NSU coach hopes incident involving racial slur at Illinois State is ‘a lesson that the whole world can see’

NORFOLK — A day after an alleged racial slur set off a coaches’ shouting match that went viral on social media, Norfolk State coach Robert Jones’ phone rang with a call from Illinois State coach Ryan Pedon.

Jones let it ring.

“I didn’t answer because, for me, you had four opportunities to make it right in person,” Jones said Monday. “So let’s not make it right now when 6 million people have seen the video, now as you get all types of flack from the media and the public and things like that.”

Jones and Pedon have drawn national attention since they were seen yelling at each other near midcourt during their game Saturday at Illinois State.

Jones said Monday it wasn’t the first such incident for NSU during a game at Illinois State, recalling an incident in 2011-12.

The latest came Saturday when Norfolk State guard Jamarii Thomas told Jones that an Illinois State fan called him a racial slur. Jones stepped onto the court toward the fan, prompting Pedon to start yelling for a technical foul, Jones said.

Jones then walked toward Pedon to explain the situation, but Jones said he was met by Pedon repeatedly saying, “I don’t care.” That prompted Jones to begin yelling back at Pedon before the two were separated by officials. Both coaches were eventually assessed technical fouls, and the fans were ejected from the game.

Video of the verbal altercation has gone viral in the last 72 hours, amassing more than seven million views on X (formerly known as Twitter), and it’s been picked up by national media outlets, including Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

Illinois State has since issued a statement apologizing for the situation and said an investigation was underway. Pedon issued a statement Sunday night through the Illinois State men’s basketball X account.

“I reached out this morning to Coach Robert Jones to offer my apology for my reaction during our game last night,” Pedon said. “I take full responsibility for my actions. I was wrong for allowing the situation to escalate. I expressed to Coach Jones after the game – I absolutely did not hear what he was saying to me. Had I heard Coach Jones, my response would have been completely different. This was a misunderstanding in which I reacted to him without understanding the situation, and I own that mistake 100%.”

In a press conference Monday afternoon Jones said that when Pedon called him Sunday morning he didn’t pick up.

Jones said Pedon had a chance to make it right during the game right before the coaches’ confrontations, during the handshake line after the game, after the game on the way to the locker room and in Pedon’s post-game press conference.

“At no point, even though the statement that he made yesterday, there was no apology about anything with the racial slurs,” Jones said. “So I can’t respect that and I probably will never talk to him, to be honest with you.”

Sunday afternoon Norfolk State University President Javaune Adams-Gaston and NSU Director of Athletics Melody Webb lauded Jones team for the way they navigated the incident but maintained it’s an issue they shouldn’t have had to overcome in 2023. In his press conference Monday, Jones echoed that sentiment.

“No matter what happens as far as the way we think that times have changed, there’s still a pocket of people that haven’t changed,” Jones said. “I do think that the majority of people have changed, I do feel that in my heart. … It’s an unfortunate situation and I don’t think that the whole Illinois State fan base is like that, by any means. After the game, there was a lot of people that was very complimentary of our team.”

At one point during Monday’s press conference, Jones recalled an incident from a decade ago that prompted him to wish they hadn’t traveled to play Illinois State at all on Saturday.

After Norfolk State’s 64-58 win, Jones said he received texts from former Spartans Kyle O’Quinn, Rodney McCauley and Jamel Fuentes recalling a similar incident when Norfolk State played Illinois State during the 2011-2012 season.

“All these guys said, ‘Thank you for getting revenge and they did the same thing to us,” said Jones, an NSU assistant during that season. “This is the 2011-2012 season so I flipped back and, I was talking to Coach Larry Vickers about this earlier, I forgot that when Kyle O’Quinn was sitting on the bench they were calling him the N-word when he was sitting on the bench. So this is 11 years later that some stuff is still happening, which shouldn’t be happening. … I forgot all about that situation because I don’t remember every situation and the 350 games that I’ve coached. Getting that reminder, really put a damper a little bit on the win because I’m like I shouldn’t have played this game.”

With a two-game road trip on deck for this weekend, and a full season still ahead of the team, Jones said he wants the talk around what happened to stop here but hopes people use it as a learning experience.

“So hopefully it is a lesson that the whole world can see, because it seems like a lot of the world has seen this,” Jones said. “For fans, you just can’t say anything you want in the crowd, it’s not right.”

Michael Sauls, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com, (757) 803-5774