Fields not a Likely Factor Against Notre Dame
February 20th, 2008 | by The Prowler |According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Levance Fields missed practice Monday and Tuesday.
Meanwhile, point guard Levance Fields (foot), who played for the first time in seven weeks against Marquette, didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday. His status for Notre Dame is “up in the air,” according to Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.
Jamie Dixon tried to downplay the situation:
“It’s always going to be up in the air,” Dixon said, “when you are out for seven weeks, going on eight.”
No matter what Dixon has to say about Fields missing practice, we all know that there is no way to get back into shape when you aren’t practicing. So while Fields might play Thursday, if he hasn’t been doing full speed practices this week, there is no reason to expect that he will be any more of a positive factor against Notre Dame than he was against Marquette.
In the Marquette game, it was obvious to all that he was at least a step behind. He seemed hesitant at times and he had a couple of turnovers. The most obvious thing missing from his game was his quickness as he got beat time and time again on defense. Marquette outscored Pitt by 20 points during the 20 minutes that Fields was on the floor. That is a misleading stat, since no one played well in the game. But it was clear that they couldn’t make a run with an out of shape Levance Fields on the court.
I don’t know if he practiced with the team today and I don’t know whether to expect to see him much in the Notre Dame game. Since Pitt is being very closed lipped about this situation, we are left to speculate. It is to be expected that Fields would be sore after his first game back from a broken foot. But I don’t think it is a positive sign that he missed practice. Even if he didn’t come back to soon, as many of us were afraid he would, the lack of practice will likely lead to another sloppy step-behind game against the Irish.