Norfolk St- Horton Game

[johnaaa10]

This is such a poor reflection on ISU.

So $70k was worth it to him to subject his team to the racists of ISU?! I guess everyone has a price.

 

[TBS_20]

So then this isn't a 1:1 cuz that's going to be news again next year and a hostile, possibly dangerous environment with most of the same team returning

 

[cpacmel]

Yes, go check out the first 10 mins on Facebook. He spoke freely, passionately, and addressed it head on. He condemned racism and took accountability.

Everyone should listen to this.

But if you choose not to, here are some bullet points:

#1 he admitted he was totally in the wrong for his part at half-court. He went on to say had he known the context of what was going on, he would have grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd regarding it.

#2 he said if roles were reversed and this happened to his team on the road, he would have reacted the exact same way their coach reacted. So he had zero problems with their coach and how Jones handled himself.

#3 he missed an opportunity to address anything post-game, and it wasn't til Sunday morning that he realized as much. (this one falls squarely on ISU Athletic Dept IMO) .

 

[gobirds85]

Everyone should listen to this.

But if you choose not to, here are some bullet points:

#1 he admitted he was totally in the wrong for his part at half-court. He went on to say had he known the context of what was going on, he would have grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd regarding it.

#2 he said if roles were reversed and this happened to his team on the road, he would have reacted the exact same way their coach reacted. So he had zero problems with their coach and how Jones handled himself.

#3 he missed an opportunity to address anything post-game, and it wasn't til Sunday morning that he realized as much. (this one falls squarely on ISU Athletic Dept IMO) .

And #1 Pedon would have had more info if the refs had done their job. They could have explained the situation, thereby giving him the opportunity to address the crowd. They did not. They failed miserably.

 

[Hamdonger]

Thanks Mel. The elephant in the room which would shut all of us up is...did the fan utter the slur or not? I'd like a formal answer on that one, and I imagine it will come in the report that will be released by ISU. I hope this isn't weeks. Good grief.

 

[DougSutton]

Everyone should listen to this.

But if you choose not to, here are some bullet points:

#1 he admitted he was totally in the wrong for his part at half-court. He went on to say had he known the context of what was going on, he would have grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd regarding it.

#2 he said if roles were reversed and this happened to his team on the road, he would have reacted the exact same way their coach reacted. So he had zero problems with their coach and how Jones handled himself.

#3 he missed an opportunity to address anything post-game, and it wasn't til Sunday morning that he realized as much. (this one falls squarely on ISU Athletic Dept IMO) .

Thank you for sharing. Where specifically on Facebook? I couldn't find it. Can you or someone share a link?

 

[DougSutton]

And #1 Pedon would have had more info if the refs had done their job. They could have explained the situation, thereby giving him the opportunity to address the crowd. They did not. They failed miserably.

100% I think we all know Pedon is the type of person that had the refs made him and the NSU coach aware of this at the same time, he absolutely would have addressed it with a mic to the crowd and made it very clear that's not what we stand for at Illinois State. This was a tremendous missed opportunity and the refs are to blame for what unfolded. Very poor game management and leadership on their parts

 

[cpacmel]

 

[Redbird222]

Everyone should listen to this.

But if you choose not to, here are some bullet points:

#1 he admitted he was totally in the wrong for his part at half-court. He went on to say had he known the context of what was going on, he would have grabbed the microphone and addressed the crowd regarding it.

#2 he said if roles were reversed and this happened to his team on the road, he would have reacted the exact same way their coach reacted. So he had zero problems with their coach and how Jones handled himself.

#3 he missed an opportunity to address anything post-game, and it wasn't til Sunday morning that he realized as much. (this one falls squarely on ISU Athletic Dept IMO) .

This may not be popular but

How does Pedon not know before his post game? Norfolk St coach claims he told him again when they were shaking hands after the game. They paused and exchanged words ... we saw that. Did Pedon not hear him again ... maybe? Did the Norfolk St coach not tell him like he said .... maybe? Did he hear but not understand .... mayne but you better ask folks questions if that is the case. Did the referees never explain to Pedon/coaches even after the outbreak what happened? One of them went to the TV announcers to provide an explanation but not one referee took time to tell the ISU coaching staff... really? Think of that.... they talk with Norfolk and TV but not ISU coaches ... that would be incredibly stupid and a major miss.
Also, nobody on the ISU admin/athletic dept at the event let the coaching staff know what is happening ... during or after the game? Not one person told a coach ... really? We know they knew becasue they had the fans removed. Hell they should have been calls to Betts if she wasnt there given what was transpiring. How could there be that many misses?

Pedon didn't know until Sunday morning? We heard what the 3 fans were accused of before we left Horton. This may not be popular but #3 is not adding up. There are holes in both sides stories in my opinion.

I like Pedon a lot but it seems like so many misopportunites where he should have known and somehow didn't. I guess i will believe him however the referees were even more incomepetent than i thought, our staff is incompetent and lacks any common sense, and Norfolk St coach is misleading us what happened in the handshake line. Or perhaps there is some air cover being run here for our coach.

Either way ISU and others dropped the ball. The Norfolk St coach seems to be on a mission to embarrass ISU and Pedon. Perhaps if there had been some sort of acknowledgement of his concerns, whether valid or not, we might not be in this PR mess.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

#3 he missed an opportunity to address anything post-game, and it wasn't til Sunday morning that he realized as much. (this one falls squarely on ISU Athletic Dept IMO) .

Pedon stated that he was “directed” to respond to the situation a certain way postgame and he did. i wonder who gave that advice? given the game incident and what pedon actually said (or failed to say) postgame was, as he stated in the podcast, a mistake... and a big mistake, imo. All Pedon had to do post game was to condemn racism and advise he was unaware of what was upsetting the Norfolk State coach when pedon lost his stuff. That is what should have happened. I don't believe ISU is a racist institution one bit nor Pedon as well. Like it or not I understand how others can criticize ISU as respects to the topic of being racist/insensitive given the post game comments and the slow response next day. ISU athletics and Coach Pedon appear initially insensitive to what transpired, imo. learning moment for sure.

 

[Brick]

Bottom line. Unfortunate incident that could have been handled better in many ways on both sides. We have apologized but Norfolk won’t accept the apology. So do our investigation , make any changes we need to and move on. Given their ongoing response I no longer care what Norfolk thinks.

 

[DWRedbird]

Pedon stated that he was instructed not to discuss the incident other than we he said post game. i wonder who gave that advice? given the game incident and what pedon actually said (or failed to say) postgame was, as he stated in the podcast, a mistake... and a big mistake, imo. All Pedon had to do post game was to condemn racism and advise he was unaware of what was upsetting the Norfolk State coach when pedon lost his stuff. That is what should have happened. I don't believe ISU is a racist institution one bit nor Pedon as well. Like it or not I understand how others can criticize ISU as respects to the topic of being racist/insensitive given the post game comments and the slow response next day. ISU athletics and Coach Pedon appear initially insensitive to what transpired, imo. learning moment for sure.

Whoever told Pedon not to discuss the incident, in my opinion, needs to be relieved of their duties. With what happened and how quickly information travels, not having Pedon say something post game about it, other than what he was quoted as saying, is a huge failure on our end. At best, we are hoping for gross incompetence.

This may not be popular but

How does Pedon not know before his post game? Norfolk St coach claims he told him again when they were shaking hands after the game. They paused and exchanged words ... we saw that. Did Pedon not hear him again ... maybe? Did the Norfolk St coach not tell him like he said .... maybe? Did he hear but not understand .... mayne but you better ask folks questions if that is the case. Did the referees never explain to Pedon/coaches even after the outbreak what happened? One of them went to the TV announcers to provide an explanation but not one referee took time to tell the ISU coaching staff... really? Think of that.... they talk with Norfolk and TV but not ISU coaches ... that would be incredibly stupid and a major miss.
Also, nobody on the ISU admin/athletic dept at the event let the coaching staff know what is happening ... during or after the game? Not one person told a coach ... really? We know they knew becasue they had the fans removed. Hell they should have been calls to Betts if she wasnt there given what was transpiring. How could there be that many misses?

Pedon didn't know until Sunday morning? We heard what the 3 fans were accused of before we left Horton. This may not be popular but #3 is not adding up. There are holes in both sides stories in my opinion.

I like Pedon a lot but it seems like so many misopportunites where he should have known and somehow didn't. I guess i will believe him however the referees were even more incomepetent than i thought, our staff is incompetent and lacks any common sense, and Norfolk St coach is misleading us what happened in the handshake line. Or perhaps there is some air cover being run here for our coach.

Either way ISU and others dropped the ball. The Norfolk St coach seems to be on a mission to embarrass ISU and Pedon. Perhaps if there had been some sort of acknowledgement of his concerns, whether valid or not, we might not be in this PR mess.

Yeah, I agree with this. I don't buy that he didn't know until Sunday what happened. Especially if the above statement is true, in that he was told not to discuss it. The fact that Pedon didn't know what happened before he left the court Saturday is a failure on ISU's part, because there is 0.0% chance that admin didn't know why they were escorting fans from the building.

 

[Bdub777]

As was said earlier, the elephant in the room that ISU failed to address immediately on Saturday was to state something like this, and repeat it as a mantra whenever discussing the incident:

Illinois State is proud that we hired the first division 1 African-American head coach. With this as part of our history everyone should know that any use of racial slurs or epithets in any situation is abhorrent and unacceptable to our institution and will not be tolerated in our community. We take this very seriously and it will be investigated. If the investigation shows that an incident occurred where any player was subjected to racial harassment it will result in severe consequences for those involved.

Whoever told Ryan not to discuss the incident exercised terrible judgment. Candidly, Ryan should have known he couldn’t/shouldn’t have addressed the incident at the press conference without saying something about the alleged use of the N word. In this day and age we all know that is just flat out WRONG in all instances.

That is why I stand by my earlier post we dropped the ball in how this was handled Saturday. Yes, the refs did too, but until Ryan’s statement last night, this was pretty much a series of unfortunate unforced errors by ISU in handling. Example: Ryan’s first statement is concerning because he said he called Coach Jones. Doesn’t say Jones refused to take his call. Credibility is harmed by that little omission….He didn’t condemn racism in that statement squarely either. Simple PR management stuff has been botched throughout. I love our program, Ryan and all the administrators I know, but we have royally screwed this up. Hopefully Ryan’s statement last night cleared up things and we can await strong action if the investigation confirms that there was a racial slur used against Thomas.

Go Birds.

 

[SlackBooDom]

I feel the same way as many others. The failure here lies in how ISU has put Pedon in a position to fail many times over. I agree with the sentiment on Jeri Beggs being a great person, but it’s why you can’t have an interim AD for a long stretch who has never worked a day in athletics. I have to think the SID or new Deputy were following her lead here as she is the boss. It was inexcusable to put Ryan up for the presser without talking points. Inexcusable to take so long for a statement. Inexcusable to not apologize. I wouldn’t blame Ryan for going nuclear on his “bosses.” This is damaging to a career he’s worked very hard for and Illinois State did him zero favors here. It is frustrating as a donor to continue to have mismanagement of a department that continues to lose credibility within the university, the region, and now nationally.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

I’m very confused by some of the posts. It’s come out that Pedon tried to apologize in the handshake line. He was then instructed to handle the press conference the way he did. Where did anyone ever say he didn’t know until Sunday? His own statement during the coaches show said he didn’t like the way the press conference went and that’s why he took action to attempt to call Jones Sunday.

NSU and Jones just don’t care to hear it. That’s their right, but I don’t really see that as taking the high road. Some of the tweets that Jones was sharing were absolutely vile. Then his further attacked on ISU and he’s trying to paint ISU as a racist institution. I don’t want to see that team ever on the schedule again. They taunted from the pregame then are attacking Pedon for what 1 fan allegedly said.

I hope we complete the investigation swiftly. I’ve heard it has progressed pretty well and there may be some truth though not the N word like originally implied. Ban the fan, make necessary changes/improvements, and learn. NSU is absolutely right that there is no place for it.

 

[Birgs]

With perceptions diluting into realities, from what sounds like some egg-on-the-face Media Relations, it's a shame a great history lesson and teachable moment for our guests from an HBCU missed out on a beautiful teachable moment directly associated in deep historical hoops annals rooted at my beloved Alma Mater. Especially with one half of the positively revolutionary step forward was right there innocently in attendance at Horton as the alleged undesirable outcomes were ocurring.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

One further thought and this comes up often in that sometimes attorneys will tell you what not to say. I’d bet some of universities counsel was consulted and they may have directed not to own the potential slur until the investigation is complete. On one hand that makes us look bad, but on the other I’d imagine they don’t want to open themselves up to a lawsuit for rushing to judgement.

**This post is purely speculation and a guess. Not what I think is right or wrong. I do not know any of this.”

 

[SlackBooDom]

One further thought and this comes up often in that sometimes attorneys will tell you what not to say. I’d bet some of universities counsel was consulted and they may have directed not to own the potential slur until the investigation is complete. On one hand that makes us look bad, but on the other I’d imagine they don’t want to open themselves up to a lawsuit for rushing to judgement.

**This post is purely speculation and a guess. Not what I think is right or wrong. I do not know any of this.”

About the statement or the post-game presser? I think you're probably right about the written statement. IMO, the press conference is solely the fault of the athletics department.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

About the statement or the post-game presser? I think you're probably right about the written statement. IMO, the press conference is solely the fault of the athletics department.

Correct. About the delay of the official statement. May have played a small role in the press conference, but idk why he couldn’t at least say something about “there was something heard by their player and I apologize to Jones for my reaction without knowing. We will discuss further as more information becomes available.” Whoever told him to completely avoid it was flat out wrong.

 

[TIMMY]

Every time there is any mention of race and ISU athletics the first thing people bring up is Coach Robinson 50 years ago. 10 basketball coaches have followed him, Like it or not the fact is our athletics department is inherently white. All you need to do is scroll through the administration on our website. 15 folks with "athletics director" as part of their title. All white. Scroll down the list of coaches. A few assistants are people of color. We're going back half a century y'all. Is it any wonder this entire situation was handled poorly? I'm not saying anyone at ISU is racist. I don't believe that. But who's followed Coach Robinson? In any sport? Something that makes me go hmmm.