From a strictly won/loss standpoint, Green was the most successful BB coach in UT history. NOBODY had ever put four 20-win seasons together in a row at UT, not Mears, not DeVoe, NOBODY.
There was, of course, a flip side.
To be charitable, Green was a horse's patoot when it came to fan relations and player control.
In one memorable press conference, the coach called out the fans, saying if they didn't like the product he was putting on the floor they could "go to Wal-Mart." Green later went on to make other snide comments that infuriated what was left of the BB fan base.
Then there was Tony Harris.
Harris was an All-World HS player from Memphis who was heavily recruited by Kevin O'Neal, to whom he gave a verbal commitment. Upon KO's departure and Green's hire, the litmus test for Green became his ability to get Harris on campus. Somehow, Green did it. Some suspect he mortgaged his soul to do so.
Harris proved to be a talented player who, unfortunately, displayed a tendency to thuggish behavior and consistently performed at about 75% of his potential. Green never, as near as anyone outside the program could tell, took any steps to change that scenario.
The whole mess came to a head in Lexington in 2002 against the hated Wildcats.
Harris had been "dogging it" all year, pouting and posing and bitching and griping. Finally, he opted not to play against UK, claiming an ankle injury. He spent the game slouching at the end of the bench glowering at the cameras and generally behaving like an anal orifice.
That is, until the fight broke out.
A close play in front of the UK bench resulted in a scuffle. Harris came up out of his chair and shot down the sideline -displaying no apparent limp - and charged into the pile, fists swinging.
At that moment Jerry Green was DONE. He could have gone to the Final Four and would STILL have been discharged at year's end. Had the UTAD even dropped an HINT Green would be retained, the betting was a crowd would be outside Stokely Athletics Center with torches, pitchforks and nooses and looking for Doug Dickey.
Green got a hefty buy-out and bought himself a house on the coast of Carolina.
Tony Harris went to play ball in Europe and dropped out of sight.
Buzz Peterson was hired as the "Anti-Green" and proved to be just that. He was personable and fan-friendly but couldn't win twenty games a season under most any circumstances anyone could imagine.
