Tag: Jay Bilas

CBB analyst ranks top 68 teams heading into March Madness. Where’s Alabama?

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas has ranked his top-68 teams heading into March Madness. Alabama ranks highly on his list.

Alabama basketball is the top team in the SEC, after finishing with a conference record of 16-2, and an overall record of 21-6.

Currently ranked No. 6 in the nation, according to the latest AP poll, Alabama is set to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas has ranked his top 68 teams heading into March Madness.

Bilas has high praise for Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide, as he ranked them No. 6 overall.

“Don’t blink when Alabama has the ball, because it will be up toward the rim in a hurry,” write Bilas. “Also, focus your attention on the Tide’s defense. The SEC champs can really guard, and Alabama’s length and athleticism on the wings is impressive. Better still is the play of Herb Jones, a 6-foot-8 do-it-all forward who can rip-and-run, defend all five spots and fix any problem coach Nate Oats has on the floor. Alabama may be able to streak to a No. 1 seed as the Big Ten and Big 12 beat each other up.”

The Crimson Tide will first have to go through the SEC tournament before getting to the Big Dance.

LOOK. Jay Bilas ranks best college basketball teams in the country. Where does he have Ohio State?

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas recently ranked the top 68 college basketball teams in the country and has Ohio State very high, but where?

The Ohio State basketball team is making moves and separating itself as one of the best teams in the country. The improvement has been quick and decisive from the start of the season until now. With the numerous statement wins over the last month or so, the Buckeyes are also starting to move up the major polls, metric rankings, and even opinion polls that are out there.

That’s where ESPN’s Jay Bilas comes in. Bilas is one of the best in the business and provides great insight, analysis, and opinion second to none in the college game. We respect what he has to say, even if he did play for Duke (closet Carolina fan here).

Bilas recently ranked the top 68 teams (subscription required) in college basketball, the same number that will make the NCAA Tournament here in just a few weeks, and Ohio State is very, very high on his list.

Here’s where he has the Buckeyes and what he says about them.

NEXT … Jay Bilas’ ranking of Ohio State

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas offers scouting report on LaMelo Ball: ‘He’s ridiculously talented’

Jay Bilas offered his big board and a scouting report on LaMelo Ball, ranking Ball third while noting the guard is ‘ridiculously talented.’

One of the NBA Draft mainstays across decades of coverage for ESPN has been Jay Bilas. The long-time college basketball analyst has been an equally long-time NBA Draft analyst, having become infamous for his use of the wingspan.

Joking aside, few analysts have greater experience in covering the draft and prospects than Bilas. While he’s given his thoughts on LaMelo Ball in the past, calling him ‘as talented as anybody’ in the 2020 NBA Draft, he recently offered a much more detailed scouting report on Ball for the Charlotte Observer.

While the entire scouting report is far too lengthy to include in this piece, here’s a small snippet on his summary of Ball’s game.

“Ball has positional size. He’s a legitimate 6-7 or 6-8. He’s insanely creative with the ball. He’s ridiculously talented. Just a fabulous passer; every bit the passer his brother (Lonzo, a point guard for the New Orleans Pelicans) is. He just doesn’t shoot it (well). He’s going to have to really work on it. He’s got an odd release. And worse than the odd release? It doesn’t go in.”

Overall, Bilas ranked Ball third on his big board with Anthony Edwards first and James Wiseman second. Bilas noted Edwards’ age and athleticism and Wiseman’s size and versatility as positives in each of their respective scouting reports.

On Ball, his inconsistent shooting was one of the main talking points as a negative. Bilas also discussed at length about how Ball has “not been socialized” due to his unique upbringing.

Ball has not spent more than one season with a team since leaving Chino Hills. His stint with SPIRE, which lasted from November through early March, is the longest he’s spent with an organized team in recent years. Ball still holds relationships with both Rocket Watts and Isaiah Jackson from that team, two of the other standout prospects, as the trio routinely interacts on social media.

Jay Bilas criticizes NCAA following Cade Mays’ denied eligibility

The NCAA has denied the immediate eligibility request of former UGA offensive lineman Cade Mays. Jay Bilas criticized the decision.

The NCAA has denied the immediate eligibility request of former Georgia Bulldogs offensive lineman Cade Mays. Mays is trying to play this season in Knoxville with the Tennessee Volunteers.

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt stated that the school plans to appeal the NCAA’s decision.

Mays, who committed to UGA as a five-star recruit in the class of 2018, announced his intentions to transfer to Tennessee and play for the Vols following Georgia’s Sugar Bowl victory over Baylor. Mays is from Knoxville and has a brother, Cooper, who plays for the Vols.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas spoke out regarding the denial of Mays’ transfer request. Bilas sides with Mays. He thinks Mays should be immediately eligible. The NCAA is inconsistent on transfer rulings and that’s a source of both his and college sports fans’ frustration with the NCAA.

Here’s what Jay Bilas said on Twitter:

The NCAA has been frequently ruling quarterbacks immediately eligible, including Georgia’s J.T. Daniels. Alternatively, the NCAA is known to be tougher on transfers within the same conference.

One key difference between Cade Mays and J.T. Daniels is that Daniels missed much of the 2019 season with an injury. Mays on the other hand played throughout last season and didn’t miss much action.

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Tom Izzo joins host Jay Bilas on Jr. NBA Coaches Corner Podcast

Michigan State Basketball coach Tom Izzo recently joined Jay Bilas on the Jr. NBA Coaches Corner Podcast. Read what he had to say and more.

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Tom Izzo recently joined Jay Bilas, along with Dallas Mavericks Assistant Coach Jamahl Mosley, discussing how to properly build and coach up your defense. In particular, Izzo was asked what should you do when up by 3 points while your opponent has the ball in a late-game situation.

You can check out the entire Jr. NBA Coaches Corner Podcast here.

Check out a quick clip below:

Here is a description of the Jr. NBA Coaches Corner Podcast, per the Jr. NBA website:

Jay Bilas hosts top coaches from the NBA, WNBA, college, and youth levels to discuss key coaching topics and provide insights to the basketball coaching community.  Each episode highlights a diverse group of coaches from all levels of the game to discuss philosophy, tactics, skill development, situational play, and more.

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Jay Bilas says LaMelo Ball ‘as talented as anybody’ in 2020 NBA Draft

One of the NBA Draft’s mainstays, Jay Bilas, had high praise for LaMelo Ball during a recent podcast appearance.

Few people have had more firsthand experience analyzing the NBA Draft than Jay Bilas. One of the main figures present at the draft on a yearly basis, Bilas has seen thousands upon thousands of draft prospects pass through. There are few people who should be considered more an expert on analyzing prospects than Bilas.

Because his words carry so much weight, his recent comments on LaMelo Ball and the upcoming 2020 NBA Draft should be particularly noteworthy. Bilas joined Complex’s Load Management podcast to talk about a host of things, including whether he considers Ball to be the top prospect in the draft. And while Bilas didn’t question Ball’s talent, potential off-court concerns that don’t involve LaVar Ball have raised some flags.

“Talent-wise, yes. He’s as talented as anybody in this draft. I think he and Anthony Edwards are the two most talented players and James Wiseman is not that far behind. The concern I have is socially, honestly. He didn’t even finish high school in a ‘normal’ way. He’s had kind of a Kardashian upbringing in the game.

Is he going to assimilate into the sort of NBA way of doing things? Is that going to be easy? What’s his social adjustment going to be like? Is he going to function at a high level socially where he wasn’t able to be socialized in college? Maybe he’ll be better having played pro ball. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be better. But I have to be convinced that he’s on the right side of that question. But he’s talented enough to be taken No. 1. I don’t think he will be but he’s talented enough.”

Of all the concerns raised about Ball in the weeks and months so far leading up to the NBA Draft, Bilas raises an entirely new one. Ball’s on-court flaws have been discussed ad nauseam and his off-court issues have always centered on his father.

Bilas’ point is an interesting one even if also unconventional. Ball’s path has been unconventional in its own right after leaving Chino Hills early. And while he may not have adjusted socially as his peers, he’s spent the better part of his basketball-playing career playing with professionals. So, while his social upbringing has been far from ordinary, it’s also been one surrounded by fellow professionals.

But it’ll be these types of questions that’ll be asked by teams of Ball in the predraft process. If teams can find the answers they’re looking for, it could lead to him being the top pick based on his talent.

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LeBron James throwback: When St. Vincent-St. Mary’s beat Oak Hill on ESPN

In a look back to 2002, we watch highlights from LeBron James’ first ESPN2 appearance against famed Oak Hill academy.

With the sports world on a pause and everyone encouraged to continue social distancing to stay home and flatten the curve of the spread of coronavirus, there have been some unprecedented giveaways of content from various leagues and channels. ESPN is one of those, moving up the release date of their “The Last Dance” documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. But even before that, they have been sharing more and more classic footage from their archives on their YouTube channel.

Among the classic footage that ESPN has released on YouTube is LeBron’s first appearance on ESPN, when his St. Vincent-St. Mary’s squad upset the previously No. 1 ranked Oak Hill Academy, who had just seen Carmelo Anthony go to Syracuse. You can see the type of environment that surrounded LeBron’s games, being played at Cleveland State because their high school gym couldn’t contain the demand.

I’ve got to shout out my colleague and fellow hoops junkie David Lieberman for alerting me to the ESPN archive of LeBron footage, which we will certainly be revisiting during the NBA hiatus.

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