Pearl on Broadcast yesterday

#1
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Savannahbayvol

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#1
pretty funny and very complimentary of us. Showed a great pic of he and Pat together.

Looking at that pic makes one think that we have just been fooked in basketball over the years . What other program has had 3 of their 4 greatest coaches having to retire/leave while still in their prime.

Ray Mears had the program primed to become a Top 10 contender when he had to take medical leave because of depression. The second year after he left 78-79(interim coach in 77-78) the Vols won the first SEC tourney and their first game in the NCAA Tourney. What if Mears was still coach and got Jimmy Braddock from Chattanooga(UNC) and Derrick Hord from Bristol(UK) in that recruiting class. To his credit DeVoe did get Reggie Johnson from Ga. But after Johnson and Mears recruits left our program went into a period of mediocrity for most of 2 decades until Pearl came along.

And we all know the Pearl disaster, undone by lying about a stupid Bar BQ in his own back yard. So he goes to Auburn and takes them to a FF. He would have probably taken us to several FFs if he had stayed.

And then of course there is Pat who is one of the 2 greatest women coaches of alltime who had to step down with early onset dementia. Even though competition had gotten tougher in womens BB I would imagine she still had 2 or 3 NCs left in her career.

Fortunately with our other greatest coach it looks like RB will be able to retire on his own terms for the first time in UT BB history.

Could this be the year we finally break the FF jinx?
 
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#4
#4
DeVoe held his own until the game changed with the three point line, Dale Ellis performed well from 1979-1983, Mears was the avid promoter, scheduling UCLA in the Omni in 1977, to showcase his program with Ernie and Bernie on a coast to coast NBC broadcast, laying the foundation for the Ellis committment and providing a presence and an alternative for the kids in the Atlanta metro area that wanted to play basketball in an uptempo game.

The mediocrity of the men's basketball program in the late 80s and 90s rests primarily with athletic directors that viewed basketball as a version of indoor football and the debacle of Thompson Boling jammed into a hard to get to corner of the university with 12,000 bad seats rests solely with Doug Dickey and his grandiosity and ego that it simply needed more seats than Rupp Arena had.

Handsome Dave Hart never understood SEC basketball, he hired Rick Barnes out of desperation when Donny Tindall blew up in his face and Nike delivered Barnes on a silver platter, all Hart had to do was to sign on the dotted line and get out of the way.
 
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#5
#5
Savannahbayvol said:
pretty funny and very complimentary of us. Showed a great pic of he and Pat together.

Looking at that pic makes one think that we have just been fooked in basketball over the years . What other program has had 3 of their 4 greatest coaches having to retire/leave while still in their prime.

Ray Mears had the program primed to become a Top 10 contender when he had to take medical leave because of depression. The second year after he left 78-79(interim coach in 77-78) the Vols won the first SEC tourney and their first game in the NCAA Tourney. What if Mears was still coach and got Jimmy Braddock from Chattanooga(UNC) and Derrick Hord from Bristol(UK) in that recruiting class. To his credit DeVoe did get Reggie Johnson from Ga. But after Johnson and Mears recruits left our program went into a period of mediocrity for most of 2 decades until Pearl came along.

And we all know the Pearl disaster, undone by lying about a stupid Bar BQ in his own back yard. So he goes to Auburn and takes them to a FF. He would have probably taken us to several FFs if he had stayed.

And then of course there is Pat who is one of the 2 greatest women coaches of alltime who had to step down with early onset dementia. Even though competition had gotten tougher in womens BB I would imagine she still had 2 or 3 NCs left in her career.

Fortunately with our other greatest coach it looks like RB will be able to retire on his own terms for the first time in UT BB history.

Could this be the year we finally break the FF jinx?
Click to expand...
Don't sell DeVoe too short. He had some very good recruits and teams after Johnson. Does the name Dale Ellis ring a bell?
 
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#7
#7
EasternVol said:
Don't sell DeVoe too short. He had some very good recruits and teams after Johnson. Does the name Dale Ellis ring a bell?
Click to expand...

He just had too few star recruits during his tenure.

He was super strict, I remember watching an open practice at Stokley ( they were pretty much always open back then) and he chewed out (screamed) at freshman William Mills for dunking on a fast break. The next time they ran the drill Mills dunked again, so DD made him sit out the remainder of practice. He transferred to Arkansas and became a star for them.

EDIT: Reggie Johnson was a Mears recruit, he started as a freshman on the Ernie and Bernie team that lost to Syracuse in the tournament
 
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#8
#8
TartanTurff said:
DeVoe held his own until the game changed with the three point line, Dale Ellis performed well from 1979-1983, Mears was the avid promoter, scheduling UCLA in the Omni in 1977, to showcase his program with Ernie and Bernie on a coast to coast NBC broadcast, laying the foundation for the Ellis committment and providing a presence and an alternative for the kids in the Atlanta metro area that wanted to play basketball in an uptempo game.

The mediocrity of the men's basketball program in the late 80s and 90s rests primarily with athletic directors that viewed basketball as a version of indoor football and the debacle of Thompson Boling jammed into a hard to get to corner of the university with 12,000 bad seats rests solely with Doug Dickey and his grandiosity and ego that it simply needed more seats than Rupp Arena had.

Handsome Dave Hart never understood SEC basketball, he hired Rick Barnes out of desperation when Donny Tindall blew up in his face and Nike delivered Barnes on a silver platter, all Hart had to do was to sign on the dotted line and get out of the way.
Click to expand...
Was at that game in the Omni sitting on the top row lol.
 
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#10
#10
BigorangeBoy said:
He just had too few star recruits during his tenure.

He was super strict, I remember watching an open practice at Stokley ( they were pretty much always open back then) and he chewed out (screamed) at freshman William Mills for dunking on a fast break. The next time they ran the drill Mills dunked again, so DD made him sit out the remainder of practice. He transferred to Arkansas and became a star for them.

EDIT: Reggie Johnson was a Mears recruit, he started as a freshman on the Ernie and Bernie team that lost to Syracuse in the tournament
Click to expand...
Correct, I got Ellis and Johnson mixed up. Both were from Georgia and as mentioned Johnson played on mears last team, while Ellis played on DeVoes 2nd team as a freshman. Thx
 
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#12
#12
TartanTurff said:
DeVoe held his own until the game changed with the three point line, Dale Ellis performed well from 1979-1983, Mears was the avid promoter, scheduling UCLA in the Omni in 1977, to showcase his program with Ernie and Bernie on a coast to coast NBC broadcast, laying the foundation for the Ellis committment and providing a presence and an alternative for the kids in the Atlanta metro area that wanted to play basketball in an uptempo game.

The mediocrity of the men's basketball program in the late 80s and 90s rests primarily with athletic directors that viewed basketball as a version of indoor football and the debacle of Thompson Boling jammed into a hard to get to corner of the university with 12,000 bad seats rests solely with Doug Dickey and his grandiosity and ego that it simply needed more seats than Rupp Arena had.

Handsome Dave Hart never understood SEC basketball, he hired Rick Barnes out of desperation when Donny Tindall blew up in his face and Nike delivered Barnes on a silver platter, all Hart had to do was to sign on the dotted line and get out of the way.
Click to expand...
Dickey had absolutely nothing to do with T-B. Construction was started in early 83 right after the Worlds Fair. Dickey was named AD in 1 985,

As I recall Dr Boling was asked if he preferred the East Site(downtown) or the west(on campus.). He replied, "i dont give a damn where it is as long as it is south of Lexington, Ky.! :)
 
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#18
#18
Zues1 said:
What does Bob Knight, Don Devoe and Mike Krzyzewski have in common?
Click to expand...

They were all head coaches at a service academy. Knight and K were Army head coaches, Devoe was an assistant at Army. Devoe was a head coach at Navy.

K played at Army. Devoe and Knight played at Ohio State. K has no direct connection to IU (K was an assistant there). K has no direct connection to tOSU.

So they were all assistant or head coaches at Army and all three were head coaches at service academies
 
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#20
#20
Savannahbayvol said:
Dickey had absolutely nothing to do with T-B. Construction was started in early 83 right after the Worlds Fair. Dickey was named AD in 1 985,

As I recall Dr Boling was asked if he preferred the East Site(downtown) or the west(on campus.). He replied, "i dont give a damn where it is as long as it is south of Lexington, Ky.! :)
Click to expand...

And Mears was still the head coach in the very early days of planning for a new arena. One option that was discussed while Mears was the head coach was putting a removable basketball court in the south end of Neyland using the existing stadium seating and rolling in some sort of roof and playing surface and having more seats on the field (the FB playing surface was still artificial grass). That option didn’t get too far.

They might have looked into locating the Arena on the World’s Fair site. I think that that possibility was a serious option. Off campus, so alcohol revenue could have been generated. They hadn’t planned on demolishing the US Pavilion at that point so there wouldn’t have been as much room.

The TBA destroyed Knoxville’s ability to draw concerts because there was a nearly 20% entertainment tax created to cover much of the funding. So big acts skipped Knoxville and instead went to Chattanooga and the Tri-cities. It took about a decade to recover from that stupid tax.
 
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#22
#22
EasternVol said:
Don't sell DeVoe too short. He had some very good recruits and teams after Johnson. Does the name Dale Ellis ring a bell?
Click to expand...
DeVoe was the absolute worst period of watching basketball for me. Got so tired of watching games with scores of less than 20 or 25 points. Had to pass the ball 20 times before anyone took a shot.
 
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#25
#25
BigorangeBoy said:
He just had too few star recruits during his tenure.

He was super strict, I remember watching an open practice at Stokley ( they were pretty much always open back then) and he chewed out (screamed) at freshman William Mills for dunking on a fast break. The next time they ran the drill Mills dunked again, so DD made him sit out the remainder of practice. He transferred to Arkansas and became a star for them.

EDIT: Reggie Johnson was a Mears recruit, he started as a freshman on the Ernie and Bernie team that lost to Syracuse in the tournament
Click to expand...

I was at UT during the DeVoe years. He was a fantastic X's and O's coach and knew how to maximize Ellis - hell, he got to a couple of NCAA's with Ellis and a virtual FCS surrounding cast, but I could see his style rubbing some players the wrong way.

He coached Terry Holland under the table and would have beaten the Sampson UVa team in 1982 if Michael Brooks hadn't missed the front end of a couple of 1 and 1's. Ellis was shutting Sampson down until they called a couple of ticky-tack fouls and he had to sit for about 10 minutes. Heartbreaking loss, but fun times.
 
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