Jay Bilas on Kentucky

PuddingTime · 10-13-2009, 08:54 PM

Pulled from:

azcentral.com blogs - Doug Haller : A conversation with Jay Bilas

Quote:

Is Kentucky back?

"They're back talent-wise. I think one of the things that people have said about Kentucky -- and I tended to agree with -- was over the last few years when you watched them warmup you weren't looking at the kind of talent you were used to seeing at Kentucky. This year they're going to be as talented as anybody. They're just young. They're going to have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. They've got guys like Patrick Patterson (17.9 ppg, 9.3 rpg), who's been there a while, but everybody is new to John Calipari's system, so it's going to be a pretty steep learning curve for the entire team. Does that mean they can't win it all? No. But I don't have them as high as some of my colleagues do. I think they're a Top 10 team, for sure. But I don't just pencil them in at No. 2 because they have so much talent. I think it takes more than that."

Given his past, was hiring Calipari a risk?

"Well, I don't really look at it that way. John Calipari never had an NCAA issue. People say, 'Well, he's had two banners vacated.' Over what? UMass had the 1996 Final Four banner vacated over a kid taking a kid money from an agent. How's a coach going to stop that? He can't control that, and it's ludicrous for people to suggest that he can. The other thing, with Derrick Rose, Rose was considered ineligible, and Memphis is supposed to catch that when the clearinghouse and the testing authority didn't raise an issue until the weekend of the Final Four? What are they going to do? I don't know of any school, anywhere, that would've held a player out with that kind of flimsy evidence."

Have you seen Kentucky freshman John Wall?

"I saw him play in high school and he's the real thing. He can very easily be first-team All-America, and if the draft were held today, he'd be a top-five pick. He's really, really good."

A lot of people consider him a Player of the Year candidate.

"That's absolutely fair. The truth is, there aren't that many guys coming back that inspires you to say, 'Well, there's a Player of the Year' candidate. This is as 'How do you define the Player of the Year race?' as I can recall. Last year I thought it was Oklahoma's Blake Griffin and North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, and Hansbrough just because he was on the best team and he was going to put up incredible numbers. The thing that really derailed him was his injury. That allowed Griffin just to take off and nobody was going to catch Blake after that. This year it could be Aldrich from Kansas. It could be Notre Dame's Luke Harangody. It could be Derrick Favors, a freshman from Georgia Tech. It could be Wall. It just depends on who emerges and who puts up numbers. Player of the Year in college basketball is kind of like the Heisman Trophy. It's discussed way too early. It's a beauty contest in which you're not allowed to have a blemish."

RoyalDBridge · 10-27-2009, 01:10 PM

Is it possible to love a Dookie? Er, uh, Dukie? Bilas is one of the best in the game.

PuddingTime · 10-27-2009, 04:20 PM

lol...it's Dookie. But Bilas is consistently consistent in his statements....he shows no favoritism even towards his own Blue Devils. He is definitely one of the best in the game. He maintains professionalism in every aspect of his reporting. When he's come down on Kentucky in the past, he's done it fairly, unbiased, and accurately ::cough::Forde::cough::