I’ll be watching, and making the occasional comments like I have lately. Feel free to comment away.

7:04: Just dawned on me that the “Allstate Arena” is what used to be called the Rosemont Arena. I saw the Dead there, several times in the early 90s. God, I feel old. Dave O’Brien just pointed out that this is a 6pm local time game, so the crowd is still eating dinner. No they are not. They’re stuck in traffic.

7:09: Pitt leading 4-2 at 15:44. Missed some shots. DePaul has come out looking sloppy and not particularly sharp (to be kind). Wesley Green is a big guy. I’d like to see him take Majerus’ suggestion to take Gray off the dribble that far out — just for the comedy value.

7:20: Pitt leads 11-7 with 10:49 in the half and Benjamin going to the line. Benjamin seeing some good minutes early — and playing well. Just a thought as I watched Biggs take two jumpers including that air-balled wide open look. Early impressions of players is not always fair. Antonio Graves still seems to be taking crap for his admittedly poor play as a younger player. He has been a very, very good player for this whole season; but a lot of people can’t let go of how he played in the past and almost seem waiting for him to revert. Biggs is well on his way to having the same problem. He is not making anyone feel good about his future.

7:27: Fields not playing particularly well tonight. Not holding onto the ball. At least 2 or 3 turnovers, and lucky not to have more. Definitely nice to see Gray trying to be more aggressive. It helps that DePaul is playing more 1-on-1 and giving Gray more space than he’s had.

7:38: Thank you Graves for helping make my earlier point. That was a great move to strip Chandler, floor dive and slap the ball to Benjamin ahead for the slam.

7:44: 28-18 Pitt at the half. It is not exactly guard play tonight. Kind of ugly, but Pitt is doing okay. Have to love that the refs are letting them play. Not saying NBE called the conspiracy, but…

Benjamin has apparently responded to the positive press by playing even harder. Fields seemed a bit sloppy at least to start. Gray probably had to stifle a s**t-eating grin to see that DePaul was going 1-on-1 without anyone dropping to double team everytime he got the ball. Graves is playing solid defense and also getting rewarded on the offensive possessions.

One thing to worry about in the second half. DePaul was only 1-8 on 3s. If they start falling as can often happen from one half to the next, the whole game will change quickly. That will force Pitt to defend further out and free the inside for Chandler and Mejia to drive or just get the ball inside.

8:06: Pitt still leading, but DePaul is more determined this half to try and drag Gray further out from under the net. Graves is playing some great defense in this game. Kendall is looking a little better this game. Mike Cook really is making an effort to crash the boards for rebounds this game. Too bad he forgot to warn his teammates — there have been a couple collisions and balls knocked away from each other.

8:16: Pitt now up 40-26, 11:55 left. DePaul has remained cold behind the 3 (2-14 now). Majerus comments makes it hard to give be positive to Kendall. Way too effusive, but let’s be honest. Kendall is definitely playing a better game tonight. The kind of game I expected to see from him most of the season. Fields has settled down and playing a lot better.

8:21: Pitt calls a good time out when Benjamin was trapped in the corner (11:13) with two guys on him. Nice work by Benjamin not to pick up the pivot foot. Annoyed not to see anyone from Pitt coming near to help.

8:28: Majerus is killing me. He gets his talking points, and by God, he won’t leave the page. The Syracuse game was Ronald Ramon. Tonight it’s Kendall. Look, for the last 2 weeks, the best defender for Pitt has been Antonio Graves. Just because you have the quote from Dixon — which he made during the BE Media Day — does not make it reality at this point. Kendall is having a solid game — his best game in quite a while (and maybe his parents should make some more trips to games) — but keep it in check. Up 44-30 with 7:47 left.

8:37: 48-41 Pitt with 3:40 left. Burns has been the only guy hitting shots for DePaul. Need to go at Chandler and force him to pick up that final foul. At least eliminate another offensive threat.

8:44: Thank you Mike Cook. He went at Chandler and forced the 5th foul. Even if Chandler was having a bad night (and he was) it eliminated a major scoring threat.

8:55: Solid win for Pitt. 59-49.  I made no secret about this game making me nervous. I’ve seen DePaul when they have been on this season to worry. The Pitt defense did a great job on shutting down one of the best duos in Wilson Chandler and Sammy Mejia. Two players averaging nearly 32 points held to only 19.

Pitt played a solid game and clearly was happy to have the refs keep the whistles in their pocket. I’m not complaining. That’s the Big East.