A.J. Price nodded his head, uttered a few words in reply but kept his gaze away from Calhoun’s eyes. “He said whatever he had to say, how he felt and that was that,” Price said.
They didn’t see eye-to-eye after the 85-76 loss to Providence at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, either. Calhoun called the Huskies selfish, but Price said that wasn’t the case. Calhoun said the Huskies weren’t ready to play. Price disputed that, too.
They easily agreed upon one fact: Price had a bad game. He shot 4-for-13, scored 11 points and turned the ball over six times as opposed to a mere four assists. It was just the third time all season he posted more turnovers than assists.
All this one night after he had much to say about the Friars and their supposed poor behavior in the first matchup in Hartford. He talked tough and, along with the rest of his teammates, didn’t back it up. Nor did he back down from what he said.
“That’s how I felt about them,” Price said. “They beat us, though, so it makes me look kind of foolish right now. All in all, I meant what I said. They just beat us tonight. Best of luck to them.
” Foul trouble rendered Price a non-factor in the first go-round with the Friars. Providence bottled him up defensively, using its length at the top of the zone to harass the Huskies, but Price and the guards also took poor shots. Price committed an extremely costly turnover with just less than two minutes remaining. It turned into a Weyinmi Efejuku alley-oop dunk on the other end that pushed the gap to nine points and buried the Huskies. It was also emblematic of Price’s evening.
“I just had a terrible game all around,” Price said. “I turned the ball over far too much and didn’t make shots. I turned the ball over and I hurt my team. I’m fully aware of that.
” Welsh’s future: Speculation is rampant that Providence coach Tim Welsh is on the verge of losing his job after 10 years at the helm. The Friars have made two NCAA Tournament appearances during Welsh’s time, losing each time in the first round. Calhoun, who is close with Welsh, not surprisingly jumped into his corner.
“I think Tim’s done a great job,” Calhoun said. “You have to give a guy time. Climbing the ladder (in the Big East) is so difficult. You can’t slip even a little bit.
” Those calling for Welsh’s head would argue that 10 years is plenty of time. Calhoun points out that the Friars, who were expected to be better this season, have played all but three games without point guard Sharaud Curry and are now without guard Dwain Williams. “They’ve been injury-stricken at tough spots,” Calhoun said. “If we had lost A.J. (Price), our team would have changed a great deal.
” Big ol’ mess:The four byes for the Big East Tournament have been determined and South Florida and Rutgers won’t be in New York. We also know that either Georgetown or Louisville will be the top seed. But who finishes where after that is, once again, going to come down to the final weekend. It’s a mess all the way through. Providence, DePaul and St. John’s are fighting for the 12th and final spot in New York.
Timely rest: Calhoun doesn’t like playing a Thursday-Saturday schedule to end the regular season but he can’t complain about the rest the Huskies received this week. The four days they had between the West Virginia game and the Providence game is the longest the Huskies have gone between games since having an identical break between the Jan. 12 game at Georgetown and the Jan. 17 game against the Friars.
The new reality TV competition series My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad which was originally scheduled to debut on Monday, February 18 from 8 PM to 9 PM on NBC has been moved back an hour to 9 PM to 10 PM. An original episode of Deal or No Deal will air in the 8 PM to 9 PM time slot to provide a strong lead-in for My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad. 
