ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas discusses how Gonzaga's success plays a role in conference realignment, Mark Few's impact on the NBA and more.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Dan Dick out here for Gonzaga Nation
00:10 as we continue a trip around the country
00:13 with different analysts that cover the game
00:16 as closely as possible.
00:18 Today's guest, one of the best in the business.
00:21 He used to have a full head of hair.
00:23 He does not anymore.
00:24 None other than the esteemed Jay Billis.
00:28 Jay, thanks for joining.
00:30 There you have it.
00:32 You beat me to the punch.
00:34 How's life?
00:34 And hopefully you enjoyed that introduction.
00:37 - Yeah, always.
00:39 It's great to be with you, Dan.
00:40 I'm doing great.
00:41 Just excited for the basketball season to get started.
00:43 I'm tired of this sadistic ground acquisition game
00:46 that's just a crypto fascist metaphor for war
00:49 taking up all our time.
00:50 We need to get back to the beautiful game on the hardwood.
00:52 - Couldn't agree more.
00:53 I mean, there's been so much talk
00:55 about conference realignment
00:57 and with our Gonzaga-centric angle at it,
00:59 like is Gonzaga going to go to the Pac-12?
01:01 Well, then that league disintegrates.
01:03 What about the Mountain West?
01:04 Well, they might absorb with the Pac-12.
01:06 What about this, that, and the other, the Big 12?
01:09 Well, you know what?
01:10 That and NIL, we can kind of kick that to the curb
01:13 and just talk about what's upcoming
01:15 in the college basketball season.
01:17 'Cause that is what you love.
01:18 That's what I love.
01:20 Give me maybe one or two of your storylines
01:22 that you're most looking forward to in this upcoming year.
01:25 - I think it's, Dan, a lot of experience returning
01:27 into college basketball.
01:29 I think at the top of the polls, when we start the season,
01:32 and that's one of the things that's kind of interesting
01:34 is it seems like we tend to start the season
01:38 looking at the end, like who are the teams
01:39 that are gonna be in the Final Four,
01:42 the National Championship game, things like that,
01:44 when first these teams have to qualify for that.
01:48 And if last year is any example, it's probably the best one.
01:52 We had no idea how good Florida Atlantic was
01:56 when the season started.
01:57 So there's gonna be a lot of interesting things unfold
02:01 during the season that we're not really anticipating.
02:04 We're not capable of anticipating right now.
02:07 And that's kind of a beautiful thing, I think.
02:10 We know who the usual suspects are,
02:12 Kansas, Purdue, Duke, Michigan State,
02:16 they'll be all at the top, Marquette, Gonzaga.
02:21 We know those teams are gonna be really good
02:23 and they're gonna contend.
02:24 What I think is gonna be most interesting
02:26 is who are the teams that are gonna come out
02:28 like Florida Atlantic and sort of crash the party.
02:31 And we're not gonna know that until we see it.
02:33 And even midway through the season,
02:35 until Florida Atlantic won like 30 games in a row
02:38 or whatever it was, we weren't convinced even then
02:42 that they were legit.
02:43 So the regular season to me is the most fun ride,
02:48 which leads to the National Championship event,
02:50 the NCAA Tournament.
02:51 And that's what I'm most focused on
02:53 is what I'm gonna see early.
02:54 - I love how you brought up Florida Atlantic,
02:57 'cause I had that in my notes as a question to ask you
03:00 in regards as, you know, they got off to a tremendous start
03:03 and a lot of people wanted to discredit their non-conference
03:07 and then discredit the league they played in.
03:09 Then they make it to the NCAA Tournament
03:11 and they get all this attention, all this buzz.
03:13 You would think other schools would have poached
03:16 some of their players in the transfer portal,
03:18 but they got their best eight players returning.
03:20 You know, everybody wants to use Gonzaga as a example
03:25 for you get a big time run and then you extend it out.
03:29 What would your advice be to Dusty May
03:34 about having a chance to extend it into a heck of a run?
03:38 - Well, Dusty doesn't need my advice nor anyone else's.
03:40 He's already ahead of this.
03:42 I mean, he's had his team read Pat Riley's book.
03:46 And one of the things I know you'll remember
03:48 from Riley's book was what he called the disease of me.
03:52 That once you get success, then people start tend to,
03:56 it's a natural reaction to start thinking about,
03:59 well, how can I capitalize?
04:00 What's in it for me?
04:01 And that's where at times teams can fall down.
04:06 And Florida Atlantic last year
04:07 had a really interesting thing happen.
04:09 They had two of their best players got injured
04:12 at the early part of the season.
04:14 And they started playing even better without them.
04:17 And when they came back, Dusty felt like,
04:20 well, I can't really start these guys out of the gate
04:22 'cause we've been playing so well.
04:24 And those two guys, John L. Davis, one of them,
04:27 were good with it.
04:29 They said, hey, we don't expect to start.
04:31 I mean, we're rolling, we'll just blend in.
04:34 And so it's that selfless nature of a great team
04:37 that they showed.
04:38 And who knows if those guys didn't get hurt
04:41 and they didn't have that sort of thing happen,
04:43 whether they would have ascended
04:45 to the height they ultimately did.
04:46 And my sense is they might have anyway,
04:48 probably would have.
04:49 But it's an interesting dynamic for a team.
04:52 And now that they've been celebrated,
04:54 Gonzaga's used to this, living with that expectation
04:58 where if you lose in the Sweet 16,
05:02 some people see that as a failure now.
05:04 When maybe you were there, you go to the Sweet 16,
05:07 it's some big celebration.
05:09 And due to the 20 plus years of just ridiculous success,
05:14 and I think you and I have talked about this, Dan,
05:16 that Gonzaga has become a no record program.
05:19 That people don't even know what their record is.
05:22 They just know, well, how'd they do in the tournament?
05:25 And were they all that?
05:28 That kind of stuff, like Duke has been over the years,
05:31 or you name it, UCLA.
05:34 You can't name their record.
05:35 And in the early days of Gonzaga,
05:38 you'd hang a banner for what is considered
05:41 an average season now.
05:42 And that's a tribute to what's been accomplished there.
05:46 But Gonzaga's ruined a lot of other programs in that way.
05:50 A lot of coaches have been fired
05:52 because they haven't been able to duplicate that
05:54 when it's been, hey, why can't we do it?
05:56 Well, you can't do it 'cause it's really hard.
05:59 And what Gonzaga's done has been, if not unprecedented,
06:02 nearly unprecedented, especially in today's game.
06:05 And so when you mentioned the conference realignment stuff,
06:09 I see Gonzaga in a position of strength.
06:12 Nobody's afraid to play Gonzaga anymore
06:16 and afraid of losing to him.
06:18 A lot of quote unquote mid-majors in the past,
06:21 big shots don't wanna play him
06:22 'cause they don't wanna risk losing.
06:24 But losing to Gonzaga, nobody holds that against you.
06:28 You lose to somebody else, like, wait a minute,
06:30 how'd you lose to those guys?
06:31 That's not an issue with Gonzaga and they've earned that.
06:34 But for Florida Atlantic, and whether it's Boise State
06:37 or Yale or Charleston, some of these other teams
06:40 that may expect to contend
06:42 for one of those final four spots this year
06:44 and try to work their way through the tournament,
06:46 that's kind of what they're dealing with
06:50 is having to deal with success.
06:53 And if they do stub their toe and get beat along the way,
06:56 it's not the end of the world.
06:57 Pick yourself up and the same thing's out there for you.
07:00 It's just they can't, Gonzaga now,
07:02 because of the quality of their schedule,
07:04 can lose some games in the regular season
07:07 and still make the tournament, as in at large.
07:10 Most other teams in a non-Power Five conference,
07:15 they don't feel like they have that luxury.
07:17 So they play with a lot of pressure.
07:20 And then when they do see their own blood in a game or two,
07:24 it can really derail them and affect them.
07:26 And that's really gonna be the challenge
07:28 for Florida Atlantic.
07:31 - For people that don't remember you as a player,
07:34 they know you as one of the premier analysts,
07:35 but you played at Duke,
07:37 you coached at Duke as an assistant coach,
07:40 you've been a part of that program.
07:42 What was it like a season ago
07:44 when Coach K wasn't at the helm?
07:46 What was that like and how good a job
07:48 do you think John Shire did in really difficult circumstances
07:52 in year one, replacing a legend?
07:54 - Well, the last part first,
07:56 John Shire did a phenomenal job,
08:00 not only winning whatever it was, 28 games
08:02 and being a highly seated team
08:05 going into the NCAA tournament,
08:07 they ran into a buzzsaw in Tennessee in the second round,
08:10 but they were legit.
08:12 They went undefeated at home,
08:13 which doesn't happen all that often,
08:15 even though you think it,
08:17 the average fan may think it should
08:19 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, doesn't happen that often.
08:22 And I thought it was seamless.
08:24 And he, John's got a great way about him.
08:27 He knows exactly who he is.
08:29 He's not trying to be anybody else.
08:32 It wasn't lost on him, the shoes he was stepping into
08:35 and the position he was stepping into,
08:37 but every situation I thought he handled it
08:40 with an incredible maturity level.
08:42 So he did a spectacular job.
08:44 And I think he's just getting started
08:46 with how great he's gonna be.
08:47 Was it weird?
08:50 I can't remember.
08:54 It's been 40 plus years, 45 years
08:57 since I've lived in a world without Coach K at Duke.
09:00 And when he recruited me when I was 17 years old,
09:02 the truth is I'd never heard of him.
09:05 But after I got to know him,
09:07 he was the guy I wanted to play for.
09:09 And it's been pretty extraordinary for me
09:12 to have had him at the helm at Duke
09:16 until I'm near 60 years old.
09:18 It's kind of crazy when you think about it.
09:21 You've had incredible continuity at Gonzaga,
09:22 they've had it at Syracuse up until now.
09:26 It's just, my connection to the program
09:29 has remained stronger than it would have otherwise
09:32 if it had been a normal thing.
09:33 If a guy stays 12 years, moves on, whatever.
09:37 Most players I played against,
09:40 they had four or five, six coaches at their alma maters
09:43 since they graduated.
09:44 I had one and I'm damn near 60 before there's been a second.
09:49 So it's really been an incredible blessing
09:53 for all of us that played for Coach K.
09:55 And then an equal blessing to have a guy like John Shire
09:58 taking over because where you went to school,
10:01 you always have a strong connection to.
10:03 And to have it in those capable hands,
10:06 there's a lot of pride there.
10:08 - I call a lot of games for Gonzaga,
10:12 both regional television as well as some
10:15 for CBS Sports Network.
10:17 And I've had some Westwood One radio games
10:19 that Gonzaga is one of the teams.
10:21 You call games for ESPN,
10:22 and a lot of times you get Duke games.
10:25 How do you balance doing your job as an analyst
10:29 versus calling it as an alumnus
10:34 or somebody connected to the program
10:36 that cares about the program?
10:37 'Cause I've always tried to differentiate myself
10:40 because if I'm gonna grow in this career as a broadcaster,
10:43 I have to see it kind of straight down the middle
10:45 and not be partial one way or the other.
10:48 - Yeah, I mean, we all went to school somewhere.
10:50 So, and I don't think anybody would hold against us
10:54 the fact that I love Duke.
10:56 I loved it when I was there.
10:58 I still love it the same way that you love Gonzaga.
11:01 And, but it doesn't affect my job
11:04 as a basketball analyst one bit.
11:07 People may not believe this,
11:10 but I truly don't care who wins when I go to games.
11:14 I do not care.
11:15 Duke can take care of itself.
11:18 And early on in my career,
11:20 I was probably sensitive to,
11:22 I didn't wanna be seen as a homer,
11:25 'cause I did some Duke radio before I started with ESPN.
11:30 And, radio fans wanna hear about their team.
11:33 And some of them felt like I talked about the other team
11:36 too much in games, but I thought it was interesting.
11:38 I talked about what interested me.
11:41 And if people didn't like it,
11:43 I guess they had to deal with it.
11:45 But when you go to games,
11:47 like I don't think fair is difficult
11:49 and I don't think honest is difficult.
11:52 There are years when North Carolina is better than Duke
11:55 and I say so.
11:56 And when Duke is better than North Carolina, I say so.
11:59 It's really not that hard.
12:01 I think the longer you're in it,
12:03 the more people that watch will tend to understand that.
12:08 There are some fans that no matter what,
12:11 like there are some Duke fans that think that I hate Duke
12:16 and that's crazy.
12:18 And there are some Carolina fans
12:20 that think I will bend over backwards
12:22 to protect Duke at every turn.
12:23 Some Duke fans think, "Well, how can you,
12:26 you love Carolina."
12:28 I don't listen to the unreasonable, crazy stuff.
12:31 But I just say what I think when I think it
12:34 and I let the chips fall where they may.
12:36 And if people don't like it, I'll listen,
12:38 but I'm not gonna listen to anything unreasonable.
12:41 So I don't really worry about it.
12:43 I'm one of those that, it's funny,
12:45 when you brought up Coach K earlier,
12:47 I did the national championship game.
12:49 I do it every year for ESPN International.
12:51 That's why I'm such a big star in Latvia.
12:55 But I was courtside.
12:57 And when the buzzer went off of the semifinal game
13:00 between Duke and North Carolina,
13:01 the final four, Coach K's last year,
13:03 my first reaction was I saw Carolina's players celebrating.
13:08 And I was really happy for Hubert Davis
13:11 'cause he's a really close friend.
13:13 And I called the game like I always do,
13:15 right down the middle, just said what I thought.
13:17 And then I turned and I saw Coach K after they shook hands,
13:20 kind of walking off the floor and it hit me,
13:22 man, that's the last time I'm gonna see him
13:24 on a basketball floor as the head coach at Duke.
13:27 And that hit me like I think it would anybody,
13:31 not just a former player, former assistant,
13:33 but the overwhelming feeling I had was one of gratitude,
13:37 not sadness or anything like that.
13:39 I was just grateful for all the years
13:41 and all of his influence on all of us.
13:44 But that was an interesting moment
13:47 because my first thing was, hey,
13:49 I'm always happy for the winner
13:51 and I always feel for the loser of a game
13:53 'cause you and I know how much goes into this stuff,
13:57 but I really don't care who wins.
13:58 It's just, that doesn't get you anywhere.
14:00 And it's fine to have a rooting interest for somebody,
14:04 but rooting doesn't help.
14:07 And you can root all you want to,
14:09 it just matters how the players play
14:11 and how the coaches coach.
14:12 - Well, we're sitting here talking in early October,
14:17 means the season is right around the corner,
14:18 practices are going.
14:21 You probably are just about to get your schedule
14:24 for the season of games,
14:25 but you know you're gonna be in Maui.
14:27 How much do you love that tournament
14:30 having called it a number of years?
14:33 But it's also gonna be a little bit melodramatic
14:36 or different I would imagine this year
14:38 being that the tournament is in Honolulu
14:40 with everything that went on
14:41 with the fires earlier this summer.
14:43 - It'll be surreal.
14:46 It's gonna be in Honolulu
14:48 and it'll be played at Bladesdale
14:50 where the University of Hawaii plays.
14:52 I played there a million years ago
14:53 on the Rainbow Classic when I was a player.
14:55 We're gonna go a little bit early this year
14:58 right after the Champions Classic in Chicago.
15:01 I'll probably go straight Chicago to Honolulu
15:04 because there are so many stories to tell
15:06 about just the unimaginable tragedy in Maui.
15:11 I mean, you've been there as many times I have probably.
15:15 It's just hard to imagine that Lahaina is gone.
15:18 The place where we've all spent so much time.
15:20 It's been there for a couple of hundred years
15:22 and the businesses and restaurants and you name it
15:25 have been there forever.
15:26 They've been institutions and just wiped away by the fire.
15:30 And the tragic loss of life,
15:33 it's gonna be an issue for a long, long time.
15:38 And so we wanna make sure that we,
15:40 while we're celebrating the game and the tournament
15:43 which is appropriate,
15:44 we wanna make sure we balance it with telling the stories
15:47 about the unimaginable tragedy that occurred
15:50 and how Maui and the Hawaiian community
15:53 is picking up the pieces and moving forward together.
15:57 So there are gonna be challenges in that.
15:59 But I'm glad we're gonna be there
16:03 because we had the Maui one year
16:06 due to the pandemic in Las Vegas.
16:09 It was the same time that I think Gonzaga,
16:11 I stayed a little bit longer
16:13 to call the Gonzaga Duke game there.
16:16 And it was really weird having it.
16:20 First of all, Vegas is not a place on the strip.
16:22 It's not a place that anybody needs to be for 10 days.
16:25 I could not stand it after a period of time.
16:28 I love Vegas, but Honolulu,
16:31 I'm glad it's gonna be on the islands
16:33 and hopefully we'll be able to get over to Maui
16:37 to be able to tell some of the stories
16:39 and do honor to all the people lost
16:43 and all the people that are carrying forward.
16:45 - Coach Few spent some time with USA Basketball
16:48 over the last 10, 12 years in different roles.
16:51 This summer, he was a part of the senior men's national team
16:54 with the team that went to play in the World Cup.
16:57 Unfortunately, they didn't capture the gold.
16:59 But for a Gonzaga fan, I think what you get out of it
17:03 is just how well respected Coach Few is
17:06 in the basketball circles
17:07 and the opportunity for growth to be around Steve Kerr,
17:11 Ty Lue, Eric Spolstra on a day-to-day,
17:14 around the management of USA Basketball,
17:17 Grant Hill, Sean Ford and those guys.
17:19 How impactful can that experience be for Coach Few
17:24 and then helping drive Gonzaga forward?
17:27 - I think it's huge.
17:28 I think anytime, it's so difficult for coaches
17:31 because you're immersed in your own program.
17:33 Most coaches aren't able to get out
17:36 as often as they would like
17:37 and benefit from sharing ideas with others.
17:40 You're out recruiting, you're with your team all the time.
17:44 You're just immersed in it.
17:45 And it'd be nice if every coach
17:46 could take sort of a sabbatical for a year
17:49 and travel around, see other practices
17:51 and how other coaches do it
17:52 and what their ideas and thoughts are.
17:54 That's why I probably learned,
17:56 I don't know if you feel the same way,
17:57 but I probably learned more about basketball
17:59 as an analyst than I ever did as a player
18:02 'cause you kind of just see it, player,
18:03 even an assistant coach,
18:04 'cause you're doing it one way.
18:07 And it's not that that way is not great.
18:09 It's just there are other ways and other ideas
18:11 and other thoughts that stimulate what you may do
18:15 and wanna do with your program.
18:18 And so for Mark to be,
18:21 and I know it benefited Coach K a great deal.
18:24 He started playing more zone
18:25 after hanging out with Boeheim so much
18:27 with the national team.
18:28 But it was same for Jay Wright at Villanova.
18:31 And I know Mark feels exactly the same way.
18:34 And while as much as Mark was picking the brains
18:37 of all the people that you mentioned,
18:39 they were picking his too,
18:41 because I can't tell you how many NBA people tell me
18:44 that you see what Gonzaga is running and all this stuff.
18:47 There's kind of a European influence
18:51 with the way Gonzaga runs offense.
18:53 It's totally different from what you guys did
18:55 back in the flex motion, flotion days.
18:57 It's the evolution of the program
19:01 and the offense and defense has been remarkable,
19:04 but I think it's only a positive.
19:05 And it's also, look,
19:08 I've never made any kind of commitment,
19:11 profound commitment.
19:12 I've never served in the military.
19:13 But beyond absent that,
19:17 absent that sort of profound commitment
19:19 that I can't even wrap my head around,
19:21 representing your country in the way that Mark has done
19:24 over the years, last decade or so is a sacrifice.
19:28 And there's a great benefit to it,
19:30 but there's also a sacrifice.
19:32 He's away from home, he's away from his program.
19:34 And so, I think it's a great honor for him,
19:38 but at the same time,
19:40 you want to honor the sacrifice
19:42 that he's made in order to do that.
19:44 - A lot of times you run a segment
19:50 during the games that you broadcast,
19:51 94 feet with Jay Billis.
19:53 So you come across a lot of personalities
19:55 within the world of college basketball.
19:57 Drew Timmy might've been as big a personality
19:59 over the last seven, eight, 10 years in college basketball.
20:03 How would you stack his personality
20:06 with anybody else that you've come across
20:08 in your basketball times?
20:10 - Right at the top.
20:12 Drew, as you know, is unique.
20:15 There's never been another guy like him playing the game,
20:18 not just with the way he plays.
20:19 I mean, extraordinary basketball player
20:22 on the college level and beyond,
20:24 but a great personality and wasn't afraid to show it.
20:30 He was able to turn on and off the goofball stuff
20:34 and then be a cutthroat competitor on the floor.
20:36 But even in the midst of competition,
20:40 he's going against Zack Eaddy at Purdue,
20:43 he's able to cut up on the free throw line with them.
20:45 And I've never seen,
20:48 at least you don't see many players
20:49 that can flip that switch to super competitive
20:53 and then have the presence
20:54 to be able to enjoy himself at the same time.
20:58 And he lobbied for the 94 feet.
21:01 He was on me all these,
21:02 "When am I going to get a 94 feet?"
21:03 I was like, "If you're going to cry this much, we'll do it."
21:06 And we did it.
21:08 But we've had a bunch of them, I can say.
21:10 Killian Tilly did one where he actually did a volleyball set
21:13 from the three-point line,
21:15 knocked in a shot just with a volleyball set.
21:17 But there's never been anybody quite like Timmy.
21:20 - Awesome.
21:22 Well, Jay, I appreciate the time.
21:24 Look forward to hearing you on many calls
21:26 this upcoming college season,
21:27 because for myself as a fellow analyst,
21:29 I like watching some of the best of the business like you
21:32 to just to kind of pick up some delivery thoughts
21:35 for myself to improve
21:37 or some different thoughts on the game.
21:38 So appreciate the time.
21:39 Thanks for joining.
21:41 - Well, you're kind to say that, Dan.
21:42 I'm stealing from you all the time.
21:43 I appreciate it.
21:44 - There you have it for Gonzaga Nation,
21:47 one of the best in the business,
21:48 joining us, Jay Billis.
21:50 (upbeat music)
21:53 (upbeat music)