A BATTLE OF WORDS

When Jim Calhoun and Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant clashed with a war of words last year — both written and spoken — it made for big news. But when Calhoun and columnist Randy Smith of the Manchester Journal Inquirer go at each other, it's more like old hat.
Another such meeting took place after Wednesday's loss to Villanova.
Smith, who is amusing in the sense that you get the feeling his sole purpose for going to UConn games and writing about them is to bother Calhoun, had written UConn was a bad team. Calhoun, obviously, didn't agree.
So in between rants about poor free throw shooting and how good Scottie Reynolds was — 40 points is good for anyone, let alone an opposing freshman coming into Gampel — Calhoun also took shots at what he'd read and the one who wrote the article, of course never actually mentioning Smith's name.
I guess it's all part of covering this beat, which continues to prove it is unlike so many in America. Whether that's a good or bad thing is certainly open to debate.