Jay Bilas

[Redbirdfan76]

I could not attend the event at Redbird arena last night and was wondering how the event and Jay Bilas presentation went. If you attended, could you provide some information? Thanks so much!!

 

[Dmills]

Jay Bilas joins ISU men's basketball for 'A Night With The Redbirds'

ESPN's lead college basketball analyst Jay Bilas joined Illinois State men's basketball for A Night With The Redbirds, a fundraising event to support the program, hosted Tuesday at CEFCU Arena.

www.videtteonline.com

 

[Buffett1]

Well done event, The AD spoke next the President, then Coach, who then introduced the coaches,managers and team, each team member came up on stage and individually thanks the audience and donors. Then the auction began.
After the auction Jay Bilas spoke and was very good. Lastly they had a question and answer period. Bilas took photos with every person who wanted one.

 

[redbirdron1]

EXCELLENT Event! I know they had various things to bid on……..Birds took in A Lot of $$’s. The $14k mentioned in article was just a portion of the overall haul. Heck, Mrs Pedon herself is bringing in $6400 just to dine with some fans. There had to be at least 20 individuals raise their cards when each donated $1000 to the cause. Didn’t count the $5k and 2.5k before they came down to my oxygen level.

Speaker was good. Kids each spoke at the podium and I’d say most articulate bunch of student athletes I’ve witnessed. Myles Foster promises a Championship so there ya go.

A takeaway last eve for me was Chase Walker. First I asked Pedon in his office if young Chase would have the stamina to play- he says we’ll see pretty soon won’t we? He then tells me recently Chase scores 5 times in a row as they’re scrimmaging - said they couldn’t stop him. So time will tell on the Frosh.
But when I first met Chase last yr at the EIU football game he was shy, hangin pretty close to mom, lookin down at his feet yet keeping one eye on the Pizza. Last nite he’s the only player who grabs the microphone and asks a question to Jay Bilas during Q and A - I’m guessing the young man is feeling pretty upbeat about his ISU experience thus far.

Go Birds!!

 

[redbirdron1]

Gotta share one more thing……. Got to the event last nite and I’m seated between Derrick Mayes and Sonny Wray (formerly Roberts). Yea, I was elated and it helps to have a pal as Chief of Staff. Only problem was I was angled behind Sonny and Jon Pemberton when program commenced and Bilas started to speak; I then chose to stand on chair for visibility and auctioneer kept calling / pointing at me.
Mayes and I became fast friends - what a delightful evening.

 

[Redbirdfan76]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like it was a great success!!

 

[normalbird]

I asked Chase what his favorite pizza place was. He said he doesn’t have one because he’s not allowed to eat pizza. What a nice kid!

 

[DaveBird10]

EXCELLENT Event! I know they had various things to bid on……..Birds took in A Lot of $$’s. The $14k mentioned in article was just a portion of the overall haul. Heck, Mrs Pedon herself is bringing in $6400 just to dine with some fans. There had to be at least 20 individuals raise their cards when each donated $1000 to the cause. Didn’t count the $5k and 2.5k before they came down to my oxygen level.

Speaker was good. Kids each spoke at the podium and I’d say most articulate bunch of student athletes I’ve witnessed. Myles Foster promises a Championship so there ya go.

A takeaway last eve for me was Chase Walker. First I asked Pedon in his office if young Chase would have the stamina to play- he says we’ll see pretty soon won’t we? He then tells me recently Chase scores 5 times in a row as they’re scrimmaging - said they couldn’t stop him. So time will tell on the Frosh.
But when I first met Chase last yr at the EIU football game he was shy, hangin pretty close to mom, lookin down at his feet yet keeping one eye on the Pizza. Last nite he’s the only player who grabs the microphone and asks a question to Jay Bilas during Q and A - I’m guessing the young man is feeling pretty upbeat about his ISU experience thus far.

Go Birds!!

I want to add to this, Chase is a nice young man that I think is in the correct spot. He is very shy and definitely not used to any limelight. I asked Chase at an event a couple months ago and said "just wait until you have a big game and you get to speak on the radio". Chase responded with wide eyes and said "I have to speak on the radio"? "We said yeah you will have that opportunity" . And from Tuesday evening with Chase clearing his throat a couple time and being soft spoken and shy he's definitely in a what I believe is a good spot for him to continue his basketball.

From Tuesday night a friend and I were adding up some of the money and if you look at the 66 tables and 8 ppl per table or if people bought a table at $1,250 that's a good chunk of money there and then you add the donations from Tuesday night ISU men's basketball certainly got some good money for the team.

 

[TBS_20]

Bilas must have been confused. ISU isn't in Durham

 

[Adunk33]

I want to add to this, Chase is a nice young man that I think is in the correct spot. He is very shy and definitely not used to any limelight. I asked Chase at an event a couple months ago and said "just wait until you have a big game and you get to speak on the radio". Chase responded with wide eyes and said "I have to speak on the radio"? "We said yeah you will have that opportunity" . And from Tuesday evening with Chase clearing his throat a couple time and being soft spoken and shy he's definitely in a what I believe is a good spot for him to continue his basketball.

From Tuesday night a friend and I were adding up some of the money and if you look at the 66 tables and 8 ppl per table or if people bought a table at $1,250 that's a good chunk of money there and then you add the donations from Tuesday night ISU men's basketball certainly got some good money for the team.

Couple that with all of the food being donated from local businesses-MASSIVE cost savings and according to Pedon, Jay didn't take a talent fee. So all of the donations were "profit" for lack of a better term.

So, they made all that money at an event that didn't cost them much to put on. It was a very good time. They should be set on nutrition for the season.

The video they showed of the difference in the players bodies since they've got to campus was incredible. Huge differences in most players but most noticeably in Foster, Lieb and holy moly Burford is JACKED. They showed before and after images just to show the changes. I believe Burford said he's added 20lbs of muscle since June '22. Foster has trimmed up and Lieb has definitely added muscle since June.

Jay spoke well. You could tell he's given similar speeches before. When he was announced as the speaker, I wasn't jumping out of my seat to go buy a ticket because of his megaphoning for the P5 come tournament time. One part of him talking stood out. He referenced how he respects this level because every game during the regular season is crucial if you even want to be considered for an At-Large. Whereas in the P5, teams can afford to lose close to half their conference games because if you go .500 and are playing mostly Q1 and Q2 teams, you're in with an At-large. It was refreshing to hear him at least acknowledge that their is imbalance and inequity in the selection process. I don't think it'd ever be something he'd say on ESPN, but it was good for 500+ Redbird fans to hear.

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Appreciate Jay donating his time, love the effort by the school and fans to make this happen, excited about the upcoming season and love this current roster. All that said, I still think Bilas is a pompous knob.

 

[Baltimore Bird]

The U of Maryland has a pre-season event each year and Bilas is the emcee most years. He is outstanding and very funny!
My favorite story.....Jay talking....
"I told my wife today I was going to be speaking to a group that included Cal Ripken. In your wildest dreams, did you ever think I would be speaking to a group with Cal Ripken in it?" Wife speaking...."Jay, you are not in my wildest dreams."

He loved to tease Gary Williams about all his young women and Billy Ripken about his baseball stats. One year, Billy got back at him and put up a slide showing Jay's professional stats. Jay is a very accomplished speaker.

 

[Bdub777]

The U of Maryland has a pre-season event each year and Bilas is the emcee most years. He is outstanding and very funny!
My favorite story.....Jay talking....
"I told my wife today I was going to be speaking to a group that included Cal Ripken. In your wildest dreams, did you ever think I would be speaking to a group with Cal Ripken in it?" Wife speaking...."Jay, you are not in my wildest dreams."

He loved to tease Gary Williams about all his young women and Billy Ripken about his baseball stats. One year, Billy got back at him and put up a slide showing Jay's professional stats. Jay is a very accomplished speaker.

He used the same punchline Tuesday

 

[Baltimore Bird]

Interesting.....

 

[Rollbirds5]

Couple that with all of the food being donated from local businesses-MASSIVE cost savings and according to Pedon, Jay didn't take a talent fee. So all of the donations were "profit" for lack of a better term.

So, they made all that money at an event that didn't cost them much to put on. It was a very good time. They should be set on nutrition for the season.

The video they showed of the difference in the players bodies since they've got to campus was incredible. Huge differences in most players but most noticeably in Foster, Lieb and holy moly Burford is JACKED. They showed before and after images just to show the changes. I believe Burford said he's added 20lbs of muscle since June '22. Foster has trimmed up and Lieb has definitely added muscle since June.

Jay spoke well. You could tell he's given similar speeches before. When he was announced as the speaker, I wasn't jumping out of my seat to go buy a ticket because of his megaphoning for the P5 come tournament time. One part of him talking stood out. He referenced how he respects this level because every game during the regular season is crucial if you even want to be considered for an At-Large. Whereas in the P5, teams can afford to lose close to half their conference games because if you go .500 and are playing mostly Q1 and Q2 teams, you're in with an At-large. It was refreshing to hear him at least acknowledge that their is imbalance and inequity in the selection process. I don't think it'd ever be something he'd say on ESPN, but it was good for 500+ Redbird fans to hear.

He’d rather have Vanderbilt in the tourney with the most losses ever for a tourney team than the 2016-2017 Redbirds so he’s on my shit list. Did meet him once at KU and he was great though, still work to do to get in my good graces

 

[dpdoughbird06]

Gotta share one more thing……. Got to the event last nite and I’m seated between Derrick Mayes and Sonny Wray (formerly Roberts). Yea, I was elated and it helps to have a pal as Chief of Staff. Only problem was I was angled behind Sonny and Jon Pemberton when program commenced and Bilas started to speak; I then chose to stand on chair for visibility and auctioneer kept calling / pointing at me.
Mayes and I became fast friends - what a delightful evening.

When Pemberton and I swim laps at the Y, I consider it open water training because his power strokes effectively turn it into a wave pool.