, Young) and young firebrands (Blair, Robinson, Woodall, others) can make it deep in the Tournament -- you know, past the Sweet 16 -- then Pitt basketball is headed toward set-in-stone status among the hoops elite. If this team falters for any number of reasons -- lack of a perimeter scorer, height issues, inexperienced bench -- then who knows what could happen. Struggling this year might even be a reason for Dixon to leave for Arizona; doing well, however, with the new class coming in, is just one of the countless reasons for Dixon to stay and continue his own legacy at Pitt.

It feels strange to say, but the 2008-2009 season is bigger than all the rest. It could open the door to a new generation of overachievers who never quite make it big, or it could knock down the entire wall and break Pitt into superpower status.

Boy, 2008 really is the year of change.