Dion Dixon and his Cincinnati teammates want some respect. An upset win tonight vs. Notre Dame could do it. Maybe.

After dismantling upstart South Florida, 87-61, in the second round of the Big East Tournament last night at the Garden, the Bearcats talked about how little respect they believe they’ve gotten. Eventually, head coach Mick Cronin declared his team could change that when they face the second-seeded Irish tonight.

“Our players want more respect,” Cronin said of his seventh-seeded squad. “Beat Notre Dame, you’ll get it.”

Dixon isn’t so sure.

“We probably still won’t get any respect,” the junior guard said.

Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough and Co. await. Cincinnati lost to the Fighting Irish, 66-58, in South Bend, Ind., on Jan. 19. Notre Dame led by 17 with 9:16 to go, but the Bearcats cut it to five on a Dixon 3-pointer with 1:25 left.

They also held Hansbrough to just 1-for-8 shooting from the field. He finished with 13 points thanks to an 11-for-12 effort from the free-throw line.

“We were a different team back then,” Cronin said. “We didn’t have the confidence we have now.”

Or perhaps the offense. Cronin said Cincinnati has been prioritizing offense recently, declaring that the team’s practices are “80 percent” devoted to it. Last night Cincinnati poured in its most points in regulation in a Big East game this season, shooting 57.1 percent from the floor. Big man Yancy Gates finished with a career-best 25 points on 10-for-11 shooting, while Dixon put up 21.

“Their team came to play,” Bulls coach Stan Heath said.

Cincinnati paced the Big East defensively, surrendering a league-low 58.6 points per game. The Irish average 75.5 offensively, the conference’s third-best mark.

The Bearcats (25-7), who have won six of seven, feel like they are the nation’s most disrespected 25-win team.

“We’ve been feeling like that for a long time,” Gates said, “but we’ll take it.”

mark.hale@nypost.com