That smell coming out of Knoxville isn’t just the stench of the shower-discipline lacking University of Tennessee football team.
The NCAA is sniffing around the Tennessee basketball program, and if the preemptive actions of the Tennessee administration (self-imposed penalties reportedly include Head Men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl being docked $2 MILLION for “serious mistakes”) and a public apology by Pearl are any indication, the NCAA not only thinks they smell a rat, but they think they have uncovered it.
If that wasn’t enough, the NCAA has apparently decided that while they’re in town, they’ll check out the football program, too. (Nothing to see, here, I’m sure–I mean, Lane Kiffen was their last coach. He would never sit idly by with a bunch of rule-breaking going on).
Knock me over with a feather–only don’t. Because, if there’s one thing I have learned in my often overly bitter 34 years, it’s that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Pearl definitely fits into that category. He was hired to take over a moribund Tennessee program in in 2005, and instantly brought a buzz to a program that had long been an afterthought–playing fourth fiddle to Tennessee football, Tennessee women’s basketball and Tennessee spring football practice. Almost immediately, he ratcheted up Tennessee recruiting to much hire levels than his predecessors. All the while, Pearl was lauded for being energetic, innovative, and just, well, fun.
But, that hasn’t always been the case. In 1990, while an assistant coach at Iowa, Pearl was in the middle of a recruiting scandal in which he reported recruiting violations by the University of Illinois in the recruitment of Deon Thomas, who later attended Illinois and was a record-setting scorer. (Here is one man’s probably less than unbiased version of events and opinions of Pearl from several years ago….and another to grow on.)
In the aftermath, Pearl was met with less-than-open arms by his coaching brethren. He has has spoken publicly about the saga before, including when he was featured on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, during which he described his long road back to a shot at redemption in Tennessee.
Now, he faces an even bigger fight. You don’t just admit to “serious mistakes” unless, well, you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar. And you definitely don’t get docked $2 million, without putting up a fight, unless you enjoyed more than a cookie or two. My educated guess is Pearl has some serious ‘Splainin’ to do.
It’s sad, really. I want to like Pearl. I want him to be the real deal. But, based on his apology and the whopping amount of moneyhe was docked (as well as his assistant’s salaries being trimmed) he is anything but the genuine article and he is about to be exposed.
And I’m not one to point fingers, (OK, maybe I am) but this should also be a wake up call to other fly-by-night programs around the country that miraculously rise up out of the ashes. Aside from the hiring of an established “name” coach or an influx of in-state or legacy talent, feel-good, rags-to-riches stories in major college athletics are usually just that–fairy tales.
But, as Pearl and Tennessee are seemingly about to find out, a Hans Christian Andersen yarn can unravel into a frightening, Brothers Grimm tale faster than my almost three-year-old can say “lack of institutional control”.
The Blog Hawgs
The Butler Did It: Pearl of Wisdom–If Bruce Pearl Seemed too Good to be True, It’s Because He Was
Posted by Adam Butler on September 10, 2010
The NCAA is sniffing around the Tennessee basketball program, and if the preemptive actions of the Tennessee administration (self-imposed penalties reportedly include Head Men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl being docked $2 MILLION for “serious mistakes”) and a public apology by Pearl are any indication, the NCAA not only thinks they smell a rat, but they think they have uncovered it.
If that wasn’t enough, the NCAA has apparently decided that while they’re in town, they’ll check out the football program, too. (Nothing to see, here, I’m sure–I mean, Lane Kiffen was their last coach. He would never sit idly by with a bunch of rule-breaking going on).
Knock me over with a feather–only don’t. Because, if there’s one thing I have learned in my often overly bitter 34 years, it’s that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Pearl definitely fits into that category. He was hired to take over a moribund Tennessee program in in 2005, and instantly brought a buzz to a program that had long been an afterthought–playing fourth fiddle to Tennessee football, Tennessee women’s basketball and Tennessee spring football practice. Almost immediately, he ratcheted up Tennessee recruiting to much hire levels than his predecessors. All the while, Pearl was lauded for being energetic, innovative, and just, well, fun.
But, that hasn’t always been the case. In 1990, while an assistant coach at Iowa, Pearl was in the middle of a recruiting scandal in which he reported recruiting violations by the University of Illinois in the recruitment of Deon Thomas, who later attended Illinois and was a record-setting scorer. (Here is one man’s probably less than unbiased version of events and opinions of Pearl from several years ago….and another to grow on.)
In the aftermath, Pearl was met with less-than-open arms by his coaching brethren. He has has spoken publicly about the saga before, including when he was featured on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, during which he described his long road back to a shot at redemption in Tennessee.
Now, he faces an even bigger fight. You don’t just admit to “serious mistakes” unless, well, you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar. And you definitely don’t get docked $2 million, without putting up a fight, unless you enjoyed more than a cookie or two. My educated guess is Pearl has some serious ‘Splainin’ to do.
It’s sad, really. I want to like Pearl. I want him to be the real deal. But, based on his apology and the whopping amount of moneyhe was docked (as well as his assistant’s salaries being trimmed) he is anything but the genuine article and he is about to be exposed.
And I’m not one to point fingers, (OK, maybe I am) but this should also be a wake up call to other fly-by-night programs around the country that miraculously rise up out of the ashes. Aside from the hiring of an established “name” coach or an influx of in-state or legacy talent, feel-good, rags-to-riches stories in major college athletics are usually just that–fairy tales.
But, as Pearl and Tennessee are seemingly about to find out, a Hans Christian Andersen yarn can unravel into a frightening, Brothers Grimm tale faster than my almost three-year-old can say “lack of institutional control”.
Share this:
Posted in Commentary | Tagged: Bruce Pearl, NCAA, Tennessee Volunteers | 1 Comment »