Two More Wins

Pitt won both its games this week, its 4th and 5th wins in a row, against West Virginia and Cincinnati. While Pitt was certainly considered the favorite in both, each game presented its own challenges. The games with WVU are always tough and they hung around for a while, but foul trouble was a huge issue for them as Pitt won 70-59.

Pitt got off to a hot start before Cincinnati got to within five after a fairly sluggish beginning to the half for the Panthers. Eventually, their hot shooting never really stopped and the team tied a school-record shooing 67.4% from the field, winning comfortably 85-69. A late miss on a three-pointer by Brad Wanamaker stopped the team from breaking the record.

Not lost on the local scene was the outstanding play of Levance Fields. Coach Dixon obviously realizes that Fields is playing out of his mind:

"The numbers are mind-boggling," Dixon said. "It was an unbelievable performance. He's doing it game after game down the stretch. I don't know who is playing better than him as a point guard. You can't play any better than his numbers."

Fields has at least 7 assists in his last five games and double-digit assists in three of his past five. His assist to TO ratio over that span? 9.3 / 1. Um, that's pretty good. The play has now made him the NCAA leader in A/T ratio. He may not play in the NBA, but he's one of the best college point guards in a while. Is he better than Brandin Knight? I'm not sure. But Pitt has been fortunate to have so many good point guards over the past few years, including Carl Krauser.