When former Duke standout Jay Bilas reflected on the time Blue Devils' fans wanted Coach K fired: "Durham was not a pleasant place to be in 1983"

Over the years, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas has become renowned for his precise predictions about March Madness and for his often discourse-generating college basketball views. Before he was an analyst, Bilas played basketball for the Duke Blue Devils under coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Bilas was a freshman in Durham during the 1982-83 season, which was Coach K's third season in charge and the Blue Devils had just suffered their second consecutive losing season leading to calls by some Duke fans to have him fired. During an interview with Yahoo Sports in 2015, Bilas addressed the toxicity in Durham during that period.

"Durham was not a pleasant place to be in 1983," Jay Bilas said. "There was a lot of discontentment around the program and it was vocal. Heck, there was a petition circling around calling for Mike to be fired. I saw it. One of the Iron Dukes showed it to me, which I thought was kind of a classless move. But there were a lot of people who were really unhappy."

Luckily for Duke fans, the legendary Coach K was backed by Blue Devils athletic director Tom Butters who awarded him a five-year contract extension at the start of the 1983-84 season instead of firing him. Mike Krzyzewski led Duke to 11 Final Four appearances culminating in four national championships.

Jay Bilas reveals why he chose to play for Coach K

Jay Bilas played for Rolling Hills High School, California and was a top 50 prospect in the country according to ESPN. During a January segment of the "Glue Guys" podcast, Bilas revealed why he chose to play for the Duke Blue Devils under Coach K.

"I was smart enough at that time to realize the only time I was going to get to choose who I played for was when I went to college," Jay Bilas said.

"I didn't look at schools. I was looking at coaches. I figured the guy I wanted to play for would be at a school I wanted to go to. I came down to Coach K at Duke, Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, Lute Olson, who was at Iowa at that time, and then a man named Ted Owens, who was the head coach at Kansas. Those were the four schools I came down to."

Bilas was a four-year starter under Krzyzewski and averaged 8.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 0.4 assists before being selected No. 108 overall in the 1986 NBA Draft. He returned to Durham to serve as an assistant coach under the charismatic Krzyzewski between 1990 and 1992, advancing to four Final Fours and winning two national championships.

Coach K's recruiting class of 1982 which included Jay Bilas, David Henderson, Mark Alarie and Johnny Dawkins still holds the distinction of being the highest-scoring class in the history of college basketball.