Jay Bilas going on about boorish college coaches

[SoBeCuse]

I don't really disagree with Bilas but have been a little disappointed in the quality of the broadcasts involving him. For me it was the cursing from JB that took the tirade completely over the top more than the actual tirade itself.

Cherie and others could be right about Bilas missing Raftery/McDonough but he sure does seem more preachy and surly this year. I truly hope he hasn't gone down the path of becoming the Bobby Flay or now Michael Symon versions in college hoops. Those stupid Wooden Award commercials where they have him 'acting' more and these Dove For Men commercials? Good lord. You're not bigger than the game, Jay. Oh, and Bobby Flay restaurants suck now.

 

[orangefan13]

:blah::blah::blah:
If Bilas is standing up for the gbinije blocking call that should have been a charge then calling out jb because they don't call it both ways then he shouldn't be announcing anymore.

 

[dasher]

I was going to just point out that Bilas has little to say about K's vulgar mouth. Funny how that works.

 

[Quazzum69]

Bilas needs to get of the high horse. He is a college basketball commentator for ESPN - not exactly a high culture activity. I don't think any ESPN employee should be criticizing others about proper behavior.

 

[Cuse315Pat]

Did anyone tell Bilas it's not professional to argue with his colleagues on live air as well and put them down repeatedly? I thought he was one of the best guys on TV dealing with college basketball up until these last couple months. Now he just seems to want to get his words in and put his face out there.

 

[DallasCuse]

Bilas is coming off more preachy and self-righteous this year. He misses Raftery and McDonough to balance, keep him on point and from coming off as arrogant. Bilas the lawyer is now coming off as judge and jury as a sports broadcaster without his prior strong broadcast partners.

No doubt JB over reacted, got himself tossed, admitted that he overreacted but just as I feared, JB will now become the national focus for bad behavior by the media. Too bad they don't tell the entire story - that it was his first ejection in 38 years and show film about the inconsistencies on calls throughout the game that prompted JB's over the top reaction. Not to excuse his outburst but to give the entire story with the actual context. Ironic because Bilas was a huge force in vehemently complaining about referees' calls and inconsistencies before this year. The media certainly carried the banner for Coach K on a "non-call" at the dome tarnishing a great game and win for SU with no apologies.

Excellent summary of the whole picture with JB/Duke/Bilas/refs.

Side note: re-watched each of the 3 disputable blocking/charge calls from yesterday. Quite frankly, each could have easily gone our way, 2 of them certainly should have. I hope these referees have short-term memories on their feelings toward JB, and his ballistic reaction. It did draw a lot of negative attention across the country, and these refs, albeit inadequate for the most part, are human. They now have the court of public opinion against us, and when we are on the road, in the ACC tourney, and during NCAA's, we will not get any of the benefit of the doubt on charge/blocks. This sucks.

 

[Orangeyes]

Jay Bilas' latest crusade: Eliminating bad behavior among college coaches

 

[Col. Bleep]

Jay Bilas over the years has probably been more vocal about poor officiating than any single talking head.

This is the first criticism I have seen him direct at JB.

Apparently he really didn't like JB's act at his alma mater near the end of that game.

It probably struck a cord in his Duke blue blood veins that he didn't like.

What's that saying, blood runs thicker than water?

I doubt the location had much - if anything - to do with it.
Boeheim's behavior was just an embarrassment for him, the team, the school and college basketball at the end of one of the sport's showcase events this season.

 

[Ghost]

Excellent summary of the whole picture with JB/Duke/Bilas/refs.

Side note: re-watched each of the 3 disputable blocking/charge calls from yesterday. Quite frankly, each could have easily gone our way, 2 of them certainly should have. I hope these referees have short-term memories on their feelings toward JB, and his ballistic reaction. It did draw a lot of negative attention across the country, and these refs, albeit inadequate for the most part, are human. They now have the court of public opinion against us, and when we are on the road, in the ACC tourney, and during NCAA's, we will not get any of the benefit of the doubt on charge/blocks. This sucks.

Yeah, on an individual basis you can't complain about any of them, because it seems like officials call them differently every game. It's pretty much call 'em as you want. I think people get riled up though when they're being called different in the same game. That was Duke, and that led to the boorish behavior. Don't talk about one without mentioning the other - if the officials are held to no standards at all, and immune to any sort of public criticism, you're inviting this kind of crap.

That being said, JB was out of line. So was Turgeon though when he ran onto the court DURING gameplay, no technical for him though. Or Dixon during our Pitt game. Whatever. Shut it, Bilas.

 

[Cusefan95]

Jay Bilas' latest crusade: Eliminating bad behavior among college coaches

I think this headline sums up the issue - he should be announcing the game, not pushing his personal agenda. Agree that he's jumped the shark; I'd rather listen to Vitale than Bilas at this point. Vitale's a clown, but at least Vitale manages to be an entertaining clown...Bilas has turned the games he's announced into courtroom proceedings. If he's just going to be a lawyer, he should go into that line of work...if he wants to announce basketball he should pull out a tape of virtually any game he announced from two-three years ago and try to get back to that.

 

[Briancuse]

That's because NBA refs are held accountable for their job performance, and there is a ton less variation compared to NCAA officiating.

The way the college game is officiated is a joke, and needs to change.

The refs on the college level need to be held more accountable, the players and coaches all talk to the media after games, why can't the refs?

If they make a bad call during a game, they should have to answer for it.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Yeah, so...

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ed-rush-resigns-technical-foul-bounty-scandal

There are reasons to be wary of the integrity of the officials.

I'm sorry, I'm not buying in to this idea that they're the impartial judges they claim. The only forum that they can be criticized in is public. So be it.

 

[Cowtown]

Says referees need to be respected and is specifically citing Boeheim in the Duke game as an example. Says NBA coaches do not act this way. Well, Mr. Bilas, may I say I've watched a lot of college games this year and the refs are more often than not just plain terrible in the college game. Totally inconsistent in their calls. I don't watch enough NBA to know if that's true of there too, but I frankly doubt it. Bilas is getting really crotchety lately. This rant of his really annoys me and not just about Boeheim.

Two thoughts. First, I've always liked Bilas also, but to pick one game out of what 1400 that Boeheim has coached in and use it to argue his agenda is just plain irresponsible. I expect better from an insider of his experience.

Second, NBA refs are full-time professionals. College officials not true.There are what, 3o NBA teams? So on a night when they're all playing, that's only 45 refs working. I'm sure there are more than 45 for obvious reasons, but probably not over 60-70. It's not hard to keep that number all on the same page (we have more than that in my local HS association). They're trained, evaluated and assigned/administered by one source, the NBA.

Now consider there are about 350 NCAA Div I schools, 265 Div II and 325 Div III; and about 260 NAIA schools. Virtually all of those officials they use have actual jobs/careers. Ed Hightower (whom I've met) for example, is the chief sup't. of a school district in St Louis. And most of these officials often work only a few times with the same refs, through the season. At the top of Div I they see a little more of each other, but most of them also work for different conferences.

Is anyone starting to see the difficulty in cultivating consistency in this scenario? Ask yourselves, if it was that freaking easy, wouldn't they all be doing it? The truth is there will always be inconsistencies. Are all coaches and players the same? Hardly. So why would anyone expect all these officials to be the same? Most will be, at the Div I level, consistent throughout the game (which is why JB lost it at Duke - because they weren't), so intelligent coaches and players learn to figure out what the refs are calling/not calling and adjust. The rest just blunder around in their own darkness.

 

[Cowtown]

The refs on the college level need to be held more accountable, the players and coaches all talk to the media after games, why can't the refs?

If they make a bad call during a game, they should have to answer for it.

Who gets to decide what calls are "bad calls?" Girlfriends and wives? Moms and dads? Alumni? Announcers who routinely prove they don't know the rules? Some guy who drinks 6 Dome Foams while watching from row 85, and then goes out to the parking lot and can't find his car?

 

[Quazzum69]

Two thoughts. First, I've always liked Bilas also, but to pick one game out of what 1400 that Boeheim has coached in and use it to argue his agenda is just plain irresponsible. I expect better from an insider of his experience.

Second, NBA refs are full-time professionals. College officials not true.There are what, 3o NBA teams? So on a night when they're all playing, that's only 45 refs working. I'm sure there are more than 45 for obvious reasons, but probably not over 60-70. It's not hard to keep that number all on the same page (we have more than that in my local HS association). They're trained, evaluated and assigned/administered by one source, the NBA.

Now consider there are about 350 NCAA Div I schools, 265 Div II and 325 Div III; and about 260 NAIA schools. Virtually all of those officials they use have actual jobs/careers. Ed Hightower (whom I've met) for example, is the chief sup't. of a school district in St Louis. And most of these officials often work only a few times with the same refs, through the season. At the top of Div I they see a little more of each other, but most of them also work for different conferences.

Is anyone starting to see the difficulty in cultivating consistency in this scenario? Ask yourselves, if it was that freaking easy, wouldn't they all be doing it? The truth is there will always be inconsistencies. Are all coaches and players the same? Hardly. So why would anyone expect all these officials to be the same? Most will be, at the Div I level, consistent throughout the game (which is why JB lost it at Duke - because they weren't), so intelligent coaches and players learn to figure out what the refs are calling/not calling and adjust. The rest just blunder around in their own darkness.

It's no wonder they're dancing all over, trying to make themselves a central part of the game: they're school administrators that want to be someone on national TV.

I get that there are hundreds of officials in the NCAA, but there are also millions of doctors and engineers and scientists and everything is (mostly) done to pretty strict standards. If the NCAA/conferences can't get a memo to a couple hundred school superintendents to swallow the whistles and stop ruining the game, then they have bigger issues.

 

[Fjoinkay]

I'm stunned Bilas would compare college coaches to NBA coaches in this context. How many NBA coaches have been head coaches the past 38 years? How many NBA coaches with 38 years head coaching experience could possibly say they've only been thrown out of one game, and it happened 2 weeks ago. It's apples and oranges. If Bilas actually referred to JB's ejection from the Duke game in this context then he begs a very silly question: over the past 38 years who has been more boorish to college officials, JB or coach K? Personally, I have no idea. Anyone who has watched JB at all knows he's never been a tyrant. Bilas loses credibility the more he clings to JB's recent one-off meltdown. The real story is that JB and coach K are truly good friends. And no coach will ever win 900 games at any level without being a fierce competitor, and JB and coach K are both fierce competitors. We are lucky to be able to watch them coach against each other.

Let's compare analysts covering NBA nationally televised games or better yet the NFL to some of the analysts covering college basketball or better yet college football. I think the differences in behavior are sometimes stunning. A quick example: SU versus Maryland. Rak's first foul was called about midway through the first half, about 9 or 10 mins in. Rak was whistled for an offensive foul away from the ball. During the possession Rak began outside the paint out around the 3-point line, and as the play was set Rak moved into the paint where the Maryland defender met him. The two played through contact becoming entangled and the Maryland defender wrapped his arms over Rak's left shoulder and Rak held his ground. After the whistle and before the instant replay Bilas says that he agrees with that call. As the replay is shown Bilas never discusses the what the replay shows. Instead Bilas talks about how some college officials will call a double foul rather than singling out one player for a foul. Bilas says he disagrees with that approach and prefers it when officials call a foul on one player because, "someone started it."

Bilas never describes what "it" was on that specific play. In fact Bilas never discusses the behavior from either player during that play even as we watch the instant replay. Bilas does judge Rak. Bilas says he agrees with that call, and with his meta-discussion about officials Bilas by strong implication convicts Rak of starting "it" without discussing the evidence and without defining what it was that Rak started. C'mon man! I mention this because I cannot imagine any NFL analyst doing anything like this. NFL analysts use the replay with the audience to closely evaluate the behavior on the field before they ever judge a player. Most NBA analysts covering games nationally for TNT and ESPN are equally fair in the way they break down a whistle with replay. This may have been a one-off for Bilas, but I see this behavior quite a bit watching college football on ESPN. The NFL analysts and NBA analysts like Jeff Van Gundy and others have it right. People no matter how much they support their team want to watch competition on a level playing field. On top of that they expect analysts to be fair and unbiased. The more awareness people have that some analysts have trouble with this simple principle the less likely we'll see the behavior.

 

[Orangeyes]

SWC if you call in to JB's show would ask him to comment on what Bilas has been saying.

Fjoinkay, I have watched both pro & college football & basketball where a replay is being shown disproving a call and the announcers never pick up on it.

 

[realorange]

A lot of folks on this board and I suspect other places, have done a 180 on how they think about Bilas. I still believe he is the most knowledgeable and articulate BB announcer.
His problem this year is his decision to editorialize far more than he ever did. As someone else said in this thread, he needs to do more announcing and have less opinionated discussion.

 

[Cowtown]

It's no wonder they're dancing all over, trying to make themselves a central part of the game: they're school administrators that want to be someone on national TV.

I get that there are hundreds of officials in the NCAA, but there are also millions of doctors and engineers and scientists and everything is (mostly) done to pretty strict standards. If the NCAA/conferences can't get a memo to a couple hundred school superintendents to swallow the whistles and stop ruining the game, then they have bigger issues.

Yeah, just send out a memo, that'll fix everything. That's all that it'll take! Problem solved and everyone will be happy! A memo! Man, what luminous insight!

 

[sufandu]

He has had a real dooshey vibe about him this year, big fan of his but thats drifting away

I feel the same way. It's almost as if he has become aware of his celebrity and has decided to push his agenda issues way too much.