Fields Finalist For Cousy Award

Bob Cousy was considered to be among the greatest guards in NCAA and professional basketball history, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and The Hartford Financial Services Group sponsor an award to honor the nation's top collegiate point guard.

Pitt senior Levance Field is among the 17 finalists for the 2009 Bob Cousy Award, as selected by media members from a pool of more than 60 candidates from NCAA Division I, II and III institutions across the country.

Fans nationwide have the opportunity to vote for their favorite candidate at Vote For Levance. The top vote-getter will receive the "Fan Vote,'' representing one vote to be cast by the Blue Ribbon committee which will select the award-winner. The Blue Ribbon committee is comprised of Cousy, along with several NCAA Division I coaches, media members, college basketball analysts and celebrities. The award will be presented April 6 at the NCAA Final Four in Detroit.

"That's really a great honor for Levance, our program and the University of Pittsburgh,'' Pitt men's basketball coach Jamie Dixon said. "We're very proud of him and Sam for being nominated for the student-athlete award.''

A three-time Cousy Award finalist, Fields is averaging 11 points, seven assists and 2.5 rebounds per game and has tallied three double-doubles with points and assists this year. He is ranked second nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.55) and fifth in assists per game with seven. Earlier this year, Fields became the sixth player in school history to score more than 1,000 points and dish out 500 assists in a career. Pitt's assist-to-turnover ratio (2.73) record-holder, Fields has 1,102 points, 530 assists and 354 rebounds in his 117-game career. The Panthers are 72-14 all-time with Fields as a starter.

No. 6 Pitt (20-2 overall, 7-2 Big East) is back in action against DePaul Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern at Allstate Arena in suburban Chicago. The contest will be televised by ESPN on a regional basis and broadcast locally on FSN Pittsburgh.

Along with Fields, the other finalists for the Cousy Award are Kansas' Sheron Collins, UCLA's Darren Collison, Davidson's Stephen Curry, Florida State's Toney Douglas, Syracuse's Jonny Flynn, Marquette's Dominic James, North Carolina's Ty Lawson, Virginia Commonwealth's Eric Maynor, Saint Mary's Patrick Mills, Gonzaga's Jeremy Pargo, Connecticut's A.J. Price and Wake Forest's Jeff Teague, as well as Division III's David Arseneault from Grinnell, BYU-Hawaii's Virgil Buenseuceso, Merrimack's Darren Duncan and Washington (Mo.)'s Sean Wallis.