They should hang Brandin Knight's No. 20 jersey in the Petersen Events Center rafters. This Golden Era of Pitt basketball? It started with him. He was the first to buy what new coach Ben Howland was selling. A team-first philosophy. Hard-nosed man-to-man defense. A mental and physical toughness. Knight bought all of it. The rest is ...

Well, you know.

This wonderful slice of Pitt history will include an eighth consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament this month. If you take a long look at the Pitt team, you'll see Knight still is a big part of it. He's on the bench as an assistant to coach Jamie Dixon, sure. But a big piece of him also is on the floor in the person of Levance Fields, another great Pitt leader.

"A consummate field general," DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright called Fields last weekend.

"I don't know who's playing better at point guard," Dixon said after Fields' 13-assist, no-turnover game against Cincinnati Feb. 14. "You just can't play better than his numbers."

We'll get to those in a moment, to Pitt's 77-15 record with Fields as a starter before the game at Seton Hall last night, to his big 3-point shots in the astonishing win at Connecticut Feb. 16, to his extraordinary assist-to-turnover ratio. But first, another word from Dixon.

"We have two freshman point guards on the team," he said of Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall. "I told Levance that part of his job -- part of his legacy -- is to pass on his knowledge to those guys. That's how we keep it going here."

Knight begot Carl Krauser, who begot Fields, who is begetting ....

"Levance has always been a good player," Dixon said, "but he's taken another step as a leader. He's done everything right. The emphasis he puts on understanding the game rubs off on our guys. They believe in him."

It was evident at Connecticut. During a timeout with 7:13 left and Pitt trailing the No. 1 Huskies, 56-51, Fields screamed over the XL Center hysteria to make sure his teammates heard his message.

"We had a tendency to fold in games like that on the road, but I told them we weren't going to lose this game," Fields said. "We were playing so well. We were dominating on the boards. We were playing good defense. We were getting a lot of open looks. We just had to keep playing and keep doing what we do."

It helps when the leader shows the way. Down the stretch, Fields, who had been 0 for 8 from the field, made those two huge 3s in the final three-plus minutes to deliver a 76-68 win.

It turns out Knight had a message for Fields during a timeout with 3:39 left.

"He's always in my head," Fields said. "He told me, 'You're not having your best game, but you still have four minutes to make an impact.'

"I knew I had no points. But I'm always thinking, 'I'm going to make the next shot.' As a competitor, you always want that opportunity. I've done it numerous times. I made a shot against Duke last year on a big stage. I did it against Cincinnati last year. I'm always confident I can do it again."

As much as Fields loved silencing that big crowd in Hartford, he took just as much pleasure from his five assists. He fairly emoted when he set up teammate Sam Young for an alley-oop dunk for a 21-13 lead. He always reacts that way after a nice pass. You should have seen him at Georgetown after he dribbled through his legs to his left hand and wrapped the ball around a defender to teammate DeJuan Blair for a dunk.

"That's probably my favorite," Fields said, grinning.

They all look pretty sweet to Dixon, who loves to remind everyone that Fields has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country: 205-to-51 before last night. One of Dixon's proudest moments this season came when he turned on an ESPN game and heard Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight bragging about Fields. Knight is another guy who loves team-first unselfishness. Fields exemplifies it.

"I like making the right pass," Fields said. "I like seeing my teammates do well. I get a lot of credit when I have 16 assists, 13 assists, but it's my teammates who are getting open and knocking down shots."

It's no surprise that when Fields talks about his game, he mentions Krauser and Brandin Knight. He took plenty from both, especially Knight.

"We've all won here. That's what we have in common," he said.

Fields has a chance to separate himself from Krauser and Knight in that regard. Already, he has led Pitt to its first No. 1 ranking this season. Next week, he'll be pointing the team toward a second consecutive Big East Conference tournament championship. After that, there's the NCAA tournament. Pitt still hopes for a No. 1 seed despite that dreadful loss at Providence Tuesday night. Fields will be crushed if Pitt doesn't make it to the Final Four. Krauser and Knight weren't able to lead their teams past the Round of 16.

"Getting over that hump means everything to me," Fields said.

First things first, though.

Pitt has home games against Marquette Wednesday night and Connecticut Saturday afternoon. They will be Fields' final two games at the Petersen Events Center. The place should rock when he's introduced Saturday on Senior Day.

"It's gone so fast," Fields said.

For those of us who have enjoyed watching him, too.

But it's nice to think Fields won't be completely gone next season. It's nice to think we'll see a lot of him in Gibbs and Woodall.

The great ones always leave a piece of themselves behind.