Jay Bilas Likes ‘Smart Kids’ Over Kentucky

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When the college basketball crew at ESPN reviewed each of the regions in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament on Sunday night, Jay Bilas said something that irked Kentucky fans.

As Bilas broke down the East Region, he predicted that 12th-seeded Cornell would upset top seed Kentucky, saying that he was “going with the smart kids”.

Knowing Bilas as one of the better analysts ESPN has in their stable, chances are his comment was in reference to Cornell being an Ivy League school and wasn’t meant to slight Kentucky’s players.

But on Monday, Kentucky fans were voicing their displeasure in online forums and call-in radio shows suggesting Bilas did in fact take a back-handed swipe at the Wildcats.

Even if Bilas meant for his comment to disparage Kentucky’s basketball team, he wouldn’t necessarily be that far off base.

Let’s face it, kids that are admitted into Ivy League schools are generally smarter than those who attend other institutions.

As for Kentucky and their one-and-done types like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, should the Wildcats faithful really be all that upset?

Does anyone actually think that Wall and Cousins are overly concerned with academics?

I’d be willing to bet that in a battle of wits, the kids from Cornell would defeat anyone populating Kentucky’s basketball roster and would do so handily.

In what could prove to be bulletin board material, Kentucky coach John Calipari may try to use Bilas’ words as a motivational tool for his team.

Then again, Calipari may give thought to the Derrick Rose incident and leave well enough alone.

I’m guessing that none of Cornell’s basketball players had someone take their SATs for them.

Or maybe he’ll ponder the last 2:12 of the 2008 NCAA championship game when his Memphis team blew a nine-point lead that allowed Kansas to claim the national title.

With Memphis leading by three points, Kansas’ Mario Chalmers nailed a 3-pointer to tie the score at 63 with 2.1 seconds left and sent the game into overtime.

In his post game comments, Calipari swore he told his team to foul before anyone got an opportunity to attempt a three-pointer, but replays clearly showed Memphis’ players never intentionally attempted to foul.

Maybe Calipari’s kids weren’t smart enough to understand his instructions. Or maybe he wasn’t smart enough to instruct his players to foul.

Bilas was right about Cornell’s kids being smarter than Kentucky’s, even if he didn’t intend for his comment to be construed that way.

Intelligence aside, I disagree with Bilas’ prediction that Cornell will defeat Kentucky.

In fact, I don’t believe Cornell will advance far enough to even have the opportunity to play the Wildcats.

It’s a good thing SAT scores and academics don’t win NCAA basketball national championships, because Kentucky wouldn’t have a chance.

But when field goal percentage, turnovers and rebounds matter, Kentucky beats just about anyone they’ll face in this year’s tournament.

So relax Kentucky fans. Just because your basketball team doesn’t have anyone whose IQ’s match Einstein’s, it doesn’t really matter.

The only thing that matters is if the Wildcats come out on top when the clock strikes zero, and not one of Kentucky’s players will have to use the quadratic formula to accomplish that goal.