With Jay Bilas

Send in your Hoops 101 questions. Jay Bilas will answer a few each week as the season continues.

Rob McDonald, Cornwal, Ontario, writes:

I've heard just about enough from commentators belittling the players from St. Bonaventure. It's about time that players took a stand against the idiots that run the NCAA. It seems the Atlantic 10 took it upon themselves to ban this team from the postseason tournament for a mistake made by administrators. Hell, if I was the kids, I'd have gone home for spring break as well.

BOO ESPN ... The kids should be lauded

Aside from that, I enjoy your commentary.

Rob,
If you listened to my words, I never once belittled the players. I said that I disagreed with their decision, and would have reasoned with them to reconsider. If, after reasoning with them, they still refused to play, I would have dismissed them and they never would play for me again. Period. I then would have walked over to the intramural building and selected 10 guys that would compete for the university with honor and dignity, win or lose. Quitting is not an acceptable response to adversity or hardship, and does not honor the commitments of the players, coaches or the university. The decision to ban the Bonnies from postseason play may indeed have been a mistake, but quitting does not serve the interests of anyone. If the players wished to protest, write something on your shoes, talk to the media, or write a letter to the editor. If you play through adversity, you show character and honor. If you quit in response to adversity, you are a quitter. Once the coaches and administrators determined that the players chose to quit, they should not have accepted it. It was wrong.

I respect your opinion on the matter, we simply disagree. I don't laud quitting. To use your terms, I say "BOO Quitters!"

EJ Harris, Baltimore, Md., writes:

I read your commentary on the St. Bonaventure action to not finish their schedule. While I understand the viewpoint of finishing the season (losing one player happens all the time), have you considered that the real reason the players quit and the administration supporting them is because they felt the ruling of the ineligible player was wrong?

EJ,
I don't care why the players quit. The truth is that the first and only response to the problem was to quit because the players felt the situation was not fair. That may indeed be true, but there are many instances in life where things are not fair, and giving up is not an appropriate response. Nothing can convince me otherwise. The kids at Fresno State were not at fault in their situation, yet they chose to play anyway, and played their hearts out at Tulsa. The Fresno State kids played for the game's sake, and competed hard. They showed courage and heart. I admire the way the Fresno State kids handled adversity, and I regret that the St. Bonaventure kids did the wrong thing.

Michael O'Connor, Frederick, Md., writes:

Jay,
I am a 1988 SBU graduate. I am not pleased the team, and more importantly the school, quit. Does the fact that the head coach and the college president have both admitted complicity in the Jamil Terrell incident mitigate the players' actions? After all, the two individuals with the most authority to take action lacked moral standing because their actions created the problem in the first place.

Michael,
I don't think anything mitigates quitting. Listen, these are kids and kids make mistakes. The adults are more to blame in my judgment, because they allowed the kids to quit. Quitting did not and will not solve anything.

Mike Morrell, Elmira, N.Y., writes:

Jay,
I have great respect for your opinions, but I think you've joined the multitudes in the media who've somewhat missed the boat on the St. Bonaventure issue. Certainly the school deserves a reprimand if the student transfer was as flawed as reported. But where is the responsibility of the league for timely justice? It's March! The player in question has been practicing and playing with the team for months. This incident would never have occurred had the league acted promptly and taken action two or three months ago. I think the LEAGUE is more responsible party here.

Keep up your great work!

Mike,
You may be right. But to quit in response is wrong. There are ways to seek a remedy to being wronged. An appeal is the way to go, rather than to quit. All of us have all been unfairly treated by a referee, coach or administrator. Where would we be if we all quit as a result of it?

Fran Duskiewicz, Syracuse, N.Y. writes

Jay,
With UNC-Asheville's tourney win, it's already started -- sub-.500 mid/low major teams in the NCAAs. The worst of the worst. Every year, these upsets seem to plague the conferences that can least afford it, leaving their regular season champs with the gaudy records out in the cold while fans gripe about the power conferences getting 5-6 bids. Why don't these lower conferences get to choose who represents them in the NCAAs? If the winner is a good team (Southern Illinois, let's say) then the tourney loser (Creighton, let's say) would not be designated by their league as the NCAA rep. They might get in on their own. But if a Butler were to be upset again, why not give the league the right to send them to the NCAA's as their best representative? Wouldn't that give the regular season more meaning? Right now it means nothing in the lower/mid majors.

Fran
You're right. That is a tough situation, but the conference can choose exactly how it wishes to award its automatic bid. If the conference wishes to give the bid to the regular season champ, like the Ivy League, it can do that. Most want a tournament, because it provides excitement and it is a great way to raise the interest level. A middle ground is this ... have the top two teams get byes to the semifinals to give the teams the best chance to play for the automatic bid.

T. J. Scruggs, Memphis, Tenn., writes:

Jay,
As a resident of Memphis majority of my life I have been a die-hard Memphis basketball fan for as long as I remember. Memphis being part of C-USA doesn't seem to be getting the respect they deserve. All you hear out of C-USA is how Louisville is stuggling, Marquette is on top of things, and Cincinnati isn't as good as they've been in the past. Memphis is playing as good or better than anyone in the country they're deep and athletic. After they recieved a seven seed on College Gamenight, I felt pretty insulted. On the other hand, I prefer when they are the underdog. I was just wondering if their is a method to the madness over there, especially when I believe Alabama recieved a six seed. Alabama doesn't belong in the tournament. My question is what is it going to take for Calipari and Memphis to gain some respect?

T.J.,
Don't cry to me about respect to Memphis. I said early on that Memphis was an NCAA Tournament team, and that was long before the Tigers beat Louisville. The fans that have a beef with me are the Seton Hall fans, because I was not convinced that the Hall had a really good team. The more I watch Seton Hall, the more I like that team. The Pirates do not have a great team, but will certainly get in before N.C. State, Minnesota and Texas Tech (without regard to performance in conference tournaments). Memphis is a really good team, and deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament, without question.

Sean P. Blue, Columbus, Ohio, writes:

Jay,
How can you say that Wake Forest has accomplished everything they did this year "with smoke and mirrors?" They won the ACC regular season title outright. That was done over the course of the two months. They were undefeated at home. They have a lock for ACC Player Of the Year in Josh Howard. Howard is also a candidate for national player of the year. Skip Prosser is a candidate for ACC Coach Of the Year and possibly even a candidate for national coach of the year. They also have a strong core of sophomores and freshmen that were not intimidated by Duke and Maryland all season. Justin Gray said that the team's motto this year was "TJDK." They Just Don't Know. All season this team has dealt with a lack of respect beginning with being pick by many analysts to finish seventh in the league. All season they just kept saying to each other TJDK. They believed in themselves and they put in a ton of hard work. For you to say they accomplished all this "with smoke and mirrors" baffles me. I guess you JDK.

Sean,
It was probably a poor choice of words on my part. I meant to convey that Skip did a masterful job with a young team that had some deficiencies, yet he molded them into a winner while camouflaging some of its weaknesses. I certainly didn't mean to be disrespectful of a team that won the ACC by two games. I got tongue-tied looking for the right phrase to convey that Wake defied the odds and the experts, and I committed the turnover. It happens. If there were subs for us, you would have heard a buzzer, my replacement at the scorer's table, and I would have taken a seat next to the coach. My comments are not scripted, and I dribbled it off my foot. However, if that is your only complaint, I have a pretty good ratio of good to bad comments.

Is that good enough for you, or do you want a voodoo doll to stick pins in?

Steve, Charlotte, N.C., writes:

I am dying to know your opinion on so many things so let's play what I guess we'll call the Bilas Awards. You can just give me a name or give me a name and support your answer.

Player of the Year?
SEC Player of the Year?
Big 12 Player of the Year?
Big East Player of the Year?
Pac-10 Player of the Year?
Big 10 Player of the Year?
ACC Player of the Year?
C-USA Player of the Year?
Freshman of the Year?
Coach of the Year?
Suprise team of the Year?

I know its a lot but I'll be satisfied with just a name for all of them. I really wanted to know your opinion so please please please respond.

Thanks,
Jay.

Steve,

Here you go:

Bilas Player of the Year: David West, Xavier ... and T.J. Ford, Texas
Bilas SEC Player of the Year: Ron Slay, Tennessee
Bilas Big 12 Player of the Year: T.J. Ford, Texas
Bilas Big East Player of the Year: Troy Bell, Boston College
Bilas Pac-10 Player of the Year: Joe Shipp, California
Bilas Big Ten Player of the Year: Brian Cook, Illinois ... and Kirk Penney, Wisconsin Bilas ACC Player of the Year: Josh Howard, Wake Forest
Bilas C-USA Player of the Year: Dwyane Wade, Marquette
Bilas Freshman of the Year: Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse
Bilas Coach of the Year: Tubby Smith, Kentucky ... and Skip Prosser, Wake Forest
Bilas Surprise Team of the Year: Wake Forest

Jay Bilas is a college basketball analyst at ESPN and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.