Jay Bilas Interview

ACC College Basketball53

Link to interview

IMHO, Bilas is the current star of college basketball analysts and I usually respect his perspectives. (Nobody is perfect). In this interview he comments on the Doug Gottlieb vs Coach K controversy, but has to be very careful to parse Gottlieb’s words so that he doesn’t offend Daddy K.

If you haven’t been following this Doug Gottlieb vs Coach K controversy then the following links will bring you to speed.

From ACCNow

The Big Lead

Duke was struggling with Arizona State Wednesday, barely leading a weak Sun Devils team at halftime. This led ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb to make an observation that, at the time, seemed innocuous enough: Duke, which features five white players 6-foot-8 or taller, was “alarmingly unathletic.” After Duke thumped a much more athletic Connecticut team Friday, Coach K took a few shots at Gottlieb.

Sorry, Coach K…but, if the discussion here is focused on the accuracy of Gottlieb’s comments then this isn’t even a conversation worth having. Hilariously, when I watched the Duke vs Arizona State game last week, I picked up my phone and emailed some of my friends the following comment:

“Wow. Duke looks like their stuck in the mud. Very slow. This team is one of the least athletic I have seen at this level in a long time

The email solicited multiple responses agreeing with the comments.

So, the entire group of SFN authors simultaneously made the exact same observation as Gottlieb while watching the exact same game. Sorry, Coach K. This isn’t just coincidence.

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53 Responses to Jay Bilas Interview

  1. Pack Mentality 12/03/2009 at 2:12 PM #

    I stick by my statement. I do not believe that it is pure coincidence that Duke has turned into a high percentage white team and they are unathletic. You may disagree, but to me calling a team alarmingly unathletic is code talk for a whole bunch of white boys. While you may try to find some instance that you can play gotcha with me, I do not think that Gottlieb would have used that terminology if Duke didn’t have it’s current racial makeup.

  2. Pack Mentality 12/03/2009 at 2:15 PM #

    And btw, I’m not saying that white players aren’t good, or anything else like that. I’m just pointing out that most elite teams don’t have the racial makeup of Duke, and that they don’t get called unathletic. And I don’t see this as pure coincidence.

  3. 61Packer 12/03/2009 at 2:32 PM #

    I couldn’t care less about reading SFN’s article on the decline of athleticism of Duke basketball, a program that in past decades has evolved almost as far beyond us as humans have evolved past the amoeba. What I do care about is the decline in athletics at NC State.

    Yesterday I watched re-runs of our ’83 team against UVA, Pepperdine and Houston on ESPN Classic. It was almost surreal, seeing the Wolfpack actually winning games that mattered. In basketball.

    I watched the Houston game right on through the post-game interviews, not wanting it to end. But it did, and now we turn the channel back to ESPNU. In other words, the coffee break’s over, back on your heads.

    I don’t care what color the players are at Duke and UNC, or at what levels they’re performing. I just want the ones wearing Wolfpack red to win.

    With football over, it’s going to be a long, cold winter.

    No one hear cares about your personal interests. When your interests intersect an entry here, then join in the conversation. When they don’t, just move on….we really don’t need to hear that you don’t like the subject matter.
    VaWolf82

  4. Thinkpack17 12/03/2009 at 2:33 PM #

    ^Dear Lord.

  5. choppack1 12/03/2009 at 5:05 PM #

    “I get your point…but that’s a terrible analogy.”

    Why thinkpack?

  6. Thinkpack17 12/03/2009 at 5:24 PM #

    Maybe I don’t really have my ear to the ground but that doesn’t seem like a common misconception. I mean you can point to a bunch of white basketball players, that don’t/didn’t appear athletic that would lead you to that misconception. But where are all these sucky black quarterbacks that get into trouble leading to the misconception that you shouldn’t draft one? First off the sample size isn’t even that large. How long have black quartbacks been “allowed” to play at the highest level? 25-30 years? Now it’s tough to find a good QB, hell there aren’t enough to go around in the league right now…and of the small sample size of franchise quarterbacks in the league a few are black. Percentage wise…that’s pretty good.

    Maybe a better misconception is black quarterbacks can’t throw…or Black people don’t play baseball (well that one may not be a misconception).

  7. Alpha Wolf 12/03/2009 at 5:27 PM #

    Maybe a better misconception is black quarterbacks can’t throw…or Black people don’t play baseball (well that one may not be a misconception).

    I will be very tongue in cheek and post this picture for you:

  8. Alpha Wolf 12/03/2009 at 5:30 PM #

    Actually, 61Packer makes a good point. While talking about the Royal Blues can be interesting, I think that the main focus amongst the regulars here is whether or not NC State can regain some relevancy not only nationally, or in the ACC, but in the same metropolitan area that they play in. Let’s face the truth, we’re third fiddle in Raleigh-Durham and it may be another few years before those that play on the other side of town have legit fear of us.

    I hope that turns around, and there are signs that it may. Let’s hope they’re right. We all have our opinions, and that’s fine. That’s why there’s a forum and a comment area after each article.

    61, I will say it doesn’t hurt to talk about the Blues once in a while, though.

  9. Thinkpack17 12/03/2009 at 5:43 PM #

    I stand corrected Alpha Wolf.

    But on 61’s post…To come on a board when we’re having a fine discussion about something, just to say you don’t want to discuss it is pretty counterproductive. Ok so you remembering the ’83 championship….you’re older, you’re surly and you’re unhappy…we get it.

  10. 61Packer 12/03/2009 at 8:26 PM #

    I just said that we see ourselves as so irrelavent now that we’re searching hard for any cracks in the Blues’ structures over in Durham or Chapel Hill. I couldn’t care less about Royal Blue or Baby Blue. If not caring to talk about about our opponents is counterproductive, then I’m guilty as charged. Go on and hang me, I’m used to the pain anyway.

  11. VaWolf82 12/03/2009 at 8:52 PM #

    I just said that we see ourselves as so irrelavent now that we’re searching hard for any cracks in the Blues’ structures over in Durham or Chapel Hill.

    I don’t think that you’ve reached the correct conclusion. The fact that State is irrelevant leaves very little of interest to talk about without treading on the same old things over and over again (ie read any basketball thread over this calendar year). I suspect that you will see more entries of general interest around here until there is more NC State specific news worth discussing.

    So my advice is to participate in the discussion or move on. We don’t normally leave up comments that do nothing but complain about the subject matter.

  12. nycfan 12/04/2009 at 12:50 AM #

    back on subject, sort of, I do think there has been an unfortunate (from dook’s POV) confluence of dook’s decades-long drum-beat about having “Duke Kids” and some sort of special, BETTER THAN YOUR TEAM quality of people on their team with the LAX scandal and the social code-words for white athletes (unathletic, wiley, heady, etc.) and the makeup of their teams over this decade of increasingly white rosters … by their own doing or not, dook has become (or is perceived as) an upper-middle class white kid’s program.

    I know that perception is used in recruiting circles — if you aren’t an upper middle class or wealthy suburban kid, you won’t feel comfortable or welcome at dook.

    I think that as Coach K overreacted to the one & done phenomenon, he went too far in the other direction, trying to recruit almost exclusively kids who would stay 3-4 years. I seriously doubt there was ANY intention of leaning toward an unusually high ratio of white student athletes, but that is where the Devils find themselves lately.

    Did you hear how many times Mussberger said K had told him how athletic Mason Plumlee is (and with a name like that, he HAS to be athletic, right)? I think K is fighting an uphill battle against the current recruiting dilemma he finds himself in, which is why he lashed out at Gottlieb (who is a jerk a lot of the time) about the unathletic comment — dook can’t afford the continued perception of them (however unfair) as the bastion of richie rich dorks.

  13. mafpack 12/04/2009 at 1:27 AM #

    gcpack – you are indeed thinking of Reggie Wilkins. Decommited from UNC on 11/30 and commited to NCSU on 12/1. LDR has got it right, he’s being recruited as an ATH/WR for the moment, but being only 5-10 it makes me wonder if TOB and company don’t have something else in mind for him (as Tom often does it seems).

    http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Reggie-Wilkins-90100

    Sorry, back on topic now 🙂

  14. BillyTheKid 12/04/2009 at 9:07 AM #

    ncyfan, I think you hit it right on the head. Right now it’s easy to tell kids “you’re not going to like it there because ………”. Now that you have that idea out there it will be very hard to turn it around. From everything I’ve read Harrison Barnes is a “Duke type kid” in that he has opened a book or two without pictures, but they still lost him to UNC. It’s like you said, this is all coming from K overreacting to what happen with Corey Maggette.

  15. choppack1 12/04/2009 at 9:12 AM #

    “Maybe I don’t really have my ear to the ground but that doesn’t seem like a common misconception. I mean you can point to a bunch of white basketball players, that don’t/didn’t appear athletic that would lead you to that misconception. But where are all these sucky black quarterbacks that get into trouble leading to the misconception that you shouldn’t draft one? First off the sample size isn’t even that large. How long have black quartbacks been “allowed” to play at the highest level? 25-30 years? ”

    Thinkpack – I follow NFL football a pretty good bit…so let me break this down for you:
    Akili Smith
    Andre Ware
    Michael Vick
    Vince Young
    Jamarcus Russell
    Steve McNair
    Warren Moon
    Donovan McNabb

    Of those guys on that list, only 1 has been an effective NFL QB AND had an unblemished character background. (Though Warren Moon would be pretty close.)

    The point of this post isn’t to say, don’t draft black QBs – it’s just to say, draft the individual, just as Coach K probably recruits the individual.

    And I agree, he’s recruiting a lot of white kids who happen to be less athletic than other players. However, I don’t really think it’s any more fair to say, “white kids are less athletic, so only recruit a few of them” than it is to say, “black QBs are more likely to get in trouble or rely on their athleticism, so don’t draft them.”

    Now, if you want to get way off the beaten path – we can start talking about white parents and soccer, lacrosse, etc…:)

  16. choppack1 12/04/2009 at 9:16 AM #

    nyc fan – as usual, good post…I was going to add that on gameday, UNC isn’t a very welcoming place to middle class folks who wear red – but I see that you clarified your comment about perception.

    However, I think Roy deserves some props here. Good kids will help recruit good kids. I think he’s going after pretty good character kids on the whole at Chapel and that helps in getting a kid like Harrison Barnes where they may have lost him to Duke in the past.

  17. 66pack 12/04/2009 at 9:20 AM #

    61packer–agree with you.Also,I believe that most state fans only see us competing with DUKE and UNC if they fall to our level.Most have no idea what state BB was more than 20 yrs ago.

  18. Thinkpack17 12/04/2009 at 10:35 AM #

    “Thinkpack – I follow NFL football a pretty good bit…so let me break this down for you:
    Akili Smith
    Andre Ware
    Michael Vick
    Vince Young
    Jamarcus Russell
    Steve McNair
    Warren Moon
    Donovan McNabb

    Of those guys on that list, only 1 has been an effective NFL QB AND had an unblemished character background. (Though Warren Moon would be pretty close.)”

    Ok so I assume Vince is excluded because of his breakdown and Warren is excluded because of his domestic issues and his DUI. With that strict criteria one guy makes the cut. I will also throw David Garrard in seeing he is clearly a franchise quarterback and a great human being. I also understand you left some black ones off that still wouldn’t make the cut Quincy Carter, Charlie Batch and such. So I will take your first list as a rough estimate, that’s 1 out of 8. So 13 percent of black quarterbacks with any expectations end up being franchise quarterbacks with no off the field issues. Crunch the numbers for white quarterbacks. I bet the number will be half that.

  19. choppack1 12/04/2009 at 11:16 AM #

    That’s kind of my point.

    But the bottom line is that you shouldn’t recruit and/or scout based on race – but an individual’s ability and character.

    Put it another way, if Russell Wilson was 6-4 and I was an NFL GM, I’d hope the person drafting in front of me was stupid enough to think that just because RW had a similar race to Vick, Young and Jamarcus – that he was going to stay from drafting Wilson.

  20. wolfmanmat 12/04/2009 at 11:56 AM #

    Come on guys. Saying Duke is unathletic is crazy. Kyle Singer is perhaps one of the most gift athletes in the country. John S is athletic too; so is Nolan Smith. Anyway, let’s not make too much of this. Coach K lost out on Boykins and Wall last year and lost Gerald Henderson to the NBA. Now, if K had Wall and Henderson, would anyone call Duke “unathletic.” This is a single season where Duke just happens to be taller and less athletic than most Duke teams. Next year, they have 2 “athletes” coming in along with Seth Curry. I think Duke will be fine.

  21. wolfmanmat 12/04/2009 at 12:13 PM #

    By the way…to all the guys who say “Coach K is recruiting only white kids.” Please look at his 2010 recruiting class. ALL 3 recruits are “black” and Seth Curry is “black” too. Just stop. Duke gets the pick of the litter whether it be black/white/green/purple.

  22. Pack Mentality 12/04/2009 at 12:29 PM #

    When I was a student at State I played pickup basketball in the gym. Roughly there were 3 levels of play in which you could join the games. The games that were the worst level of play were almost all white. The intermediate level of play was mostly white with some black players. And the court that was by far the best was mostly black. Yes, there were a few whites on this court, but maybe 1 or 2 on a team and sometimes none. So yes there are some whites that can compete at any level and be just as athletic as anyone else on the court. So choppack, do you really think that as a general rule white players are as good as black players? All the picking apart of my comments leads me to believe that you do think that. Or did I cross some kind of line by bringing up the race of the Duke team and therefore we must argue it? For the record: I am white and I meant no disrespect to anyone with my comments (maybe Duke).

  23. Thinkpack17 12/04/2009 at 12:41 PM #

    ^LOL…There was an Asian court too.

  24. Pack Mentality 12/04/2009 at 12:43 PM #

    Thinkpack, that’s funny…I was going to mention that, but that would open a whole new can of worms.

  25. bradleyb123 12/04/2009 at 3:09 PM #

    ^^^ “^LOL…There was an Asian court too.”

    I thought the Asian court was where they played badminton. 🙂

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