DENVER -- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo paid Pitt and Panthers point guard Levance Fields some high compliments yesterday before their NCAA second-round game at the Pepsi Center tonight. Izzo compared Fields to the point guard of his 2000 national championship team, Mateen Cleaves. He also said the Panthers remind him of his '00 Spartans.

"What I really like about their team, is what I really, really liked about my championship team," Izzo said. "Mateen Cleaves is probably the toughest player I ever coached. And yet everyone loved him. The opponents liked him because he didn't talk. He just played. I haven't played against Pittsburgh, but watching them play [Thursday], I see an air of confidence, an air of cockiness. But they don't talk. They just do it. That's what I respect about [Pitt coach] Jamie [Dixon].

"Some people talk it and don't walk it. They're more walk and don't talk as far as I can see. I think those are the real tough teams. The teams that talk, there's probably an air of softness in there in that they have to try to intimidate somebody because they can't take care of it themselves."

Cleaves and Fields have been compared to one another because of their bulldog, aggressive approach to playing the point.

"They've got a great point guard," Izzo said. "He reminds me a lot of Mateen Cleaves. He's a muscle dribbler, enjoys contact, he seeks it. He can penetrate in. When he penetrates, they become such a better offensive rebounding team because people have to help out. He just kind of runs their team."

Fields never saw Cleaves play but was honored to hear that Izzo had such high regard for him.

"I never watched him," Fields said. "I just know he was a winner, complete floor leader, controlled his team and won games. That's all I try to do, play hard and try to win as many games as possible. I'm at a loss for words when a coach like Izzo compares me to a player like that who won a national championship. I'm definitely appreciative."

Two former Izzo proteges handed Pitt its two most-lopsided defeats this season. Dayton, coached by Brian Gregory, beat Pitt, 80-55. Marquette, coached by Tom Crean, beat Pitt 72-54, in Milwaukee. Pitt won a rematch against Marquette, 68-61, in a Big East Conference semifinal game.

"I feel like in my own way I know Pitt's program," Izzo said. "I know Jamie's philosophy and he knows mine. I don't know if there's any great advantage there. But I do know guys who have played them. Everyone tells me the same thing. It's exactly what Bobby Knight said. They're a tough team, a strong team."

Izzo is impressed with the job Dixon performed this season because of the way the Panthers persevered through the injuries to Fields and Mike Cook.

"If I had a vote for national coach of the year, he'd have to be right up there, for surviving what he went through this year in a tough conference," Izzo said. "With the injuries he's had ... he's battled that. He's had 25-point losses and turned it around. I think that's the mark of a great coach, getting knocked down a few times, yet getting his team back."

Games between No. 4 and No. 5 seeds have been fairly even since the NCAA field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. There have been 52 games pitting No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, with the No. 4 seed winning 28 times.

One of the No. 4 seeds that lost a game was TCU in 1987. Dixon was a senior guard on that TCU team hat lost to fifth-seeded Notre Dame, 58-57.

Pitt, which is a No. 4 seed for the first time, will be looking to reverse a trend that has been developing in recent years. No. 5 seeds have dominated the competition the past five years. Since 2002, No. 5 seeds are 9-2 against No. 4 seeds.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has climbed aboard the Pitt bandwagon. Obama picked Pitt, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA to reach the Final Four.

Said freshman center DeJuan Blair: "That's why he's going to get my vote."