Bilas brings up Manny's elbow
I was watching Syracuse-ND just now. A SYR forward grabbed a rebound and ripped through at face level, taking down the ND defender. Jay Bilas was adamant that this should be a foul and that the player exhibited reckless disregard for whether the ND player's face was in the way.
He went on to point out that this was exactly what Manny Harris did last year. It seemed like an odd thing to bring up. Is it really appropriate to bring up a kid's year-old foul on national t.v.? I get that Jay thought it important to take a stand on that issue, and this example is clearest in his mind, but I think Manny has done his time.
He did point out that Manny is a good kid and a great player, fwtw.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:12 PM ^
Jay Bilas is a law school grad. Precedent is important to him, apparently.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^
So, he thinks that everyone should be punished. Valid to use, in my epinion.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:21 PM ^
I just think it's unfortunate that he's turning Manny into the poster child for a flagrant elbow foul.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:15 PM ^
Why the hell does Bilas care about a foul that happened a year ago? You would think Manny fouled him since he is still upset about it.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:19 PM ^
I don't see it as a big deal, it's not like he was slamming Michigan for raising players to foul recklessly. He was just using precedence as a reason for why this particular case should also be called.
This portion is also quite key: "He did point out that Manny is a good kid and a great player, fwtw."
January 18th, 2010 at 9:19 PM ^
He has brought it up on several occasions. One was last week at some time, I can't remember the game. It seems like he is just trying to bring it up as much as possible until it gets the "attention" it needs, I guess. The situation was a guy was ripping through, but he ripped high and went over his head. Bilas pointed out that it wasn't the same as Manny's ripping through. This is definitely the third time I have heard this year, it could be more.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^
Considering Bilas went on about the foul for what felt like hours last year, it doesn't surprise me that he is revisiting it now. To be fair, if he is calling for a similar punishment, then I guess it is relevant to point out precedent.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:48 PM ^
I think Bilas thinks pretty highly of both Manny and DeShawn and he is in no means trying to shine any negative light on Manny.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:55 PM ^
He's consistent. That's more than can be said for many of the TV personalities. It's unfortunate that he uses Manny for an example though.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:12 AM ^
At least he hasn't turned "Manny" into a verb yet.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:07 PM ^
First, he wanted to make sure everyone knew that there was something wrong with Michigan for firing Amaker. This effort included crapping all over Beilein for quite some time, especially by asking why Beilein couldn't win with all of the fine talent that Tommy brought in.
Next, he started saluting Harris and Sims, apparently because he met them at a summer camp and was impressed. Very broad-minded.
Then he started to acknowledge what a fine job Beilein did last year.
This year, he's been praising Michigan to the limit, talking about how they should be in the top 25 and tournament because the roster includes "two pros." This praise has almost seemed too extravagant at times, as though he's setting UM up for failure. (I'm not quite paranoid enough to be really convinced of that, however).
In the middle of this transition, he started to criticize "the elbow." But I don't think his criticism was motivated by his apparently complicated feelings about UM. I think he was trying to make a point about a certain technique, and the Harris elbow was the most prominent example -- because he helped make it prominent and because it resulted in a suspension of a well-known player. I think he's still referring to it because it's still the most prominent example.
And I think the vehemence of his arguments about ripping through is accentuated by the fact that it's hard to understand what's legitimate and what's not legitimate when it comes to swinging elbows. I get the sense that coaches disagree about where the boundary is between legitimate attempts to get position and the illegal (and dangerous) use of elbows. As someone with legal training, Bilas is trying to persuade people about his position, and I think that Harris' elbow from last year is an example that he thinks helps him do that.
Finally, you can't overlook the fact that Bilas is from Duke and people from Duke are just weird -- and full of themselves.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
It seems like after the precedent last yr the NCAA (and specifically the Big 10) cracked down on the elbows -- Novak, Manny, Dumas (who Crean suspended preemptively), and DeQuan Jones for Miami(FL). This year, I've seen a few calls, including Routins tonight that the officials have reviewed and either called nothing or just a flagrant/intentional foul. Is it possible the NCAA realized that their suspensions (minus the Dumas incident) may be excessive, and have backed off.
On a side note, Bilas isn't hating on Manny or Michigan. The Manny to Kramer blow happened on national TV in a game that was (at the time) close.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
Well I just hope Manny hasn't forgotten the incident either. He turned into Clint Eastwood at the end of the "Unforgiven" in that second game against Purdue last year. We're going to need that again this year!
January 18th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
obviously the fact that Manny's elbow happened on national TV doesn't mean Bilas isn't hating on Manny, but I think it was probably the most prominent example of a star player who was ejected/suspended.
January 18th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
to get over the fact that not everyone agrees with him on the "elbow" issue. If it's obviously intentional, it's one thing, but in the heat of the battle when a player rebounds the ball or a player makes a pivoting move to protect possession of the ball, he's not always going to be aware of where the opponent(s) face(s) are. As we all know, basketball can be an extremely quick game at times. I think he continually brings it up to try justify his position to himself. He's not the ultimate authority on this and not everyone agrees with him. He comes off as a smart-ass know-it-all.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:29 AM ^
At least Jay didn't speak to Manny's "length". He has a strange obsession with that.