Bilas Gets Bilious

Deep-Thinking Duke Alum Blames The ACC For Blue Devils' Late Collapse vs Houston In Saturday's Semi's

Well, they just about had me on board. Which is noteworthy because Duke basketball is normally pretty easy to dislike, what with their gaudy resume, deep resources and their general hoopier- than- thou attitude. Going all the way back to the days of Laettner, it's fun to root against the Blue Devils.

But this year's version had a different feel. A hardworking bunch of young hustlers was led by Cooper Flagg and his sidekick Kon Kneuppel. Blue Devil Butch and Sundance had plenty of help of course, but the overall look was earnest, almost cherubic, with a big dose of energy. They played really well. All season long. Which Bilas thought to be the main problem that led to their downfall​ vs Houston. Huh?

Pretzel logic alert! Jay Bilas says Duke was "let down" by the ACC this basketball year because the league was so weak that Duke rarely had a competitive game. And that lack of tension cost the Blue Devils when they lost a close game to battle-tested Cougars in the semifinals.

" I thought that the biggest factor in the game was that Duke was inexperienced in close games," said Bilas.

He went on, " And that's where the ACC really let them down. Everybody else in this Final Four had played games that came down to the wire, day after day, and game after game."

Say what? The mighty Duke's were under- prepared by their own league? Dastardly!

And just like that, the old familiar anti- Duke feeling washes back over the masses, those thousands of us fans of the other , lesser, and so inconsiderate , ACC teams These basement dwellers had the audacity to pull up short in their annual assignment of getting the Blue Devils fully prepared for the big tournament.

Bilas' contention carried the same mind- bending note as did Alex Rodriguez a few years back when he explained to us mopes about how an even- number lead in baseball is always preferable to an odd lead, regardless of the actual numbers. Bilas Baloney.

If playing close games really yielded any inherent advantage, could Jon Scheyer not sub more aggressively to avoid yet another runaway win? You know, put in a few walk-ons for a while? Couldn't he order his guys to play lefthanded for a few minutes, or even better , just take a guy off the floor and go four vs five for a while, 'til things got a little tighter? Maybe make his crew pass the ball four times before anyone shoots, like Coach Norman Dale did in Hoosiers?

For that matter, couldn't Scheyer simply recruit a little less aggressively, so that the lower layers of the ACC could finally be of more help to Duke by being relatively more competitive?

In my day job, the practice of surgery, a patient once gave a complaint that Bilas' whiny weirdness brought to mind. This patient had been healthy his entire life, but was now nervous about facing an upcoming major operation. He told me that the the people who got sick all the time were " lucky", because they were " used to it."

His posit was ridiculous, of course--but no more so than that deep thought from the Big Dookie Jay Bilas.

I saw the game, and I thought a couple of other culprits were at play , preventing a happier outcome for the dudes from Durham. Maybe Tyrese Proctor could hit the front end on a one- plus- one free throw with his team up by one and 20 seconds left to play. Or maybe Flagg can avoid a foul on the attempted rebound of Proctor's miss. And maybe Flagg can hit the last shot, as he does about 80% of the time. However you slice it, the loss did not come about from faulty league support.

Bilas' contention helps bring us back to those delightful days of dissing Duke whenever things go badly for the boo-hoo Blue Devils.

And in that spirit, Bilas' boys' loss on Saturday led to that favorite sign frequently waved by Duke- haters, at Monday night's championship game between Florida and Houston.

" Where's Dook?"

Patrick Conarro