Nicole Levandusky dives for a ball against Akron. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Perfectionists often make the best players. So it is that Xavier guard Nicole Levandusky, the nation's steals leader, can say with a straight face: “I'm trying to work on my help-side (defense). That's not my best right now.”

        And that she can total 15 points, eight rebounds, eight steals and seven assists against Butler but fret about going 0-for-4 on 3-pointers.

        “I think I'm inconsistent, especially on my shot and rebounds,” the 5-foot-9 senior said. “I need to work on having a consistent game on both ends of the court.”

        By anyone else's standards, she can quit tinkering. As XU (10-2, 1-1 Atlantic 10) enters a weekend homestand — Friday against Massachusetts, Sunday against Rhode Island — Levandusky rides the hottest stretch of an accomplished career.

Levandusky against Fordham (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Over the last four games, she has averaged 19.3 points, seven steals, six rebounds and 4.5 assists, shooting .529 from the field and .444 on 3-pointers.

        Levandusky leads the nation in steals (4.5 avg.), is tied for fourth in 3-pointers a game (3.25) and ranks 17th in 3-point shooting (.453).

        In the A-10, she's tied with teammate Taru Tuukkanen for third in scoring (16.9 avg.). And she is fifth in the league in field goal shooting (.507), 14th in assists (3.0) and 15th in rebounds (5.5).

        Yet she grabs the league standings and says, “Free throws I'm not in, though.” (Her .727 foul shooting average would rank 12th, except she doesn't have enough attempts. For which she faults herself.)

        Her coach isn't as critical.

        “She's been playing the best all-around basketball of her career,” XU coach Melanie Balcomb said.

        Levandusky has 1,428 career points, fifth-most in XU history, and is on pace to pass Carol (Madsen) Miller for No.2 on the scoring list and trail only the 2,036 of JoAnn (Osterkamp) Henderson.

        Miller, who scored her 1,702 points in three seasons at XU (1991-94), is the player Levandusky best approximates — one able to score, rebound and pass with equal aptitude.

        Levandusky, the school's career record-holder for steals and 3-pointers, used to be strictly an outside shooter.

        “With the injuries (in the backcourt), she's had to step up,” Balcomb said. “She knows she's had to be more than a shooter. Now she finds other ways to score.”

        And then there's defense. Levandusky, who has started 88 consecutive games, set the team's single-season steals record each of her first three seasons. With 54 already this season, she's on pace to shatter her mark of 100.

        “They didn't know I could play defense when I got here,” she said. “Coach thought I was big and slow.”

        Her anticipation of passes is peerless. She had a team single-game record 11 steals against Akron — “I had a magnet,” she said, jokingly — and added 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

        There have been six WNBA scouts at XU games this season, watching Levandusky, Tuukkanen and Jennifer Phillips. Such attention is a far cry from Levandusky's recruiting process, when XU — a latecomer — was the only Division I school to offer her a scholarship.

        “Coach took a chance on me,” she said.

        It's easy to say now: She was a steal.

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