Pearls of Wisdom

Bruce Pearl's journey, as many coaches' journeys, has been a long one. He was an assistant coach in Iowa, a head coach in Division 2 at the University of South Indiana for ten years, where he made the finals of the Division 2 championships twice, before winning it in 1995. He stayed there several years more, before going to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Division 1 team, in 2001.

The Division 1 NCAA men's basketball tournament, often compared to a "dance", serves as an ad-hoc tryout for many a coach looking to move from the small programs and up to bigger programs. Among the coaches that have made this move are Bruce Weber at Southern Illinois, who became Illinois' head coach, and Stan Heath, former head coach of Kent State, who went on to become Arkansas' head coach (he's since been replaced).

Bruce Pearl had taken UWM to the Sweet 16, and that lead him to become the head coach at the University of Tennessee. UT has always been a football school. What basketball fame it had, it had in women's basketball where Pat Summitt has been the winningest coach in women's college basketball (her number exceeds Division 1 coaches as well). While she has been asked to coach in the WNBA, she has stayed steadfast at Tennessee.

While UT has had reasonable seasons in the past, teams that have made their way to the tournament, most coaches have stayed no more than 5 years before being replaced. The last UT coach was Buzz Peterson who used to play at UNC. Surely, someone hoped that UNC magic would rub off. That didn't happen. Pearl's selection was seen more of hiring an up-and-coming coach (one often has to spend 10-15 years coaching to get that title), and no one knew how things would turn out.

His first year, players wanted to defect and play for other teams. Pearl allowed these players to leave Tennessee, sensing that a harsh hand would lead to bad feelings. He still did quite well in his first year with 22 wins and 8 losses, impressive considering it was his first year (historically, he's done very well on the start).

What's impressed most people is Pearl's outsized personality. Showing his support for the women's game, he decided (with some players) to have his chest painted with "V" (the other players were in "O", "L", "S", spelling "Vols", the shortened name for "Volunteers"). In response, Summitt returned the favor, by dressing as a cheerleader at a key game between Tennessee and Florida, a game which Tennessee won.

Saturday night pitted UT against Memphis. Memphis was undefeated, with a 25-0 record, and poor free throw shooting. Memphis's coach was one John Calipari, who has been a top basketball coach for ages. UT, with 2 losses, was number 2 in the nation. This isn't the usual number 1, number 2 matchup, which usually pits UNC against Duke.

Pearl, the consummate showman, dressed in an orange blazer, decided to host a pep rally for UT fans who made the cross-state trip, and said UT was ready to take the number 1 rankings. After leading for much of the second half, Memphis came back to take a lead, and with under a minute left, it seemed Memphis might be able to secure the win, and stay undefeated, but due to some bad shots at the end, and poor free throw shooting, UT managed to win 66-62, and will undoubtedly become number 1 in the country, having knocked out the number 1, and being number 2.

This will be the first time UT has been ranked number 1 in men's basketball, and Pearl, much like George Mason's head coach, Jim Larranaga, wants to take advantage of the spotlight. Pearl projects a certain lovable goofiness as head coach, making him seem like one friendly guy, a contrast to, say, Bobby Knight, who recently stepped down as head coach of Texas Tech so his son could take over.

You've got to hand it to Pearl to be able to get this team to where it is in such short order. Alas, coaching is also about recruiting (and recruiting made news as Kelvin Sampson, head coach at Indiana, stepped down for recruiting violations at Indiana of a similar nature to the one's he had had at Oklahoma), so we'll see how he does with his own recruiting. Often, "bad" coaches actually do a pretty good job at recruiting, often suffering when they have to coach. Better coaches can often do well with good players, but struggle to recruit the players they need.

With only a few games left in the season, UT is poised for its first number 1 seed at the men's tournament. UT may remain devout to its men's football program, but Pearl may start to make hoops fans out of the Vols.