Blame this loss on Bruce Pearl.

Some of the people on here seem to think you can fire a great basketball coach at Tennesse and just go out a hire a mid major coach and he will come in here and do a fantastic job. Its kinda like winning the lottery its not impossible but the odds against it are tremendous.

Bruce Pearl was a successful mid-major coach and so was Cuonzo. I think both hires were good....
 
So him lying to the governing body of college athletics is no big deal? I, for one, am disgusted by the embarrassment he caused this program and we barely averted a disaster with the possible sanctions imposed if he had stayed. How some of you overlook this and continue to say he deserves his job back and blindly support the man, is simply baffling to me....

I see your point. However, he was fined a million dollars and served a 6 game conference suspension. That was unprecedented and I believe this was just sentence served. That is obviously not getting off without punishment. I do not think taking away the man's livelihood was in any way fair. Look at some of the clowns who have done far worse and see what their punishment was.

Oh well, I guess it does not matter what we think and obviously your point of view is the one taken by the NCAA. The NCAA has served notice that it does not pay to lie.
 
I repeat. One Elite 8, three sweet sixteens, 6 straight NCAA tournament

I am not saying he is the greatest coach ever, but he is one of the best. Very few coaches have as a good a record over the last 6 years. I will agree he may have had trouble getting in this year. However, the future

You would agree I assume that he was the best coach ever at TN. If not name another TN coach who even comes close to what he accomplished.
 
I repeat. One Elite 8, three sweet sixteens, 6 straight NCAA tournament

I am not saying he is the greatest coach ever, but he is one of the best. Very few coaches have as a good a record over the last 6 years. I will agree he may have had trouble getting in this year. However, the future

You would agree I assume that he was the best coach ever at TN. If not name another TN coach who even comes close to what he accomplished.

No question. I think he was one of the best coaches in the country. To accomplish what he did in such a short period of time is amazing. It's not like he had the best players. I look at the coaches that are out there now and I don't know if anyone else out there could have done what he did. I mean, he did it with Buzz's players and then did it with his. It is funny, you would watch his rotations and you would say what in the world is he doing and then at the end Tennessee would win or be right there.
 
Hey Willie,
Do you think a press would work with this team. Much like Pearl used his first couple of years. It is looking like these guys can score. Since they appear to be struggling in their half court defense a few turnovers might be what they need.
 
We were going to mediocrity this year, regardless of the coach. You can thank your hero for the roster we have now.

Any coach who can coach can take this team to the NCAA with 18 or more wins. Our schedule will help us because it is pretty tough. We have some of the most athletic guards in UT history with Mcray, Golden, Tate, Richardson, and Washpun. We have a monster post player Maymon who just had a monster game with 20 rebounds and 30 points against Memphis. And we have two other good if not great post players in the foreign guy and miller.
 
Guess it is best for some fans like you to really continue to live in La La land rather than accept reality. Too bad Pearl has the show cause and you can't continue to follow him with some other team. However, that clearly doesn't stop your hero worship of the man.

Bruce go screwed by the nazi ncaa antisemitic, perhaps.
 
Any coach who can coach can take this team to the NCAA with 18 or more wins. Our schedule will help us because it is pretty tough. We have some of the most athletic guards in UT history with Mcray, Golden, Tate, Richardson, and Washpun. We have a monster post player Maymon who just had a monster game with 20 rebounds and 30 points against Memphis. And we have two other good if not great post players in the foreign guy and miller.

I think it is doable. Big thing is for the McRay and Golden to become more consistent. These guys are up and down big time. And it looks like Maymon may be that way also. Also, Tennessee is going to have play better defense. If these two things happen, I like our chances.
 
Of course you are right again. Defense carried the program while Pearl was coach. I really would have liked some offense, but only defense was stressed during the Pearl tenure. With all the great defense, it's somewhat shocking we didn't make several final 4s.

I don't get you point. Pearl was an offensive genius according to the tv guys. But his teams played great defense, opposition teams averaged 2 or 3 timeouts per game because they couldn't inbound the ball. In many games a steal was the difference in the game, loftons steal that sealed the victory over fla. Or the steal on the in bounds play that beat Ky (I think someone correct me if im wrong) at Thomp Bow.
 
Bruce Pearl is not and never will be as good of a coach as Ray Mears. Period....

Ray Mears was outstanding. I would have loved to have seen what he could have done with a shot at the NCAAs every year. Could you have imagined the attention he would have gotten with some of the pregame warmup routines and antics he pulled on the side lines.
 
or they care more about the Univ and its image than they do about one person

I'm sorry but this post is just a load of crap. Most Pearl supporters admit that Pearl screwed up. But most of us also realize that he was a great coach. And a lot of us think that his punishment far exceeded his crime. Loss of a million dollars, self imposed recruiting restrictions should have been enough punishment for a momentary slip. As Pearl said I just panicked and did not tell the truth. He also came back and owned his action, and it cost him dearly. Every violation was a minor offense. The NCAA was out to get him and they got him. Every coach in college sports lie they just don't admit it. Lets compare what Pearl did to what the NCAA nazis have done. In one case they were sued for the constant harrassment of a coach and they paid on 2.5 million dollars for what they did to him.
 
I agree with you that it is time to move on. It is unfortunate that so many are unable to do that. However, great coaches don't bring embarrassment to their programs and get banned from coaching by the NCAA. I thought Pearl did a good job prior to his unethical conduct. You can't separate his character flaws from the man to the coach. He is likely never to coach again at the major college level.

Anyone who thinks that basketball coaches or football coaches are paragons of virture is just extremely naive.
For that matter neither are college professors, Presidents or Chancellors. Anyone on here you included who says they have never cheated or lied is lying as they say it. Coaches do just about anything they can to get an advantage. You can deny it if you wish but there is an old saying when you point your finger there are many fingers pointing back to you. My experience has been that the most self righteous people in public are usually the worst in private. I have tried to be completly honest in my life, my goal is to be righteous, but I fail every day.
 
The Pearlophiles have surpassed the Fulmerites to become the most idiotic faction of this fanbase. That's quite an accomplishment.

Its nice to see a well reasoned well illustrated argument. I see you have taken the argument for Pearl being a great coach point by point and demonstrated clealy by your examples why that is not true.
Oh you mean you didn't do that. Why not? Do you lack the intellectual capacity to do anything except call someone a Pearlophille.
Intelligent people support their arguments with reason and examples.
People who can't make intelligent arguments resort to name calling. Have a wonderful day.
 
I am telling you for a fact that it was a good job before Wade Houston ruined it. And I never said Green was as good as Pearl, but his overall record for his first four years and Pearl's first four years are similar. Just stating facts. I didn't like Green either. I like Pearl and think he WAS a good coach, but I am pissed at him for being such a snake. And make no mistake, he's a snake

There were a lot of good coaches available when they fired DeVoe that would have taken it.

UT's basketball history is much better than you've been led to believe. Much better. Bruce is NEVER coming back. That's a fact

I have to disagree with you on UT BB history at least back to 1970's when I started buying season tickets. you had mears and then a succession of really mediocre coaches. Green did have some success with Oneals recruits but he was a mediocre coach in my opinion.
Last year was the only year that I was disappointed in the team and a lot of that may have been due to all the distractions.
Oneal was probably the best of the bunch he didn't stay long enough to really be judged. But eveyone thought he was a great recruiter.
 
WOW. How can we be this far apart. To me, Bruce's teams were talented, but after the first couple of seasons they sure played lazy....conditioned or not.

The only team that Pearl had that did not seem to be in great condition and played hard was his last one. It may have been that they were just to slow. Its hard to imagine that you did not think that the team that went to the round of eight and was 1 point away from the final four did not play hard.
Pearl did not do his press in the last two years because he had bigger players who were not quick enough according to him.
He also slowed the offense down in the last year often using all the shot clock dribbling out front and then throwing up a rushed shot, shades of O'neal. This strategy keeps the scores low and gives the opposition fewer opportunities to score. It makes it seem like the defense is better because fewer points are scored.
 
I see your point. However, he was fined a million dollars and served a 6 game conference suspension. That was unprecedented and I believe this was just sentence served. That is obviously not getting off without punishment. I do not think taking away the man's livelihood was in any way fair. Look at some of the clowns who have done far worse and see what their punishment was.

Oh well, I guess it does not matter what we think and obviously your point of view is the one taken by the NCAA. The NCAA has served notice that it does not pay to lie.

Actually the served notice that it does not pay to come clean and admit you lied.
 
Hey Willie,
Do you think a press would work with this team. Much like Pearl used his first couple of years. It is looking like these guys can score. Since they appear to be struggling in their half court defense a few turnovers might be what they need.

I don't know if Martin could coach a press like Pearl did. Golden couldn't guard me and I'm in my late 60s. Richardson, Mcray, and Tatum should do good in a press I think they are quick enough and they have some size. Washpun has long arms and is supposed to be quick, but he is not real strong, needs to hit the weights. Our big men should be quick enough to run a press.
 
I don't know if Martin could coach a press like Pearl did. Golden couldn't guard me and I'm in my late 60s. Richardson, Mcray, and Tatum should do good in a press I think they are quick enough and they have some size. Washpun has long arms and is supposed to be quick, but he is not real strong, needs to hit the weights. Our big men should be quick enough to run a press.

It might be good to use it in spurts depending on who you had on the floor. I would also like to see them do what Pearl did in trying to prevent the inbound pass. I am suprised that more coaches have not picked up on this. Tennessee would often get at least one or two steals a game off of this and make the other team use a timeout or two.
 
If you guys are gonna bring up games from last year then its only fair to bring up games against the same opponent from 2 years ago, 3 years ago. I'm glad yall have the idea that a coach goes into a season saying, "Hey, we do not expect any type of losses this season." Hey, speaking of Memphis-Tenn series, how many times consecutively has the road team won?
 

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