Levance Fields will leave Pitt as yet another in a string of three straight excellent point guards. Perhaps the best of the three. He won’t catch Brandin Knight (785) or Sean Miller (744) in career assists, but then both were four-year starters. He will likely pass Jerry McCullough (552) tonight and will also pass Carl Krauser (568). He sits at 546 at the moment, so he also has a good chance to catch Darrelle Porter (617), especially with some deep runs in the Big East Tourney and the NCAA, to finish in the third spot.

He’s simply one of the best point guards in the country right now.

Fields, barraged with early season questions about his health, is, statistically at least, the best in the nation at a point guard’s primary duties — setting up baskets and taking care of the ball.

Fields owns an NCAA-leading assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.0-to-1 and is coming off a startling three-game stretch in which he had 36 assists and only three turnovers.

The senior point guard will be directing the Pitt offense again at 7 tonight when the No. 6 Panthers (21-2, 8-2) play rival West Virginia (5-5, 16-7) for the second time in two weeks — this time at Petersen Events Center in a nationally televised game.

“I think he’s just getting better,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We pointed to January and February for a guy that’s been out for 11 months. He’s getting a better feel for it. He’s getting more confidence. He’s finishing drives more.”

Fields was named one of 17 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s best point guard Thursday, and he certainly earned some Internet votes when he matched a 33-year-old single-game Pitt record with 16 assists in a 92-69 victory at DePaul on Saturday afternoon. He had one turnover in 31 minutes.

DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright called Fields the Big East’s “consummate leader.”

“I’m sure he’s one of those guys that, in the locker room and anywhere else, all he talks about is winning,” Wainwright said. “That’s what makes them a good team.”

Speaking of the Cousy award, the link to vote is right here.

The freshman guard who has grown more comfortable in the offense is Ashton Gibbs. He knows his role is primarily to stretch the defense with the 3-ball, and he is fine with that.

“I like it,” Gibbs said of his new role. “Levance is a pass-first point guard. Any shooter would love to play with a pass-first point guard who is always going to look for you as a shooter.”

Gibbs showed off his 3-point touch against the Colonials. In a 31/2-minute stretch in the first half when the score was still close, he made all three of his 3-pointers during a 16-7 Pitt run that boosted the lead from 10 to 19 points.

Dixon had been slow to play Gibbs early in the season because Gibbs was lagging defensively and had not been demonstrating great shooting accuracy in practice. But those two aspects have changed, and Gibbs is earning more time in the rotation.

“Ashton is shooting the ball well,” Dixon said. “He obviously can shoot the ball. He’s given us some versatility. We can play smaller at times. And we’ve seen some zones.”

Gibbs is the type of player who can come in handy when teams attempt to slow the Panthers down by playing zone. With the top 3-point shooting percentage in the Big East, he can make teams go back to man-to-man quickly with his accurate outside shooting.

Gibbs is shooting 50% (25-50) on threes this season. Most important is he’s been consistent. He’s 15-30 in the non-con and 10-20 in Big East games. His defense still needs plenty of work, but that is not surprising.