Oldblood
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This is from Grant Wahl's column:
After last week's classic O.J. Mayo story told by Mike Beasley's mom, Fatima Smith, we thought we'd share another good unused anecdote that has to do with David and Dana Pump and their search firm ChampSearch, which placed Eddie Sutton at San Francisco this season.
According to the L.A. Times, since forming ChampSearch in 2004 the well-connected Pumps have head-hunted coaches for Ole Miss, Nebraska, Colorado, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and Long Beach State. But their biggest gig to date was earning a $25,000 fee from Tennessee for helping the Vols land Bruce Pearl in 2005.
There are all sorts of potential conflicts with the Adidas-backed Pumps being hired by collegiate programs, not least because they could hypothetically steer recruits from Adidas-sponsored AAU teams to schools whose coaches were hired through ChampSearch (which would have a stake in their success). But we'll save that story for another day.
For now we'd like to share a more amusing anecdote, courtesy of Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton. It's set in a Dallas conference room during the first weekend of the 2005 NCAA tournament as Pearl's Wisconsin-Milwaukee team was in Cleveland preparing to upset Boston College and Alabama. Let Hamilton pick it up from here:
"We were sitting in a room in Dallas talking about different coaches. I had my short list. [ChampSearch consultant and former NCAA president] Cedric Dempsey was there, Dana Pump and [UT senior associate AD] John Currie. I said, 'Let's start talking to coaches and see what the interest is. Dana Pump picks up the phone and calls Bruce."
"He says, 'Hey Bruce, this is Pump! I've got the Tennessee search, I'm helping them with it. They're very interested in you, they love you, you just need to keep winning and things look great.' Well, Bruce is having dinner with his AD in Cleveland preparing to play Alabama in the first round, and he got up from the table to take the call. Bruce says, 'Hey Dana, I'm trying to win a game here, but I'd be interested.' And he goes back to the table."
"So Pump gets off the phone and says, 'Pearl's in. Who do we want to call next?' I give him a particular name to test the waters on, and he picks up the phone. 'Hey Coach, this is Pump! I've got the Tennessee search, they've got their eyes on you, you've done a great job at X University.'"
"Then Pump goes stone-cold, gets red-faced and says, 'I'm just kidding.' He hung up the phone and died laughing. He says, 'You're not going to believe this, but I just called Pearl back.' On the other end Pearl had gone back to his table and Pump's number showed up again. He walks out of the room again, says hello and Pump starts into his antics. Bruce decides he's just going to listen and see what's happening here."
"So when Pump got to the part about X University, Pearl says, 'Hey Pump, this is Bruce. You called me back. I will never let you live this down.'"
"True story," says a laughing Pearl, who still busts the Pumps' chops about it.
After last week's classic O.J. Mayo story told by Mike Beasley's mom, Fatima Smith, we thought we'd share another good unused anecdote that has to do with David and Dana Pump and their search firm ChampSearch, which placed Eddie Sutton at San Francisco this season.
According to the L.A. Times, since forming ChampSearch in 2004 the well-connected Pumps have head-hunted coaches for Ole Miss, Nebraska, Colorado, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and Long Beach State. But their biggest gig to date was earning a $25,000 fee from Tennessee for helping the Vols land Bruce Pearl in 2005.
There are all sorts of potential conflicts with the Adidas-backed Pumps being hired by collegiate programs, not least because they could hypothetically steer recruits from Adidas-sponsored AAU teams to schools whose coaches were hired through ChampSearch (which would have a stake in their success). But we'll save that story for another day.
For now we'd like to share a more amusing anecdote, courtesy of Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton. It's set in a Dallas conference room during the first weekend of the 2005 NCAA tournament as Pearl's Wisconsin-Milwaukee team was in Cleveland preparing to upset Boston College and Alabama. Let Hamilton pick it up from here:
"We were sitting in a room in Dallas talking about different coaches. I had my short list. [ChampSearch consultant and former NCAA president] Cedric Dempsey was there, Dana Pump and [UT senior associate AD] John Currie. I said, 'Let's start talking to coaches and see what the interest is. Dana Pump picks up the phone and calls Bruce."
"He says, 'Hey Bruce, this is Pump! I've got the Tennessee search, I'm helping them with it. They're very interested in you, they love you, you just need to keep winning and things look great.' Well, Bruce is having dinner with his AD in Cleveland preparing to play Alabama in the first round, and he got up from the table to take the call. Bruce says, 'Hey Dana, I'm trying to win a game here, but I'd be interested.' And he goes back to the table."
"So Pump gets off the phone and says, 'Pearl's in. Who do we want to call next?' I give him a particular name to test the waters on, and he picks up the phone. 'Hey Coach, this is Pump! I've got the Tennessee search, they've got their eyes on you, you've done a great job at X University.'"
"Then Pump goes stone-cold, gets red-faced and says, 'I'm just kidding.' He hung up the phone and died laughing. He says, 'You're not going to believe this, but I just called Pearl back.' On the other end Pearl had gone back to his table and Pump's number showed up again. He walks out of the room again, says hello and Pump starts into his antics. Bruce decides he's just going to listen and see what's happening here."
"So when Pump got to the part about X University, Pearl says, 'Hey Pump, this is Bruce. You called me back. I will never let you live this down.'"
"True story," says a laughing Pearl, who still busts the Pumps' chops about it.
