WATCH: Jay Bilas defends how Alabama handled Brandon Miller situation
Amid police testimony linking him to last month’s shooting, Alabama has opted to let Brandon Miller continue to play in games. Authorities and the university have both said Miller is a witness, not a suspect, and that’s why ESPN analyst Jay Bilas defended Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide’s decision to let him play.
Bilas — who is also a lawyer — joined Pardon The Interruption on ESPN on Friday to discuss the situation. He said he doesn’t think Alabama is making a mistake letting Miller play because police haven’t indicated he broke any laws.
In fact, he thinks the university is handling the balancing act well. However, one of the only slip-ups was Oats’ press conference shortly after the news broke. Oats later clarified his remarks in a separate statement.
“I think that Alabama has handled this about as well as you can, with the exception of Nate Oats, his press conference, where he should have just said, ‘This is a pending legal matter. Alabama and Brandon Miller have cooperated fully with authorities and will continue to do so. But beyond that, we have no further comment,'” Bilas said. “That’s what he should have said and that should be the answer to all of these questions because some of these issues, Alabama’s not able to shed appropriate light on, and rightfully so.
“Brandon Miller has rights. The authorities have told Alabama that he is a witness, not a suspect. There is no indication that he has violated any law, and they know him better than we do. if they didn’t take action five weeks or so ago when this horrible tragedy happened, I don’t see any reason to do it now. Now, if something else comes out, I understand it. But, to me, if he were held out of competition now, that would be Alabama saying, ‘Our reputation as a university and what people say about us is more important than our player,’ and I think they’ve balanced the player and the university and those interests pretty well overall.”
A detective testified Darius Miles texted Miller the night of the shooting to apparently bring the gun, but Miller’s attorney said he never touched the gun — owned by Miles, as previous court records showed — nor was he involved in the exchange. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne also said Miller didn’t know a gun was in the car and he thought he was going to pick Miles up.
That testimony came Tuesday, one day before Alabama took on South Carolina. Miller started the game and, despite chants and boos from the crowd, dropped a career-high 41 points and hit the game-winning shot in the final seconds of overtime.