I never thought I’d see the day when a former Duke basketball player becomes one of the biggest Kentucky Wildcat homers on the planet, but that is what has happened with ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. Bilas’s recent love affair with John Calipari’s latest NBA training camp rivals that of former SEC analyst Jimmy Dykes who always sounded like a giddy school girl when doing UK games.
Bilas’s love affair with the Wildcats even led him to go on a personal crusade against a former Louisville player for flopping during the annual Battle of the Bluegrass game. Bilas who is paid to call games in an objective manner didn’t hold back during the television broadcast and let his disgust for the flop be heard across the country. He even took to twitter to acknowledge his disgust.
Bilas’s rant sparked up a series of attacks from all over social media and he had everyone bashing this flop. National media swarmed to the story like flies to dung, and the UK fan base had a field day. They even got their kids in the mix with a Claymation version of the flop. Even it made its way around the national rags.
For about two weeks all we heard is about that horrible, disgusting flop. I mean how, why, it was a crime against college basketball and Jay Bilas created an angry mob over it.
On Tuesday night I decided against my better judgment to actually sit through a UK SEC basketball game. I have to admit that it was a very entertaining game and Georgia put up a gutsy effort even though the deck was clearly stacked in the Cats favor. It would have been better had it not been for the incessant rambling about UK’s greatness by Jay Bilas.
The most perplexing moment for me was when Andrew Harrison pulled off what was perhaps one of the best flops of the college basketball season. It was a flop that would rival that of a former Louisville player back in December. I was expecting Jay Bilas to have another meltdown and announce his utter disgust for flopping. But that didn’t happen and in fact Bilas found the Harrison flop to be amusing. That’s right he chuckled as if it was one of the funniest things he’d ever seen. It was quite the opposite reaction from the outrage he displayed back in December.
Did Jay Bilas take an anger management class to deal with his rage against the flop? Where was the outrage?
Folks it’s very obvious that Jay has turned into that guy. Who knows where it all went wrong. Jay used to be one of the best basketball guys on TV. He knows the game better than any of those other ESPN talking heads and yet he chooses to be a blind homer for the Kentucky Wildcats. Seriously how does this happen?
Guess we can just add Jay Bilas’s name to the list of things John Calipari has ruined in College basketball. Jay Bilas once a great player and analyst now will be known as Jay BIAS. Sad indeed… Guess it won’t be long until he’s writing articles for KSR.
