Fields out 8 to 12 weeks with broken foot
It hasn’t been a good weekend for the Pittsburgh Panthers. On Saturday they were trounced 80-55 against Dayton, suffering their first and most lopsided loss of the season. During the game they lost their point guard, as Levance Fields had to be carried off the court and into the locker room. Today they found out they’ll be without his services for quite a while.
Levance Fields broke his left foot in Saturday’s loss to Dayton and he will be out 8-12 weeks. The injury could end his regular season with the Panthers, but Field could possibly return for the Big East tournament and NCAA tournament in March for Pittsburgh.
The loss of Fields comes a little more than a week after Pittsburgh loss senior Mike Cook for the season with a torn ACL in the win over Duke. The injury to Fields now raises serious question about where Pittsburgh will go from here.
Who becomes the point guard? Who becomes the facilitator for the offense? Who becomes the leader on the floor? Certainly all questions that aren’t going to easily be answered for head coach Jamie Dixon and company.
The base case scenario for Pitt is that Ronald Ramon will handle the point guard duties, but they’ll need him to snap out of his recent slump now more than ever. Ramon is 1-of-15 from the field in the last two games, missing all eight shots he took on Saturday against Dayton. Along with Ramon, Sam Young may become one of the go-to-guys for Dixon. He’ll have to be more aggressive and assertive now, as well as freshman DeJuan Blair. Blair will have to grow up a little quicker than anticipated and the Panthers will need him to raise his efforts and get better with each game.
Fields was averaging 11.9 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds in his 12 starts this season for Pittsburgh. This is the second season being a starter for Jamie Dixon. Fields had started 49 straight games for Pittsburgh.
Tags: Big East Basketball, Levance Fields, NCAA Men's basketball, Pittsburgh Panthers