After 25 years as a college basketball analyst at ESPN, Jay Bilas, like Johnny Cash before him, has been everywhere, man. Well, almost.
He may or may not have toted a pack along the dusty Winnemucca road, but, in February, Bilas checked off a new entry when he called his first game at Auburn. A week after his trip to the Plains of Alabama, Bilas still smiles over finding a college basketball venue he had never before visited.
At least two more rank high on his to-do list: Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene and The Pit in Albuquerque, home of the New Mexico Lobos.
As for the many places he has been, his all-time favorite is Allen Fieldhouse at the University of Kansas. When the court is named for the game’s inventor, James Naismith, and the crowd chants “Rock chalk, Jayhawk, KU,” what’s not to like?
Other standouts for Bilas include Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, Indiana’s Assembly Hall, Michigan State’s Breslin Student Events Center, Arizona’s McKale Center, The Palestra in Philadelphia (“That’s like Wrigley Field”), Kentucky’s Rupp Arena (“They bring ice cream to you, which is a great buttering-up exercise”) and the Carrier Dome at Syracuse, among others.
West Virginia’s WVU Coliseum in Morgantown left a particularly strong impression.
Years ago, during Bilas’ first broadcast from that arena, he was doing an on-court, stand-up segment just before tipoff when the buckskin-garbed Mountaineer mascot appeared nearby and performed his pregame ritual: firing a powder rifle.
“I almost soiled myself,” Bilas said. “I had no idea that was going to happen. I have my Depends on now every time I do a game in Morgantown.”
