Of course, Jay Bilas loves Duke.
But he wants you to know that despite his allegiances, he no longer plays for the Blue Devils. He tries to be fair, as he told Skip Bayless on his The Skip Bayless Show, but being partial is a whole different ballgame. It’s a lot harder to be biased or unfair, for that matter.
But if there’s one part of the job he could do without, it’s having to pick winners. Not Duke specifically, though.
Just hear him out.
“I don’t play for Duke anymore,” Bilas explained. “And everybody went to school somewhere. Of course, I loved Duke, and I loved being there, but I don’t care whether they win or lose — that’s their problem. I’m not involved in that. I have too much respect for these other programs. They let you in, you see behind the scenes, you see how they do it, and so I respect the competition and the competitors too much.
“When Duke’s the better team, you pick ’em. And now that’s our job is to pick ’em. That was never our job years ago. But when they’re not, you say so, and, hopefully, over the years, you build up credibility doing that. If you don’t … If it’s a reasonable criticism, I’ll listen to it. But I’m not going to listen to some unreasonable stuff. ‘He went to Duke, therefore you can’t trust this.’ They can feel how they want to feel, but that doesn’t make it true.”
That said, Bilas never worries about it.
“That’s never been an issue for me,” he says. “I understand the way this business works, and I don’t have a problem with fans. I did have one experience that I’ll tell you about really briefly … This is probably 20 years ago. I spoke at a Duke alumni event, and right before that was, I think it was the 2001 — so it’s longer than 20 years — 2001 Final Four. And I had picked Maryland to beat Duke in the semifinals of that. [The Terrapins] were up 22 at halftime, and Duke ended up coming back and won, and they beat Arizona for the National Championship.
“So, when I open it up for Q&A, one of the Duke alums has said, ‘Hey, you picked Maryland to beat Duke.’ And I said, ‘Yes sir, I did.’ And he said, ‘That was a bad pick.’ I said, ‘Yep, it was. Duke won. You’re right. It was incorrect.’ So he said, ‘Well, that should teach you never to pick against Duke again.’ Thats fine. He’s just a fan; nice guy and everything. So I said, ‘Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?’ I said, ‘You went to Duke, obviously. Do you pick Duke every year to win the championship?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I do.’ He was about 70 years old, and I said, ‘Congratulations, you’re now 4-7.’ … OK, if you’re going to pick them every time, what’s the value in that? I thought Maryland was going to win, and I’d argue they should have being up 22 at halftime.”
But Bilas wants to know why you actually care.
It’s not like he enjoys picking the games in the first place.
“I don’t like picking games because I don’t know who’s going to win,” he said. “If I knew the team was going to win all these games, I would go to Vegas, and I would quit my job in a second. And I would just be by the pool with a drink in my hand, raking it in.”
If only Bilas had the “Grays Sports Almanac” from Back to the Future 2.
“Some years, I do really well,” Bilas told Bayless. “This year’s one of them. I did really well. Other years, you don’t do so well because we don’t know. And I’m not running around saying, ‘Hey, look what I just picked.’ If people want to use their picks in their pool, use them. If they don’t, don’t. If they want to blame me for what I say, blame me. If they want to use it and take credit for it on their own, go ahead.
“Years ago, I was called a color commentator; now, I’m an analyst. And we were never asked years ago to pick winners. We were asked: What’s going to be important to this game? What should we look for? What are these team’s strengths? What’s the game gonna turn on? Give us the keys to the game. And now all anybody seems to want to know is who’s going to win. I give my opinion on that and try to do it without reservation.”
“Nobody is qualified to pick these winners,” Bilas adds. “I have a great respect for people who analyze football. I don’t understand football. I love it, but I don’t know what a nickel defense versus a Cover 2 [is]; I don’t know all that crap. But, like, I did watch the Super Bowl, and I heard a bunch of them pick Kansas City, and Kansas City got drilled. And they know football. We don’t know who’s going to win these games.”