Bruce Pearl got the ax after leading Tennessee to six straight NCAA tournaments, and, at one point, they were ranked number one in the country. They were a shot away from the Final Four. Now, he’s gone.
Sure, he screwed up. He did things he wasn’t supposed to do, but really, are we going to pretend that everyone in college basketball is clean and Bruce Pearl is this horrible Quasimodo type figure? Seriously?
EVERYBODY does something that isn’t above board (except maybe Coach K) and most of those things are so insignificant that it just doesn’t even matter.
You can say that he dug his own grave, but he really loved Tennessee and he was doing a good job. How do we think his players feel?
That’s why I never called for his job (or anybody else’s.) Personally, I think they should have either done this a lot sooner or just ridden it out with him.
Sure, you can go hire the guy from VCU (Shaka Smart) and he’d probably be great. Too bad it’ll take two or three years before all of Pearl’s angry recruits are burned off before Smart can get anything done.
Tennessee isn’t relevant in football, but Pearl made them relevant in basketball. That’s a freaking miracle.! Seriously.
When your women’s program is the best EVER and you come in and garner Pat Summitt’s respect and she’s sad to see you go then you know you did something right.
Honestly, if Tennessee wants to fire someone they should fire whoever makes these coaching changes. Phil Fulmer, now Bruce Pearl. This same person probably hired Lane Kiffin (and it’s not just the AD or the President.)
Are we seeing a trend here? It’s really a problem that deals with lack of institutional control. They just can’t get out of their own way. Tennessee is broken, bad.
Who wants to fix that?
