Fields Is Mr. Madness, But Fear Villanova

BOSTON -- He looks like a chew toy, or something out of a puppet show. His dreads flop over a headband that would stand out more prominently if not for a midsection best described as doughy. His name is Levance Fields, and sometimes, he'll drive you to exasperation with reckless dribbling into traffic and corkscrew jumpshots heaved for no apparent purpose or reason.

But when a basketball game bleeds into its final frantic minutes, as Pitt games always do in this NCAA tournament, Fields suddenly transforms into the most cut, buffed, magnificent-looking specimen on the court. He has a way of rising to a moment and strangling it, which explains why Sports Illustrated featured him on its cover this week and why, on a Thursday night in whatever they're calling the modern-day Boston Garden, he supplied more evidence for his burgeoning resume as Mr. Madness.

If Villanova rattled the March infrastructure with a complete dismantling of Duke, which never looked more soft and wimpy after being figuratively slugged by the Big East toughs, Fields was the bailout specialist. In what kindly can be called an ugly, unappetizing scrum, Pitt again played like a team unworthy of a No. 1 seed and ready to crash as usual in the Sweet 16. This was another abysmal clankfest that damaged America's collective optic nerve, with the Panthers making only 33 percent of their shots and allowing the equally sloppy Xavier Musketeers -- who scored four points in the first 11 minutes of the second half -- to take a late lead. Were we watching an East Regional semifinal or The Biggest Loser?

"To be honest, it was a very winnable game for us,'' said Xavier's in-hot-demand coach Sean Miller.

At one point, Fields was exchanging bitter words with teammate Gilbert Brown after a turnover, which came after Jermaine Dixon tripped over his feet in mid-air and blew an uncontested layup. Pitt was going down, it seemed, and for the sake of basketball aesthetics and purity, its demise would be a good thing.

Then the clock ticked to under a minute, Levance Daylight Time.

Trailing 54-52 to the feisty X-men and Miller, who once starred as a Pitt point guard and tried to out-Pitt the Panthers with grinding defense and rebounding, Fields dribbled into the frontcourt and had the ball knocked past the midcourt stripe. He trotted back and retrieved it, returned to the other end and saw DeJuan Blair setting a screen with his sizable rear end. As usual, Fields chose to seize the situation himself, not wanting to merely tie the game.

"I did a little in-and-out move which created just enough space and got them on their heels,'' he said. "And once I got the separation, I took the shot and had all the confidence it would go in. And once it went through, it was a good thing.''

Of course, it went through, a 3-point bomb with 50.9 seconds left that gave Pitt a one-point lead. Seconds later, when Xavier's B.J. Raymond mishandled the ball, Fields raced in, stole it and romped for a layup and a three-point lead. Next thing you knew, he was sprinting off the court toward the Pitt bench, waving his arms and almost tackling his coach, Jamie Dixon. That quickly, that inevitably, he again had saved a team that might not deserve to be in the Elite Eight but arrived anyway, for the first time since 1974, which should quiet Dixon's many detractors for at least a day. No one of sane brainpower would pick Pitt to win a national title right now. But the Final Four is one victory away, with a 60-55 win tucked away in a dirty sock drawer while Villanova -- which smacked Duke with its worst NCAA tournament loss since 1990 -- awaits Saturday in an unsurprising all-Big East final.

"He was still mad, telling me the game wasn't over,'' Fields said of his crash-into-me interlude with Dixon. "I was excited for Coach, as good as he has been for this university. The biggest knock against him has been not getting a Final Four appearance and not getting past the Sweet 16. So this is just a step toward that. And I just wanted to embrace him because he deserves it."

Dixon laughed. He has seen this ending before, many times. "I never get tired of watching Levance take big shots,'' he said. "He has made them year after year. Our guys believe in him. I believe in him. And that's all that matters.''


He's a cocky kid from Brooklyn who stuck out his tongue and swirled it around his mouth during the post-game media conference.

Starting in high school and continuing through his Pitt career, Fields has been making shots to win games. Never mind that Blair and Sam Young are bound for the NBA while Fields is headed for the YMCA. Everyone at Pitt knows who takes the last shot. "DeJuan, Sam, those guys are our two horses, our stars," Fields said. "But when the game's on the line, I'm going to have the ball. The biggest thing for us is confidence. I feel confident when I have the ball and I want to take that last shot.

And my teammates and coaches feel the same way. They want me to have the ball."

That's no lie.

"In those situations, I like Levance,'' said Young, who continued his hot March run with 19 points.

"Me, too,'' said Blair, who struggled to score with 10 points but ruled the paint with 17 rebounds.

The Big Three will have to be better if Pitt is to survive Villanova, which proved it can thrive outside a Philadelphia homecourt advantage with a 77-54 defensive stomping of dispirited, disappointing Duke. The defeat ended Mike Krzyzewski's longshot hopes of completing an unprecedented perfecta -- an Olympic gold medal last August, followed by a national championship -- and extends his Final Four drought to five straight years. Rejoice, Duke haters everywhere! But even Coach K, who has won just one NCAA ring the last 17 years, was quick to praise a Villanova shutdown fueled by quick, physical guards who turned Duke's skilled shooters -- 47 percent from 3-point land in two NCAA tournament games coming in -- into hack artists.

Gerald Henderson, who chose Duke over Villanova in a recruiting war? He shot 1-for-14 while mired in foul trouble.

Jon Scheyer, the deadeye who had played so well since moving to point guard last month? He went 3-for-18.

Kyle Singler? He went 5-for-13.

"They're really a good basketball team. They were better than we were,'' said Krzyzewski, his voice scratchy at times. "And I want to thank my team for an amazing season. For me, it was a memorable one. We're disappointed. We didn't play as well as we would like -- Villanova had a lot to do with that. But this team has been a great team for me to coach. I love these guys.''

It's nice to love your kids. But Villanova creamed the Blue Devils on second-chance points and on the boards. "I would never think in a game that Jon and G would go 4-of-32,'' Krzyzewski said. "I'm disappointed for them. Not in them."

Duke needs a post player and a point guard. "It's not like we haven't tried to find them. They go to other schools,'' said Coack K, who no longer can walk into a gym and hand-pick every recruit.

The long-overdue Villanova coach, Jay Wright, has a cohesive, star-less system that wore down Duke and can wear down Fields and Co.

The defensive display even surprised him. "I don't think Gerald got a shot off 1-on-1,'' Wright marveled. "We really defended for 40 minutes, but that's why I'm really excited about this team. We knew we could win games offensively. But you're not going to advance against great teams if you don't play defense.'' To complement the guards, 6-foot-8 forward Dante Cunningham is emerging as an inside force with ideal timing. Like Pitt, Villanova has been making a tournament push in recent years, only to fall short. Now Wright is thinking about his first Final Four, 24 years after the school's greatest basketballmoment: the miracle win over Georgetown that still ranks among the greatest upsets in American sports

"It's funny, the guys on our team right now, I just made this mistake a couple of weeks ago,'' Wright said. "I was referencing the national championship team and just in general, I said, how old were you when we won it? And they all looked at me and said, 'We weren't even born.' Our practice facility, when you walk in, there's a big screen where they play the song "One Shining Moment" and they relive that run. And I hit that button every time I go in there, so everybody that is behind me looks at it. They see it every day.''

What about this year?

"We're getting better this late in the year,'' Wright said. "We can see guys improving and our team improving. That's exciting.''

"They've got a chance to do something special,'' said Krzyzewski, who had a lengthy heart-to-heart afterward with Wright. "They play defense, handle the ball well and have scorers. They're a tough, tough basketball team.''

The matchup in the East Regional final will be fascinating. To some degree, Pitt finally slayed a stigma. No longer is the Sweet 16 a brick wall. ``It definitely means a lot for us as players, the coach and the city,'' Young said. ``It's something that everybody has been waiting for a long time, and to give them that is a pleasure.''

Said Dixon, who succeeded Ben Howland in 2003 and has struggled to gain national respect: "I've always looked at it as, if it was easy to get to the Sweet 16 more teams would do what we've done. Only two teams have got there as much as we have. So it's an accomplishment. But again, somehow we've turned the Sweet 16 into a bad thing -- and it's not. It's a good thing.''

Still, a nagging ache hasn't gone away. Armed with major talent in Blair, Young and Fields, Pitt still isn't playing to its potential.

All you need to know is, Blair has a picture of downtown Detroit -- site of next weekend's Final Four -- in his campus room. ``We understand that no game is going to be easy. Fortunately for us, in some ways, we still haven't played our best basketball,'' Fields said.

"We're positive in this situation. It hasn't been a blowout for us, but we're making the plays down the stretch when the game is on the line. And we keep advancing and, hopefully, on Saturday, we can play better. But if we have to win again like this, we'll take it.''

In other words, they have three more unattractive games to win.

It's one thing to survive Xavier, quite another to topple a team that some in Philly will compare to Rocky Balboa.

Don't buy it.

Villanova is no underdog.