I’ve been shoveling snow all day, so tonight’s liveblog from the comfort of my very warm house will be nice to say the least. The biggest pre-game story for tonight’s game is that Levance Fields will not be returning tonight. It’s probably better that we don’t see him tonight anyways. I don’t think we’ll have too much of a problem with Providence and I’m scared he’ll maybe end up setting himself back (and risk further injury) by playing a regular season game. I’d rather have him completely and fully healthy for later this month and in March.

7:41 pm: Mike Jarvis is a much worse TV analyst than he was a head coach (364-201 overall record). We get the pleasure of hearing him all night. Plenty of empty seats at the Pete tonight; likely a mixture of horrible weather and a poor opponent. Providence hits two early treys but Pitt is going to be the more physically dominant team.

Jarvis says Fields wanted to return in time for Valentine’s day and asked, “I wonder who his sweetie is?” The answer is Pitt women’s hoops player Marcedes Walker.

And PC just hit another three pointer. That’s three 3’s in four minutes — please don’t tell me this is one of those times where a below average team shoots lights out against us.

7:46 pm: Sam Young is not a ball handler, as evidenced by his turnover. We’re not in good shape if he’s hurtling down the court with the ball on a fast break.

7:50 pm: Sam Young nearly not hitting the rim on an ugly three point shot: embarrassing. Geoff McDermott missing a dunk: much more embarrassing.

7:58 pm: Sloppy defense left a Providence shooter wide open to nail a three. If we’re going to let them have the open shots, it looks like they’ll be hitting them tonight. Defense needs to be tightened up a bit.

Ramon hits his second three of the night. Compared to the days after coughing up the ball at the end of the Villanova game, he has to have so much confidence right now after the shot to beat WVU.

8:05 pm: A nice alley-oop finished by Young finally gets the crowd into the game and then McDermott comes right back down an nails a three very long two.

8:07 pm: Pitt has 24 points in the paint compared to PC’s 12 and yet the Friars have managed to keep the game close. They’re hitting shots, plain and simple. It’s gotta stop at some point, right?

8:14 pm: The wisdom of Mike Jarvis: “Shooting 33% from the three point line is equivalent to shooting 50% from the two point line.” I wonder…where is this mysterious two point line?

Also, DeJuan Blair has had a very quiet 7 points so far. I don’t recall a game this year when I’ve almost completely forgot he was even on the floor.

8:23 pm: Pitt leads 42-37 at the half. Can’t say I was expecting this many points, and usually when games reach such high numbers, we’re probably not going to win. The Panthers “thing” for years now has been tough, low scoring games. I’m sure we’ll be fine in the second half though — Providence is going to start missing their deeper shots (hopefully) and don’t count out the halftime adjustments Jamie Dixon is known to make. He hasn’t disappointed us out of halftime yet.

The official count on the number of times we’ve seen the Russel Stover “Get your woman a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day or she’ll divorce your sorry ass” commercial: six and counting.

8:34 pm: Already I see we came out looking much more pumped up and ready to go. Aggressiveness and physicality on defense are going to be huge. Didn’t see much in the 1st half but it’s picking up now.

8:43 pm: Providence is playing the 2-3 zone but Pitt has been passing well enough to beat it and get solid looks. Remember: passes beat zones, dribbling usually doesn’t.

8:49 pm: Tim Welsh calls a timeout after Pitt once again passes the Providence zone into confusion ending with a Ronald Ramon three pointer. He’s 4-6 from deep and just added an assist to his stat line with a nice pass to Benjamin. Pitt is up 20 now — PC is struuugggggling.

8:59 pm: With a 20 point lead, Pitt is just going to play safely and keep the cushion as it is. From the start of the second half until now, this is the Pitt team we wanted to see.

9:13 pm: Whoa, a minor computer crash. Since about 8 minutes to go, this game has been a snooze fest. Two minutes and we’re done.

9:34 pm: The beginning was a little closer than we’d have liked but the Panthers came out with a spark in the second half and put it away. Were we looking ahead to the big game at Marquette on Friday night? In the post game interview, Dixon hinted that maybe, just maybe, they were. I’ll admit I definitely was (as if it matters what a blogger is looking forward to). Kudos to Ronald Ramon for defending Jeff Xavier well. Xavier made three early treys but was kept pretty quiet for the remainder of the game.