Jay Bilas defends Alabama's handling of Brandon Miller situation on College GameDay

No story in college hoops has garnered more attention this week than the saga surrounding Alabama forward Brandon Miller’s involvement with the death of Jamea Harris. As new details have come to light in recent days, opinions varied on whether the Crimson Tide correctly handled the situation or should have suspended Miller.

On Saturday morning’s edition of College GameDay, Jay Bilas, a Duke law school grad, offered a detailed and legal-minded evaluation of the current state of the situation and explained why he doesn’t fault Alabama for how they’ve handled everything so far aside from Nate Oats’ press conference earlier in the week.

So check out Bilas’ full comments on the issue below, where he carefully navigates the legal in’s and out’s:

“There are two different components to this. One is the legal side, and Brandon Miller has not been charged and authorities have told Alabama that he is a witness, not a suspect. Then there’s — should Alabama continue to let him play? And this tragedy happened over five weeks ago and Brandon Miller has remained in the lineup during that time. If they were to take him out of the lineup now and remove him from play, I think it would be more for the reputation of the university and not necessarily the best interest or fair to Brandon Miller.

“Brandon Miller has rights, and I believe that Alabama has a duty to protect those rights, or at least not compromise those rights. They know him better than we do. He has cooperated fully, according to his attorney, with authorities. And to me, I think Alabama has gone through this process and handled it appropriately. Now, reasonable minds can differ with that. Maybe one school might handle this differently. But I have no quarrel with the way Alabama’s handled it.

“One more thing. Nate Oats, in a press conference earlier this week, handled something in-artfully. And that’s why people, in these type of tragic situations, say ‘no comment.’ What should have been said is… ‘This is a pending legal matter that Alabama and Brandon Miller have cooperated fully with authorities and continue to do so — and beyond that we have no further comment and refer all questions to university counsel.’

“This decision was not made for the head basketball coach, it was made by the university, the president, university counsel, the athletic director, and I’m sure Nate Oats had some say in it as well. It’s a complicated and nuanced matter. But Brandon Miller has rights in this, and I think the university has acted in a reasonable fashion.”