Monday, December 31st, 2007 by Adam Wagner
How losing Levance Fields affects Pitt
It did not look good when Levance Fields went down in the second half Saturday night in 
Dayton, but we found out the full extent of the damage today when reports revealed that Fields has a broken left foot. The injury leaves Pitt without its point guard and sometime street brawler for two to three months, leaving a small gap of time for him to become healthy before the postseason. The injury, combined with Mike Cook’s, moves Pitt from a veteran-laden team to one that will need to start Ronald Ramon at PG, a position that he is unfamiliar with, and, probably, Keith Benjamin at SG, to replace Ramon, as well as Gilbert Brown at SF, to replace the absent Mike Cook.
The change will be interesting, even if it does mean that Pitt is no longer the national title contender that they appeared to be after beating Duke. For the first time in the Dixon/Howland Pitt Resurrection Era, the team will be forced to band together in the middle of the season, as Pitt will need to deal with not one but two catastrophic injuries.
Pitt will be expecting Ramon, who has looked extremely unimpressive thus far this
season, to pick up the slack at PG, a position that he is not necessarily used to playing. The pressure of running the offense will fall on completely unproven hands, thereby creating even more pressure as Pitt heads into the brutal schedule that is Big East conference play. Ramon may be the gutsy type of player that Pitt needs to run its offense, but it was not Ramon taking the three against Duke. It was Fields. Ramon must learn to be the leader by example that Fields is when healthy.
Dixon must also figure out how he will deal with subbing out Ramon. He now has four 
healthy guards available to him, with Ramon, Benjamin, Gilbert Brown (who took Mike Cook’s spot), and Bradley Wanamaker. Wanamaker struggled earlier this season with the PG position, but now he will be forced to learn it on the fly whenever Ramon needs a breather. Expected to be an impact freshman, Wanamaker has had problems tuning in to this point. Now, for the first time in recent memory, a freshman who is probably not ready will have to take on a significant role for Pitt. Dixon will do everything he can to prepare Wanamaker, but when he and Brown are on the floor together, Pitt’s backcourt will be extremely inexperienced and unproven.
If the two can somehow band together, Pitt may stumble upon its backcourt of the future,
but this is not a season where Dixon and the Panthers expected to be going through growing pains. This was supposed to be the year where it all came together, not where major injuries sabotaged the best-laid plans. Instead, Pitt is going to have one senior playing out of position, one freshman coming off of the bench in a vital role, one redshirt freshman starting, and one completely erratic senior (Benjamin, who can either start or kill a hot stretch for Pitt) starting.
The next eight to twelve weeks, or the time Fields is supposed to be out, will certainly be more difficult for Pitt than they would have been otherwise, but they will also be more interesting. After all, this is something completely different for Pitt fans who are used to a slow maturation process and players who fit perfectly into their roles, opportunities that injuries are not affording Pitt this season.
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