Of course, Jay Bilas loves Duke, but he wants you to know that despite his loyalties, he no longer plays for the Blue Devils. He strives to be fair, as he told Skip Bayless on The Skip Bayless Show, but being truly impartial is more challenging than it may seem. If there’s one task he finds burdensome, it’s having to pick winners—not specifically Duke, but the entire landscape of college basketball.
“I don’t play for Duke anymore,” Bilas explained. “And everybody went to school somewhere. Of course, I loved Duke and my time there, but I don’t care whether they win or lose—that’s their issue. I have too much respect for the other programs. You get a behind-the-scenes look at how they operate, and that respect extends to the competition and the competitors as well. When Duke’s the superior team, you pick them, and now our job is to make those picks. That used to never be our role, but if they’re not the best, you call it as you see it. Over time, you hope to build credibility. Reasonable criticism is worth listening to, but if someone says, ‘He went to Duke, so you can’t trust him,’ that’s their opinion, but it doesn’t make it accurate.”
That said, Bilas is not overly concerned about these perceptions. “That’s never been a problem for me,” he says. “I understand this business and don’t have issues with fans. Once, at a Duke alumni event before the 2001 Final Four, I had picked Maryland to beat Duke in the semifinals. They led by 22 at half, but Duke came back to win and then secured the championship.”
“During a Q&A, a Duke alum confronted me about my pick, insisting it was a bad choice. I admitted he was right; Duke won. But I replied, ‘Do you pick Duke every year to win it all?’ He confirmed he does, and I pointed out that he was now 4-7 with that mentality. If you always pick them, what’s the value in that? I genuinely thought Maryland would win—that’s why I made the pick.”
Bilas questions why people care so much about his picks, as he doesn’t enjoy making them. “I don’t like picking games because the unpredictability is too high. If I knew the outcomes, I’d be in Vegas making a fortune instead of working,” he said. He recalls that while some years he does well, other years he doesn’t, stressing that he’s not one to brag about predictions. “If people want to use my picks, they can, and if they want to blame me, that’s their choice,” he adds. “In the past, we were asked to offer keys to the game, not just to declare winners, but now it feels like that’s all anyone is interested in.”
“Nobody is truly qualified to predict winners,” Bilas asserts. “I respect football analysts, even if I don’t fully grasp the intricate details of the game. For instance, numerous experts picked Kansas City in the Super Bowl, and they were wrong. The unpredictability of outcomes is a constant in sports.”
