Norfolk St- Horton Game

[Sanantoniobird]

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.

Well said. Seriously. I may be WAY off here, but even when I think about serious (not rumored) candidates for vacant MBB, FB, WBB, SOC, and BB the past 20 years--no POC come to mind.

 

[Birgs]

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.

I do miss these good old days:

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Well said. Seriously. I may be WAY off here, but even when I think about serious (not rumored) candidates for vacant MBB, FB, WBB, SOC, and BB the past 20 years--no POC come to mind.

Roger Powell…that’s without any thought and only going off the most recent memory.

 

[Redbird28]

Well said. Seriously. I may be WAY off here, but even when I think about serious (not rumored) candidates for vacant MBB, FB, WBB, SOC, and BB the past 20 years--no POC come to mind.

Roger Powell came up during the search that landed Pedon.

 

[isuquinndog]

So one.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

So one.

I’m not digging through every sports job searches. Especially for the non revenue sports when the searches aren’t nearly as public. We can do a better job, but to say no POC have been considered is a lie. Our most beloved President that pretty much everyone would take back in a heartbeat is a POC. Our current interim is. Again, we can do better, but to imply anything would be discounting the good as well.

 

[Sanantoniobird]

I'm not trying to derail the conversation or advocate affirmative action: but in simple terms. 13% of the population is black. The percentage of black athletes b/n MBB/WBB/FB vs all others represented put together is probably greater than 50%. (there is no hard #'s involved here). You can't tell me out of all of those athletes that didn't go pro and are coaching, we can immediately only name one serious candidate for our programs (not to mention the disparity across the NCAA). I guess you could argue that the best black coaches wouldn't consider us? I do remember a black woman was a candidate for the Top AD position, that comes to mind. For the record, I'd never poo on the academic or athletic admin during my time there. I still answer their call for donations.

 

[DougSutton]

I'm not trying to derail the conversation or advocate affirmative action: but in simple terms. 13% of the population is black. The percentage of black athletes b/n MBB/WBB/FB vs all others represented put together is probably greater than 50%. (there is no hard #'s involved here). You can't tell me out of all of those athletes that didn't go pro and are coaching, we can immediately only name one serious candidate for our programs (not to mention the disparity across the NCAA). I guess you could argue that the best black coaches wouldn't consider us? I do remember a black woman was a candidate for the Top AD position, that comes to mind. For the record, I'd never poo on the academic or athletic admin during my time there. I still answer their call for donations.

Completely agree. I've been on the record that I wanted Roger Powell Jr. to be our head coach. I thought he would have been an incredible coach and I do know he was given very serious consideration. I feel one of the main things Roger had going against him during the interview process is that this was the first job he went after whereas coach Pedon had been a candidate at other jobs over the previous few years. In retrospect, I can see why coach Pedon was hired and now that he's our coach, I fully support him and believe he'll do a great job here.

He missed an opportunity to shine as a leader on Saturday night and in part, it sounds like someone in the administration directed him away from this. Not to compare but because it's in the public spotlight, the Harvard president apparently was directed by legal council before the hearing to answer questions exactly how she did (no one will ever know what she would have said without those directives). Often times, administration and legal councils can influence people to do things that are not in the overall best interest, out of being ultra conservative.

 

[CaliRdBrd]

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.

So what.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

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.

Straying a little bit but I laughed (in a fun way) when I first clicked on the video provided by Mel for last night’s pedon interview.. thanks for the link by the way as I would not have checked out the video. The thing that made me laugh was the first image where I glaringly saw all mature white guys sitting around a table getting ready to talk about a race related incident with Bud light (and all there lgbtq+ struggles) logos all over the background. Almost like the SNL staff had set the stage!! It still gives me a laugh.

Btw… I do not believe anyone did anything wrong rather with the pre-planned show…rather I take it as humor emanating from the visual irony to the topic at hand.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Let me just say the whole minority coaching issue is a thing at all levels. NFL has rules where minority candidates must be interviewed and that doesn’t help. SEC, B1G all have the same issues. I don’t know the solution. Let’s just not pretend this is only an ISU problem.

 

[isuquinndog]

Let me just say the whole minority coaching issue is a thing at all levels. NFL has rules where minority candidates must be interviewed and that doesn’t help. SEC, B1G all have the same issues. I don’t know the solution. Let’s just not pretend this is only an ISU problem.

Nobody is. Doesn't mean ISU shouldn't try and do something about it. Every one else is doing it is not a reason to do it.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Nobody is. Doesn't mean ISU shouldn't try and do something about it. Every one else is doing it is not a reason to do it.

Please point to my wording saying we shouldn’t try or can’t do better. Simply pointing out that it’s not a unique problem isn’t saying any of that.

 

[Bdub777]

This tangent on the lack of diversity of our staff is missing the point. It doesn’t take a POC or a sociologist to know that when it is claimed that there was a racist incident, you don’t ignore it…you immediately address it head on. You control the narrative and don’t focus on things that don’t matter like talking about the altercation at half court while completely failing not mention that the other team thought they were racially abused. (I’m Italian?)

It was completely tone deaf and as a result we were rightly pummeled as being insensitive and uncaring. Whoever counseled Ryan was wrong, and even Ryan conceded he didn’t feel good about it. There was no leadership displayed and really hasn’t been any except for Ryan’s statement last night. Just because Interim is in front of your title doesn’t mean you don’t step up and control the narrative. The vacuum got filled with a bunch of vitriol that has done damage to the institution we all love. Real damage.

 

[isuquinndog]

Please point to my wording saying we shouldn’t try or can’t do better. Simply pointing out that it’s not a unique problem isn’t saying any of that.

Please point to my wording saying you said that.

 

[cpacmel]

Was discussing ISU, Will Robinson and African American head coach hirings with some of my crew.

Will Robinson (1970-1975)
Elvis Forde (2002-2014)

That's it. Many assistants but that's all the head coaches we could come up with.

 

[Birgs]

Jesus Vazquez was a helluva gymnastics coach in the '90s.

Puh-lease. Are we really doing this?

 

[TBus_Birds]

Was discussing ISU, Will Robinson and African American head coach hirings with some of my crew.

Will Robinson (1970-1975)
Elvis Forde (2002-2014)

That's it. Many assistants but that's all the head coaches we could come up with.

Your point stands about minority coaches, Mel, but it's important to clarify that Elvis Forde is from Barbados.

 

[Hrtnfldhse]

As I read all these comments and especially the response by Norfolk st and specifically their coach. They don't like the response from Coach Pedon and ISU. OK, do we really think any response would have been OK. What could we have done except to respond right after the game. The incident still happened, wouldn't have changed anything. Not one comment from NSU was about the person who uttered the words who other than being a fan of ISU, has no affiliation with the school that we know of. Also no recognition by NSU about the actions of #6 a few other players and coaches who were talking back to fans, and as many here have stated and I witnessed waving bye to fans at the end of the game. Also no comments by NSU about the referees who played a huge part in what went down. Stop making ISU out to be the villian in this situation.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

This tangent on the lack of diversity of our staff is missing the point. It doesn’t take a POC or a sociologist to know that when it is claimed that there was a racist incident, you don’t ignore it…you immediately address it head on. You control the narrative and don’t focus on things that don’t matter like talking about the altercation at half court while completely failing not mention that the other team thought they were racially abused. (I’m Italian?)

It was completely tone deaf and as a result we were rightly pummeled as being insensitive and uncaring. Whoever counseled Ryan was wrong, and even Ryan conceded he didn’t feel good about it. There was no leadership displayed and really hasn’t been any except for Ryan’s statement last night. Just because Interim is in front of your title doesn’t mean you don’t step up and control the narrative. The vacuum got filled with a bunch of vitriol that has done damage to the institution we all love. Real damage.

If the fan involved told the ISU administrators that the accusations were false, and those who were seated around the fan/s accused of the accusations stated that the accusations were false, what do the administrators have Coach Pedon say in his post game press conference?
“Illinois State University is looking into the accusations of a fan using a racial slur at one of the Norfolk State player’s.”
Or:
“Illinois State University apologizes for the fan using a racial slur at one of the Norfolk State basketball player’s” This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at Illinois State University”

Up to this point I am guessing that the person/s involved have denied making the racial slur. I would hope that if they had admitted guilt that they would have given a personal apology to the player, teammates (both Norfolk State and Illinois State), coaching staff’s and University’s.
If he/they are 100% denying the accusation. I also would hope that even if they have stated that the accusations are not true, that they would at least give an apologize for their behavior in the incident and that if the player thought that is what he heard him say he is sincerely sorry. Sometimes people hear things differently than what was actually said (I know according to my wife, I don’t always hear exactly what my wife said she said)
No matter what was said/ wasn’t said, or heard, it has left a bad scar on the University.
I personally will not fault the University administrators in their handling of this until all of the facts are out.