Why Jay Bilas Is "All-In" on D3 Hoops
We attended Day 2 of the 2024 Jay Bilas Classic in Charlotte, NC and loved what we saw.
It was top-flight, out-of-conference D3 Basketball featuring numerous ranked teams (like the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point) and a rematch from the 2022 D3 Men’s Basketball Final Four (Elmhurst and Randolph-Macon).
In short, the Jay Bilas Classic is a showcase of NCAA Division 3 sports, and part of a growing category of annual D3 events that are popping up all around the country (The Great Lakes Invitational, the D3Hoops Classic, and a new one in 2025 called the Leslie Robinson Classic in Texas organized by Riley Zayas).
But what makes this one unique is that its sponsor is not a D3 graduate or super fan, but rather former Duke Basketball star and current ESPN analyst, Jay Bilas.
So we set out to understand why Jay Bilas cares about D3 sports enough to start his own D3 event!
The Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon College after defeating UWSP 51-50 in the 2024 Jay Bilas Classic
To understand how this all came about, we sat down with the co-founder of the Jay Bilas Classic and the co-owner of the Jay Bilas Skills Camp, John Searby.
John is a 1998 graduate of Milligan College and a former college basketball player (3x conference champion & NAIA National Tournament appearance). After he completed his degree, Searby spent 10 years coaching college basketball (Gardner-Webb, Tennessee Tech, Lincoln Christian University & Auburn).
Here’s our full Q&A, enjoy!
Q&A with John Searby - Jay Bilas Classic Co-Founder
Why does Jay Bilas, a former Duke legend and current ESPN announcer, care about D3 basketball enough to run an annual showcase event like the Jay Bilas Classic?
When Jay and I decided to start the Jay Bilas Skills Camp in 2013, I suggested that we bring on D3 head coaches to be our camp coaches. I grew up in Central Illinois around great D3 basketball, was recruited by several D3 programs, and had friends from my coaching days who were D3 head coaches by that time; so I knew the quality of coaches at that level and the quality of play.
At that time, there were also NCAA rules that didn't allow D2 or D1 coaches to work a camp like ours, so we also needed D3 coaches out of necessity.
Jay didn't have a lot of exposure to D3 basketball back then, but as he got to know our camp coaches and started following their teams during the season, he came to realize what a lot of us know, which is that D3 coaches are some of the best in the country.
They have to do more with less, they often have to coach the guys they can get to their schools based on very challenging recruiting situations around academic rigor, cost, and lack of awareness, and they have small staffs so they have to do a little bit of everything. I think that as Jay saw our camp coaches on the court with kids in the summer, his level of appreciation for D3 basketball grew every year.
With the advent of the in-season exempt tournaments, we started talking about how fun it would be to get our camp coaches to bring their school teams to Charlotte to play each other and Jay really got excited about that opportunity. He has announced some of the biggest in season basketball tournaments around (Maui, Jimmy V, Wooden Classic, etc.) and he wanted to try to bring a little bit of those experiences to these coaches and their teams because of all they've done for us and our camp over the years.
The four participants from the 2024 Jay Bilas Classic - Elmhurst, CNU, UWSP, and RMC
Why these four teams (Randolph-Macon, Elmhurst, CNU, and UWSP)? Will there continue to be repeat teams of coaches like John Baines (Elmhurst) who are veterans of the Jay Bilas Skills Camp?
This is the second year we've done the Classic and the teams all come out of our camp coaching staff. I'd like to say there is a lot of science to it, but the reality is that it is just sitting around after camp one night each year we talk about who has availability in their schedule, wants to come to Charlotte, and thinks they have a team ready to play against the high level competition they are going to face. This year's teams were decided in the summer of 2023 so that they had time to plan and get it into their scheduling.
I would suspect that there will always be repeats just based on who can be available. Some of these guys have to schedule several years out and some of them are just starting to look at next year right now. So it really is more about who it works for than us trying to create match-ups or something like that. All of the guys that work our camp have great teams, so I'm never worried about the quality of the competition. As for John Baines...we grew up together. John and I played high school basketball together and he is like another son to my parents because he was at our house so much. That friendship, that has spanned more than 35 years, is important to both of us so anytime we can have an excuse to get together, we're going to take it.
Do you envision the format getting larger than four teams? What is the future vision for the event?
We are still figuring out what the future of the Classic will be. We brought Beyond Sports on as a sponsor this year because of their connection to D3 basketball and their experience in running first class basketball tours. I think as we get our staffs together and brainstorm after this year, we will begin to get a clearer picture of the future of the event. We certainly would love to see it grow and continue to showcase how great D3 basketball is.
Every year, tons of D3 coaches work the Jay Bilas Skills Camp. What do they bring to the event and is it a place prospective college athletes should consider attending?
I'm biased, but I think our camp is one of the best in the country for skill development of high school players. We are an old school skills camp and I don't see a lot of those out there right now. Our D3 coaches are what makes our camp special. As I mentioned earlier, I think they are the best teachers of the game that we have. You can see that in the camp when they are working with young players. Guys will improve exponentially in just 3 days and it is really cool to see that growth and their connection with the D3 coaches working our camp. We've had dozens of players from camp go on to play for camp coaches at the D3 level and a lot of that is because they get to see first hand for a few days during camp, the quality of coaches and quality of people that they can play for at the D3 level.
Thanks John!
2024 Jay Bilas Classic - Recap of Day 2
(#11) UW-Steven’s Point - 50
(RV) Randolph-Macon - 51
This felt more like a second weekend NCAA tournament game rather than a late December matchup as the Pointers of UWSP and the Jackets of RMC took the court.
It was a physical defensive battle between two extremely well-coached units, where neither team was able to pull away.
In the second half, RMC got out to 35-28 lead at the under 14 minute media timeout, only for the Pointers to hold them scoreless for the next four minutes to pull within 1 at 35-34 (9:40 remaining).
Keishawn Pulley Jr. hit a tough And-1 late that got RMC back up 49-47 and gave him 13 for the contest. He was the Jackets most reliable offensive option all game.
But the Pointers hit a jumper to knot things back up with 10 seconds left. Ultimately RMC hit some clutch late free throws to secure the valuable out of conference win.
Elmhurst - 80
(#18) Christopher Newport - 82
In a matchup of two recent D3 Final 4 participants, the Captains appeared the better team early on and their initial pressure bothered Elmhurst.
CNU was powered by some hot shooting from #8 Toa Hollenbeck, who started out 3-3 from distance and had a tough finish for an And-1.
But the Blue Jays, coached by John Baines, weren’t intimidated and put together a few runs that kept the game close. A foul on a 3-pointer matched with a Technical foul on CNU’s Coach John Krikorian allowed Elmhurst to take their first lead 46-44 with 1:33 remaining in the first half.
In the second half CNU appeared poised to run away with the game. But Hollenbeck went down with an injury and CNU hurt themselves with poor shot selection and decision making - including a foul on a 3 point shooter when they were up 76-71 with just over three minutes to play.
The Captains bounced back with a bucket inside from #30 Ethan Ward that gave him 20 points on the contest, and kept CNU up 6 with 1:12 left. Ultimately Colin Hines closed the game out at the FT line to get the job done.