Bruce Pearl

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Bruce Pearl is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as the head coach of the University of Tennessee men's basketball team. He attended Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts and then went on to Boston College. Before coming to Tennessee he was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and, prior to that, at the University of Southern Indiana, where he won a Division II national championship. He also served as an assistant coach at the University of Iowa under then-head coach Tom Davis. He has quickly helped turn the Tennessee program around, leading it to one of its best seasons in many years. Among his accolades, Pearl is the second-fastest NCAA coach to reach 300 victories, needing only 382 games to reach the mark (Roy Williams, the current coach at North Carolina, needed 370 games). It should be noted, however, that all Williams' victories came at the Division I level.

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[edit] The Deon Thomas incident

During the 1988-1989 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at the University of Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl recorded a phone conversation with Thomas without Thomas' knowledge. In the conversation, Thomas said he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins. Pearl then turned over the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events.[1]

When the NCAA investigated the alleged violations, Thomas said the story was false. Ultimately, the NCAA dropped their investigation into Thomas' recruitment, and Illinois was never sanctioned by the NCAA over the matter. Deon Thomas played for the Illini for 4 years. However, other improprieties were uncovered during the NCAA's investigation, and the NCAA charged Illinois with a major infraction on November 7, 1990. Since it was Illinois' third major violation in six years, the NCAA cited the university with a "lack of institutional control" charge and implemented a one-year postseason ban and two years of scholarship reductions. Because of his actions, Pearl is reviled by many Illinois basketball fans. When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, and the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake due to bad feelings over the incident.

[edit] Success at Southern Indiana and Milwaukee

Pearl picked up a Screaming Eagles team at USI in 1992 that had won just 10 games in the previous season. Pearl posted a 22-7 record in his first season and led the Eagles to nine straight NCAA D-II tournaments in addition to winning four Great Lakes Valley Conference titles. In 1994, USI finished with a 28-4 record en route to a loss in the D-II championship game; in 1995, the Eagles won 29 games and claimed the D-II championship. Pearl was named the NABC Division II coach of the year after his national championship. He left USI with a 231-46 record over nine years.

Pearl took over as head coach of Milwaukee in 2001. In just four seasons, he compiled 86 wins (including a school-record 26 in 2005) and led UWM to their first NCAA tournament appearances in 2003 and 2005, having won the Horizon League conference tournament in those years. He also led the school to its first ever NIT bid, as well as its first-ever NCAA D-I postseason victory, in 2004. Their 2005 NCAA Tournament run capped the best season in school history, as the Panthers won both the regular season and conference tournaments. Utilizing an intense full-court press (labeled the "UWM Press"), the Panthers scored two upsets in three days over Alabama and Boston College en route to the Sweet Sixteen. The Panthers finished their season 26-6 and were ranked in the coaches poll at the end of the season for the first time (#23). Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, his fourth, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage (51-13, 79.7%).

[edit] Moving on to Tennessee

On March 28, 2005, Pearl was named as the new head coach at Tennessee, succeeding Buzz Peterson. He got off to a rocky start when Jamont Gordon and Tyler Smith, two highly-rated in-state recruits, one of whom (Smith) had signed with the Vols under Peterson, decided not to attend Tennessee. Gordon went to conference rival Mississippi State, while Smith opted for a season of prep school. Pearl stirred up more controversy when he released Matthew Dotson from his scholarship.

Expectations were low for the Vols in Pearl's first season. Having lost their two leading scorers from a team that had been just 14-17 the previous season, Tennessee was picked to finish fifth in the six-team Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. However, the season started off well, and Tennessee entered the national rankings in December, when it routed then No. 8-ranked Texas, 95-78.

The Vols went on to lead the SEC East for virtually the entire season, with other highlights being a win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena and two wins over eventual national champion Florida. Tennessee ended up winning the SEC Eastern Division crown. But after entering the AP Top 10 in February, the team lost six of its last nine games and dropped to a ranking of 18th. Although Tennessee won the SEC East, it was upset in the second round of both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, the latter as a No. 2 seed. The team's 22-8 record was still one of the best in school history.

Following the season, Pearl drew accolades from national recruiting services for signing one of the nation's best recruiting classes, featuring three top-50 recruits in Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith. He also received a contract extension from Tennessee that included a pay raise to approximately $1.3 million per season.

[edit] Bruce Pearl's career record

career record
School Season Wins Losses Postseason
Southern Indiana 1993 22 7 NCAA Division II Tournament
Southern Indiana 1994 28 4 NCAA Division II Runner-up
Southern Indiana 1995 29 4 NCAA Division II Champions
Southern Indiana 1996 25 4 NCAA D-II Sweet 16
Southern Indiana 1997 23 5 NCAA D-II First Round
Southern Indiana 1998 27 6 NCAA D-II Sweet 16
Southern Indiana 1999 26 6 NCAA D-II Sweet 16
Southern Indiana 2000 25 6 NCAA D-II Sweet 16
Southern Indiana 2001 26 4 NCAA D-II First Round
Milwaukee 2002 16 13
Milwaukee 2003 24 8 NCAA First Round
Milwaukee 2004 20 11 NIT Second Round
Milwaukee 2005 26 6 NCAA Sweet 16
Tennessee 2006 22 8 NCAA Second Round
Career Totals 339 92

[edit] External links

Current Head Men's Basketball Coaches of the Southeastern Conference

John Brady (LSU) | Billy Donovan (Florida) | Dennis Felton (Georgia) | Mark Gottfried (Alabama) | Stan Heath (Arkansas) | Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss) | Jeff Lebo (Auburn) | Dave Odom (South Carolina) | Bruce Pearl (Tennessee) | Tubby Smith (Kentucky) | Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt) | Rick Stansbury (Mississippi State)
Preceded by:
Buzz Peterson		 University of Tennessee Head Basketball Coaches
2005–Present		 Succeeded by:
Current
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