On the call of Wednesday’s matchup between the Texas Longhorns and the Vanderbilt Commodores in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, Jay Bilas sounded off about the current state of the review system in college basketball, which he believes needs a significant revamp.
With just under five minutes left in the second half, it initially looked like Vanderbilt guard Jason Edwards had converted an and-one layup after Texas guard Chendall Weaver had been called for goaltending on the play.
However, the play was ultimately reviewed and upon reviewing the play, it was fairly obvious to both Dan Shulman and Bilas on a second look that Weaver had blocked the shot attempt while the shot was going up, meaning that it should have been ruled a clean block on the court.
After seeing the replay, Shulman pointed out how the officials likely made the call because if the call on the court was that it was a clean block, it would not be a reviewable play to make sure.
“I don’t even know why they called that? That wasn’t even close,” said Bilas.
“Again, the reason they call it, as you have explained many times, is they can’t go look at it if they don’t call it,” replied Shulman.
As expected, the officials would determine that Weaver’s block was indeed legal and that Edwards would be shooting two free throws instead of the and-one play as a result of a foul from another Texas player on the shot attempt.
“When I’m critical of the rule, I’m not being critical of the officials,” said Bilas. “They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. But it’s absurd to put these officials in the position of having to call goaltending every single time. It’s ridiculous, just give a challenge to each team and let’s be done with this stuff.”
Jay Bilas with more on college basketball rules:
“When I’m critical of the rule, I’m not being critical of the officials. They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. But it’s absurd to put these officials in the position of having to call goaltending every single time…” https://t.co/RlenNvahSa pic.twitter.com/Ndcp1VsswW
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2025
Shulman countered by suggesting that officials could designate reviews on goaltends to the final two minutes of games like we see with out-of-bounds reviews. But even that, according to Bilas, has been “a joke” because it takes too long.
“At the very least, treat it like the out of bounds situation where it is only in the last two minutes,” said Shulman.
“But even now, because you go every time, the last two minutes have become a joke. It takes forever. We trust them for 38 (minutes). Why don’t we trust them for two? That makes no sense,” replied Bilas.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only recent complaint about the current state of college basketball from Bilas, who also called for a change to four quarters in the college game much like the NBA operates.
It sure seems like Bilas overall sees that college basketball could benefit from taking multiple aspects of the professional game.
Only time will tell whether these changes are potentially made to revise the replay review system in the future. But as we approach the 2025 NCAA Tournament, there will undoubtedly be plenty of discussion around the pace of games and how it is impacted by the constant replays.
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