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MINNEAPOLIS -- Travis Diener, not his backcourt mate and the team's star, Dwyane Wade, has carried the offensive load for the Marquette Golden Eagles through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

And that suits Wade, who averages 21.3 points, fine.

"He can score any time he wants," Wade said. "He's a great shooter, and when he doesn't shoot, I think, 'Shoot the ball!' He's doing a great job with that right now, finding shots."

Diener (12.5 ppg.), the Eagles' babyfaced sophomore point guard, is coming off 29- and 26-point performances, respectively, in victories over Holy Cross (72-68) and No. 24 Missouri (101-92 in overtime). That followed a team-high 19 points in an 83-76 loss to Alabama-Birmingham in the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament.

"I've been scoring a little more and getting confidence," Diener said. "I don't go out of my way to force a bad shot. There are a lot of guys on this team that can do some damage.

"I struggled early in the year shooting the ball. But now, I'm finding it. It's going really well."

In the past three games, Diener is a combined 15 for 24 from 3-point range (63.2 percent), including 10 of 17 in the NCAA Tournament.

Wade and Diener make up a potent backcourt for No. 9 Marquette, but the duo will be mightily tested in tonight's Sweet 16 encounter with No. 4 Pitt at the Metrodome. Certainly, the Panthers' vaunted defense is a fact that has not escaped Diener's mind.

"We'll have a big challenge against Pittsburgh. They're a very talented team, very good," he said.

You could say that, because Pitt has mowed down Wagner (87-61) and Indiana (74-52) to get to this point in the tournament with stifling defense, timely outside shooting and bruising inside play.

The combination gives the Panthers an imposing attack, which, if they get by Marquette, will receive yet another stern test Saturday against the winner of tonight's other Midwest Region game at the Metrodome, featuring No. 1 Kentucky and No. 21 Wisconsin.

When we last left the Pitt basketball team, defender-extraordinaire Julius Page was doing a number on Indiana sharpshooter Tom Coverdale on Sunday in Boston, holding the dangerous Hoosiers point guard to just 2-of-7 shooting and six points. Page's assignment tonight likely will be to guard Wade, a surefire future NBA star.

That, in turn, will leave Diener to wonder which Panthers player will pay the most attention to him.

"There's a lot of keys to that team," he said. "In every position, they've got someone who's very dangerous. We've got to go in with the mindset that we're not going to let any of those guys beat us. We've just got to dig down and try to find a way to win."

Diener, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound native of Fond du Lac, Wis., can't control any of it, though. He'd rather focus on his own situation.

"When you get to this point in the tournament, every game is going to be the biggest game you'll ever play. We're looking forward to it," he said. "The two games last weekend were the two biggest game I've ever played. Now, this game against Pitt will be the biggest game in my career."

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