Tennessee basketball opinion question for y'all

#1
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Dave1967

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#1
What shape would the men's basketball program be in now if Bruce Pearl had never been coach at UT? I think UT would have righted their ship eventually from the low spot that Buzz Peterson had them in during his time as Coach(Buzz IMO was the Dooley of UT basketball).
 
#3
#3
If Pearl had never been coach? We probably would have disbanded the program and the universe would have collapsed.
 
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#5
#5
Dave1967 said:
What shape would the men's basketball program be in now if Bruce Pearl had never been coach at UT? I think UT would have righted their ship eventually from the low spot that Buzz Peterson had them in during his time as Coach(Buzz IMO was the Dooley of UT basketball).
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I'm going to take an unpopular angle here. Let's suppose for a minute that Gregg Marshall got this job in 2005 instead of Pearl. Where are we at in that scenario? While Pearl's bravado and outside-the-box approach built a rabid fanbase, I think winning had an equal hand in it. Marshall has proven to be a winner with less at his disposal than even he would have had at Tennessee 10 years ago. He built Wichita St into a title contender. What could he have done at UT in that time? You could argue that we might be in even better shape than we were having had Pearl for six seasons.
 
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#6
#6
cncchris33 said:
I'm going to take an unpopular angle here. Let's suppose for a minute that Gregg Marshall got this job in 2005 instead of Pearl. Where are we at in that scenario? While Pearl's bravado and outside-the-box approach built a rabid fanbase, I think winning had an equal hand in it. Marshall has proven to be a winner with less at his disposal than even he would have had at Tennessee 10 years ago. He built Wichita St into a title contender. What could he have done at UT in that time? You could argue that we might be in even better shape than we were having had Pearl for six seasons.
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Solid.
 
#7
#7
cncchris33 said:
I'm going to take an unpopular angle here. Let's suppose for a minute that Gregg Marshall got this job in 2005 instead of Pearl. Where are we at in that scenario? While Pearl's bravado and outside-the-box approach built a rabid fanbase, I think winning had an equal hand in it. Marshall has proven to be a winner with less at his disposal than even he would have had at Tennessee 10 years ago. He built Wichita St into a title contender. What could he have done at UT in that time? You could argue that we might be in even better shape than we were having had Pearl for six seasons.
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Slow and steady wins the race?
 
#8
#8
Not hiring Pearl probably means we hire Gregg Marshall in 2005 instead. I think we'd have been to our first Final Four by now, actually.
 
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#9
#9
hmm...I don't know. We would have hired an up and comer so it's possible we hit a homerun or another Martin like coach....who knows really.
 
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#10
SGMVols said:
Not hiring Pearl probably means we hire Gregg Marshall in 2005 instead. I think we'd have been to our first Final Four by now, actually.
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We didnt hire marshall when we fired Pearl.....what makes u think we would have hired him when we fired Buzz? Im very confident we would have made a bad hire or at least a small time hire hoping to win big.
 
#11
#11
We had never hired a coach who could win twenty five games in our entire history so now with revisionist history we would have hired someone that could do a better job than the one we hired in 2005? The most games won was 24 before Pearl and he averaged 24.8 wins per year while he was here.
 
#13
#13
Dave1967 said:
What shape would the men's basketball program be in now if Bruce Pearl had never been coach at UT? I think UT would have righted their ship eventually from the low spot that Buzz Peterson had them in during his time as Coach(Buzz IMO was the Dooley of UT basketball).
Click to expand...


I am going to take an unpopular angle also. Lets image in 2005 Pat Summit took over the reins of the U.T. mens basketball program.

Lets also imagine that Holly or Nicki took over the womens program. Could Holly or Nicki have led the program to a National Title in either 2007 or 2008?
 
#14
#14
Rudy123 said:
I am going to take an unpopular angle also. Lets image in 2005 Pat Summit took over the reins of the U.T. mens basketball program.

Lets also imagine that Holly or Nicki took over the womens program. Could Holly or Nicki have led the program to a National Title in either 2007 or 2008?
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Woman's basketball for real?
 
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#15
#15
volbeast33 said:
We didnt hire marshall when we fired Pearl.....what makes u think we would have hired him when we fired Buzz? Im very confident we would have made a bad hire or at least a small time hire hoping to win big.
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I don't claim to know or remember who we seriously went after each time. However, Marshall was already at Wichita State when Pearl was fired. He had made his first step up. Marshall would have been a "small time hire" the first time around if we had hired him after Buzz because he was at Winthrop then. We had a better chance at getting him the first time as opposed to after he had gone to Wichita. How would he have fared? No one knows. With his results, I think you can logically argue that he would have succeeded.
 
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VolGee4 said:
I don't claim to know or remember who we seriously went after each time. However, Marshall was already at Wichita State when Pearl was fired. He had made his first step up. Marshall would have been a "small time hire" the first time around if we had hired him after Buzz because he was at Winthrop then. We had a better chance at getting him the first time as opposed to after he had gone to Wichita. How would he have fared? No one knows. With his results, I think you can logically argue that he would have succeeded.
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I agree he probably would have succeeded but I doubt we would have hired him.....I have heard many times he is kind of weird and a bad interview which is why we never truly considered....I just dont agree that he was the obvious choice if pearl wasnt hired here. The same reason people dwell on Pearl so much bc they have no confidence that we will make a good hire.
 
#17
#17
We would still have a mid major coach trying to hit the jackpot, look where Pearl came from, there was not a whole lot of dancing in the streets when we hired him.
 
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#18
#18
volbeast33 said:
I agree he probably would have succeeded but I doubt we would have hired him.....I have heard many times he is kind of weird and a bad interview which is why we never truly considered....I just dont agree that he was the obvious choice if pearl wasnt hired here. The same reason people dwell on Pearl so much bc they have no confidence that we will make a good hire.
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Exactly true! Past A.D.'s usually hire a coach from a much smaller school and hope to get success from them.

Kevin O'Neill came from Marquett. Ray Mears came from Wittenberg. Martin came from Missouri State. Houston was an assistant at Louisville. Jerry Green was at Oregon. Don DeVoe was at Wyoming. Buzz was at Tulsa.

So, I don't have the greatest amount of confidence that we will spend the money to hire a really good proven coach, if/when we have another coaching vacancy.
 
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#19
volbeast33 said:
I agree he probably would have succeeded but I doubt we would have hired him.....I have heard many times he is kind of weird and a bad interview which is why we never truly considered....I just dont agree that he was the obvious choice if pearl wasnt hired here. The same reason people dwell on Pearl so much bc they have no confidence that we will make a good hire.
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Yea, I don't know if or why he wasn't really considered. Just saying that he wasn't high profile, and we probably could have hired him, at least the first time. In hindsight, he probably would have been a good hire. He almost beat Bruce as a 15 seed. There are other competent coaches out there, but I will admit that I am concerned that we might not make the right hire.
 
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#20
VolGee4 said:
Yea, I don't know if or why he wasn't really considered. Just saying that he wasn't high profile, and we probably could have hired him, at least the first time. In hindsight, he probably would have been a good hire. He almost beat Bruce as a 15 seed. There are other competent coaches out there, but I will admit that I am concerned that we might not make the right hire.
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I have been a UT basketball fan since the late seventies and Bruce was the only coach besides Mears that I have enjoyed while here.....I font know if I have another thirty yrs of life left for UT to make another good hire lol
 
#21
#21
Rudy123 said:
Exactly true! Past A.D.'s usually hire a coach from a much smaller school and hope to get success from them.

Kevin O'Neill came from Marquett. Ray Mears came from Wittenberg. Martin came from Missouri State. Houston was an assistant at Louisville. Jerry Green was at Oregon. Don DeVoe was at Wyoming. Buzz was at Tulsa.

So, I don't have the greatest amount of confidence that we will spend the money to hire a really good proven coach, if/when we have another coaching vacancy.
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This is inevitable. First, there are only so many good jobs. Second, with the money these days, guys aren't quick to leave average jobs as long as it is stable. It's natural that people move up in jobs, just like the real world. I don't mind hiring someone from a lower job. I just don't always have the faith that we will find the right one. Butch Jones has been a home run so far, and I wasn't thrilled the day he was announced. But he wasn't our first choice either.
 
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#22
knowthevols said:
We had never hired a coach who could win twenty five games in our entire history so now with revisionist history we would have hired someone that could do a better job than the one we hired in 2005? The most games won was 24 before Pearl and he averaged 24.8 wins per year while he was here.
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How did I know, of all the posters in this forum, that you would be the one to show up and piss in the pot? Any opinion (and make no mistake, this entire topic is opinion-based) that doesn't paint Pearl in the most positive light is automatically dismissed and ridiculed by you.

Obviously, no one's opinion on this matter is provable, but given Marshall's track record and success in a tougher environment, it is reasonable to hypothesize that it is at least possible that Marshall could have been as successful (or moreso) than Pearl.

Just because Pearl was the first to win 25 games doesn't mean he's the only one capable of having done it. That's a silly notion. Just like the notion that he is the only coach who can succeed at Tennessee is silly.
 
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#23
#23
VolGee4 said:
This is inevitable. First, there are only so many good jobs. Second, with the money these days, guys aren't quick to leave average jobs as long as it is stable. It's natural that people move up in jobs, just like the real world. I don't mind hiring someone from a lower job. I just don't always have the faith that we will find the right one. Butch Jones has been a home run so far, and I wasn't thrilled the day he was announced. But he wasn't our first choice either.
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Fulmer, Serrano, Holly & Johnny Majors are the only one's that I remember as being our first choice for a job.

Seldom does an opening get filled by the 1st choice.
 
#24
#24
Considering that Pearl was the one good hire Hamilton made while AD, my guess is that the program would be about where it was after O'Neill was let go.
 
#25
#25
cncchris33 said:
I'm going to take an unpopular angle here. Let's suppose for a minute that Gregg Marshall got this job in 2005 instead of Pearl. Where are we at in that scenario? While Pearl's bravado and outside-the-box approach built a rabid fanbase, I think winning had an equal hand in it. Marshall has proven to be a winner with less at his disposal than even he would have had at Tennessee 10 years ago. He built Wichita St into a title contender. What could he have done at UT in that time? You could argue that we might be in even better shape than we were having had Pearl for six seasons.
Click to expand...

It's easy to sit here and say if we hired this guy or that guy we would be in better shape. What if we hired Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens when they were assistant coaches and were obtainable? We may have won a national championship by now. TN was never going to hire Marshall. They had a couple opportunities and didn't. So, picking out a mid major coach that achieved success after 2005 and saying we would be better off is not realistic at all. Even the best mid majors do not equal success. Just look at Bama right now.
 
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