For the third time in the past seven seasons three Pitt players earned all-Big East accolades, and two of them were named first-team all-conference.

Senior forward Sam Young and sophomore center DeJuan Blair were named to the first team and senior point guard Levance Fields was named to the third team.

Pitt is the only school with multiple players on the six-player first team. Young and Blair were joined by Connecticut junior center Hasheem Thabeet, Notre Dame junior center Luke Harangody, Marquette senior guard Jerel McNeal and Louisville senior forward Terrence Williams.

There are six players on the first team -- one extra because the conference player of the year is also a member of the first unit -- and five each on the second and third teams.

The Big East will announce its other awards -- player of the year, coach of the year, defensive player of the year, rookie of the year and the sportsmanship award -- tomorrow evening at Madison Square Garden on the first day of the conference tournament.

Young and Blair are candidates for player of the year honors.

Young is the fourth player in Pitt history to be named to the first team two times. Charles Smith, Brian Shorter and Aaron Gray were the others.

Young, who leads the Panthers in scoring with 18.8 points per game, finished the regular season with one of the best games of his career Saturday when he scored 31 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the 70-60 victory against No. 1 Connecticut. He was named Big East player of the week yesterday for the second time this season after averaging 24.5 points and nine rebounds per game in Pitt's victories against Connecticut and Marquette.

Blair, who didn't make honorable mention in preseason voting by the conference's coaches, led the Big East in rebounding with 12.4 per game and also averaged 15.6 points per game.

Blair scored 20 points and pulled down 20 rebounds twice this season and had 17 double-doubles.

"These three kids have been tremendous players for us," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "Their value to us isn't validated by [being named all-conference]. We know how good they have been and how important they are to our team."

The biggest surprise was that Fields was named to the third team. Fields leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.1), is second in assists (7.6 per game) and averages 10.9 points per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio is almost twice as good as Marquette's Dominic James (2.7), his closest competitor in the Big East.

Two other point guards made second-team all-conference ahead of Fields -- Connecticut senior A.J. Price and Syracuse sophomore Jonny Flynn.

"It's not a surprise," Dixon said. "Sometimes, I think I value what point guards do more than other coaches. I look at what they do more than the scoring. I put more value on assists than the fans, coaches and media do. His assist-to-turnover ratio should be a bigger story than it has been. But then again, he's a senior and it's an old story."

Three West Virginia players received all-Big East accolades. Junior forward Da'Sean Butler was named second team and senior Alex Ruoff was named honorable mention. Freshman Devin Ebanks was named to the all-rookie team.