How bad is Digger Phelps???

[4decadedukie]

In 1978, both Duke and Notre Dame made it to the Final Four. Phelps – with Digger-like certainty based on, well, nothing substantive – loudly proclaimed that the Irish would soundly beat Duke and, warming to the subject, further stated that the entire ACC was over-rated and couldn’t really compete with solid, mid-Western teams. Obviously, Duke (under Coach Foster) defeated Phelps' Notre Dame team in the National Semifinals, and the Irish were then beaten by Arkansas in the “consolation” game (played between the Final Four's #3 and #4 teams during that era).

I have never forgotten or forgiven his arrogance and his ignorance, which evidently continues to this day.

[JBDuke]

...
Oh by the way, don't you just love Jay being the only one to pick Nova to beat us.

That's a loyal player and assistant coach for ya.

Please, please, please stop the griping about Jay Bilas's lack of Duke bias. Having a Duke diploma on the wall and being a former K assistant does not obligate Jay to be a shill for all things Duke. Jay does his alma mater more credit by being one of the best prepared and most polished college basketball analysts in the business than he ever could by promoting the Blue Devils. His lack of Duke bias is an ASSET to both his reputation and Duke's. Contrast Jay's work to, say, Kenny Smith, who did some Fox broadcasts of North Carolina games and kept saying "we" when referring to the Heels. He came off as a complete joke, and we've heard little of him since on college broadcasts.

The complaining about Jay and his work makes you and others look like petulant children and does much more disservice to Duke by making our fans look bad than anything that Jay Bilas has done.

[4decadedukie]

Please, please, please stop the griping about Jay Bilas's lack of Duke bias. Having a Duke diploma on the wall and being a former K assistant does not obligate Jay to be a shill for all things Duke. Jay does his alma mater more credit by being one of the best prepared and most polished college basketball analysts in the business than he ever could by promoting the Blue Devils.

Of course, Jay could be prepared, polished, articulate, and knowledgeable while also refraining from making remarks concerning Duke. Saying nothing is a reasonable alternative.

[grossbus]

"Oh by the way, don't you just love Jay being the only one to pick Nova to beat us."

when was the last time he picked us in any game?

[dougc33]

Based on your comments, it seems that most of you actually understand what Digger says. I can't figure it out half the time.

BTW, I lived in California during UCLA's salad days, and I wouldn't say that UCLA got all the great guys because of Sam Gilbert, UCLA's dishonest booster. In the first place, Papa G surfaced towards the end of the 1960s, so he was drawn to the basketball team because of the success John Wooden had created. The Alcindor teams were full of absolute rock stars, and it seems that Gilbert wanted to be a part of that environment. Second, his role was not to recruit players, but to keep the players that Wooden recruited happy. That surely included giving guys who really needed it a little spending money on the side, but reportedly also involved cars and even abortions for their girlfriends. So in the end he represented the dark side of college basketball, and while Wooden never had any direct dealings with Gilbert, you have to ask whether the coach tried hard enough to end Papa G's relationship with his players.

The guy certainly wasn't honest. After his UCLA days, Gilbert supposedly got involved in a money laundering scheme that earned him $36 million, but when the feds showed up they found out that he had died a couple of days before. Even after the fact, that would have been really embarrassing for UCLA, although by 1987 they weren't what they used to be. Here's a little info on Papa G:

http://www.english.ucla.edu/ucla1960s/7071/austin12.htm

Finally, to give you an idea of how much basketball has changed, UCLA used to play most Friday and Saturday nights, but the games would not be broadcast in LA until 11:00 PM. Dick Enberg was the announcer, so people used to say that UCLA had the best coach, the best players, the best announcer, the best uniforms, and the best song girls.

Try this link from Dan Wetzel for a more even-handed (WHAT? More even-handed than a UCLA basketball page on a UCLA website? Inconceivable!) look at Sam Gilbert. While no one will ever say for sure, he sounds a whole lot less benign than depicted in the UCLA article. Bill Walton has some perspective, I think.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...yhoo&type=lgns

[miramar]

Try this link from Dan Wetzel for a more even-handed (WHAT? More even-handed than a UCLA basketball page on a UCLA website? Inconceivable!) look at Sam Gilbert. While no one will ever say for sure, he sounds a whole lot less benign than depicted in the UCLA article. Bill Walton has some perspective, I think.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...yhoo&type=lgns

That' s an interesting article on Gilbert. I am not quite sure that I buy the racial angle entirely, but there's no doubt that the NCAA didn't want to look at the UCLA program too closely. Wooden helped make NCAA basketball a national phenomenon, and I don't think they were too interested in killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Tarkanian's problem at Cal State Long Beach (1968-73) was that he was either way too obvious or just too honest to hide what he was doing. He tends to criticize Wooden a lot, but I think it has something to do with the fact that the Wizard of Westwood didn't want to play Cal State Long Beach in the regular season, believe it or not. In 1971 UCLA only beat them by 2 in the 1971 Elite Eight, so there's no question the Shark had some really good teams even before UNLV.

[77devil]

"Oh by the way, don't you just love Jay being the only one to pick Nova to beat us."

when was the last time he picked us in any game?

He picked Duke over FSU but qualified the pick stating that FSU should win except for Coack K's tournament experience.

[Seattledukie]

Did anyone else hear Digger talk about Duke next year having to overcome the loss of Gerald Henderson? I almost threw my beer at the TV when he said that. Where does he come off making a 1) offhand and 2) uninformed statement like that? The rest of the crew just blew off that comment.

[bjornolf]

Maybe he thinks G is a senior?

[mgtr]

Digger is so bad that he might go work as an assistant under the Herricks.

[devildownunder]

Of course, Jay could be prepared, polished, articulate, and knowledgeable while also refraining from making remarks concerning Duke. Saying nothing is a reasonable alternative.

Being a college basketball commentator who will not make remarks about Duke is like being a political commentator who will not make remarks about the president. He has to comment on Duke to do his job. As the previous poster said -- in one of the best posts I've ever read in this forum -- he does neither himself nor his alma mater any good if he turns into a shill.

[miramar]

I just remembered the best example of how dumb Digger was as a coach. It was probably back in the seventies, ND at UCLA. UCLA scores to go up by one in the final minute, and Digger does not call a time out and decides to hold for the last shot to win the game.

I can understand that decision if a coach is really confident in his point guard, but it turns out that he didn't notice that UCLA had a foul to give. So when ND got down to the seven second mark, UCLA let the guy go down the lane and then they basically tackled him. ND then got the ball out of bounds with about three seconds or so left, so they had to throw up a desperation shot that did not come close. Good call, Digger!