Post by TNCOWBOY on Jan 30, 2015 21:43:37 GMT -5
This is from Beano's weekly offering on Tony's blog:
PRAISING PEARL: Tony was asking callers to share their favorite Bruce Pearl moments in preparation for his return to Knoxville as coach of the Auburn Tigers on today’s Tony Basilio Show. There were so many high points and pleasurable moments that it’s hard to pinpoint a singular event but the one I came up with occurred very early in his tenure. So early it was the day Tennessee announced his hiring. I had been jockeying for him to be Tennessee’s coach on the Calhoun’s Saturday Conversation before most lucid Vol fans even knew who he was. Hey I’m no gym rat or hoops savant like Keith Hatfield and others, as a matter of fact Pearl first came to my attention in a post on the old SportsParlorSouth message board. I wish I could remember the gentleman whose post initially brought Pearl to my mind but I regretfully cannot. The poster had followed Pearl’s Southern Indiana teams closely and continued to keep up with him at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The more I looked at his bio and watched his team at UWM the more I became convinced that he was the ONLY selection. He was not only a National Championship coach but a tireless promoter as well, a gift I felt essential to take us where we wanted to go. What made it even more satisfying was that it was only the second time in my many years as a Tennessee fan when the UT Administration actually selected the man I wanted –long shot that it was- during a hiring process in anysport the other being the no-brainer Johnny Majors in 1977. Tennessee Men’s basketball had enjoyed NCAA Tournament seasons only a few years prior to Pearl’s arrival under Jerry Green but his teams were underachievers, the fanbase was not engaged and there was no real hint of having a true “program”. As a matter of fact Vol Men’s Basketball ceased to be a “program” the minute Dale Ellis walked off campus and 5 coaches and 20 years of futility had failed to restore it. From the very outset it was clear that Bruce Pearl could motivate, coach and sell anything to anyone. His teams –especially in the early years- played with a relentless fervor that had been missing for as long as most care to remember a quality that has only recently reappeared. He is solely responsible for resurrecting a corpse of a program that most had long-since left for dead. Was he a snake, snake-oil salesman and in areas disingenuous? Yes. Did he lie to an NCAA Investigator and turn a parking ticket into capital punishment self-destructing in the process? Unquestionably. Do we still owe him a debt of gratitude for the NBA-quality arena, a school record six straight NCAA appearances, the fact that the national media now realizes that the University of Tennessee plays MEN’S basketball, a cornucopia of great memories and thousands of fans that discovered or rediscovered Tennessee Basketball during his tenure? You bet your ass we do"
Two questions--Who is the poster he is referring to on SPS? Wolf, is that you? And was Beano a regular poster on SPS. I reckon I could just ask him that myself.
PRAISING PEARL: Tony was asking callers to share their favorite Bruce Pearl moments in preparation for his return to Knoxville as coach of the Auburn Tigers on today’s Tony Basilio Show. There were so many high points and pleasurable moments that it’s hard to pinpoint a singular event but the one I came up with occurred very early in his tenure. So early it was the day Tennessee announced his hiring. I had been jockeying for him to be Tennessee’s coach on the Calhoun’s Saturday Conversation before most lucid Vol fans even knew who he was. Hey I’m no gym rat or hoops savant like Keith Hatfield and others, as a matter of fact Pearl first came to my attention in a post on the old SportsParlorSouth message board. I wish I could remember the gentleman whose post initially brought Pearl to my mind but I regretfully cannot. The poster had followed Pearl’s Southern Indiana teams closely and continued to keep up with him at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The more I looked at his bio and watched his team at UWM the more I became convinced that he was the ONLY selection. He was not only a National Championship coach but a tireless promoter as well, a gift I felt essential to take us where we wanted to go. What made it even more satisfying was that it was only the second time in my many years as a Tennessee fan when the UT Administration actually selected the man I wanted –long shot that it was- during a hiring process in anysport the other being the no-brainer Johnny Majors in 1977. Tennessee Men’s basketball had enjoyed NCAA Tournament seasons only a few years prior to Pearl’s arrival under Jerry Green but his teams were underachievers, the fanbase was not engaged and there was no real hint of having a true “program”. As a matter of fact Vol Men’s Basketball ceased to be a “program” the minute Dale Ellis walked off campus and 5 coaches and 20 years of futility had failed to restore it. From the very outset it was clear that Bruce Pearl could motivate, coach and sell anything to anyone. His teams –especially in the early years- played with a relentless fervor that had been missing for as long as most care to remember a quality that has only recently reappeared. He is solely responsible for resurrecting a corpse of a program that most had long-since left for dead. Was he a snake, snake-oil salesman and in areas disingenuous? Yes. Did he lie to an NCAA Investigator and turn a parking ticket into capital punishment self-destructing in the process? Unquestionably. Do we still owe him a debt of gratitude for the NBA-quality arena, a school record six straight NCAA appearances, the fact that the national media now realizes that the University of Tennessee plays MEN’S basketball, a cornucopia of great memories and thousands of fans that discovered or rediscovered Tennessee Basketball during his tenure? You bet your ass we do"
Two questions--Who is the poster he is referring to on SPS? Wolf, is that you? And was Beano a regular poster on SPS. I reckon I could just ask him that myself.
