Pat Forde of ESPN weighed in on the Curry call in his Saturday Observation blog post.

The loss cannot be blamed completely on that T — but for a team with virtually no margin for error on the road against a top-five opponent, losing Curry for the final eight minutes was a huge factor in Providence’s sixth straight defeat.

While admittedly having no idea what Curry might have said or done up to that point during the game, his reaction to that particular call didn’t look like an obvious technical response. It probably explains why Providence coach Keno Davis was so exorcised. Big East officiating has been under scrutiny a few times this season, and this is one more talking point.

Tuesday 3/3/09 Chat with Pat Forde

Steve (NY): Pat- I know opinions are just that, but I am confused by some of the teams considered “in” by Lundardi (notably Penn St and Providence) with a team like Maryland as the 6th team out. What gives?

Pat Forde: (2:19 PM ET ) Steve: Joe has what he does down to a pretty fine science, most of which eludes me. But here’s what I know about those three teams in specific: Maryland won’t match their conference records. The Terps were hurt by a loss to Morgan State and that 41-point laydown at Duke, but the big wins (Michigan State, Duke, UNC) should counterbalance that — still only 7-7 though; Providence beat No. 1 Pitt and has 10 league wins; Penn State won at Michigan State and Illinois and beat Purdue as well. I think we’re splitting hairs between fairly average teams, in general.

The ACC people have their panties in a bunch over their inferiority with the BIG EAST

Tony (Charlotte): how can you compare conference win totals when big east teams play more confernce games? easy to get more wins when you play more games pat…and for the second time inthis chat the Terps did not beat duke

Pat Forde: (2:23 PM ET ) Tony: Easy to get more losses, too. Providence will have a BETTER CONFERENCE RECORD than Maryland with one more victory, no matter what the Terps do.

Pat Forde took a Providence question in his chat today on ESPN.com.

Matt (Boston): Come on, throw me some Friar talk, does 10-8 get it done?

Pat Forde: (2:52 PM ET ) Matt: How bout that Marvin Barnes, huh? And Pop Lewis! Oh, CURRENT Friar talk … I guess it would be tough to keep a Big East team with 10-8 on the outside, but Providence has had a very user-friendly schedule and not many wins against upper echelon Big East teams. Beating Louisville, Pitt or Villanova down the stretch would really help.

Nothing to see here.  Move along now.  They should just cut and paste their responses from earlier chats.

Totally unrelated to PC…check out this question.

John (Cincinnati, OH): RARE OVC QUESTION HERE: I don’t know if you’ve noticed (because seemingly nobody has) but UT-Martin has the second leading scorer in the nation in Lester Hudson. If they make it out of the OVC tournament (they’re in second now), can he lead a shocker in the tournament?

Pat Forde: (2:35 PM ET ) John: Rarer than a Jim Boeheim smile, big boy. But I am aware of Lester. If they can win the OVC tourney — uh, no, I don’t see Martin winning a game, unless it lands in the Tuesday play-in game. OVC hasn’t won an NCAA game since 1988.

Big boy?!? Huh?

Forde Minutes

Providence (23). Record: 13-6 overall, 5-2 in Big East. The Friars’ record has been built on the backs of bad teams, both within and outside the conference. Providence is showing signs of life under Keno Davis, but it has up to seven no-hope games left on the schedule, plus a couple more that could be losses as well. Without any signature victories to date, this team is still a pretender.

Sorry Forde, Katz beat you to the punch already.  You come back, ONE YEAR!  NEXT!