Bruce Pearl's treatment on this board

Discussion in 'Keith Hatfield Memorial Vols Hoops' started by hallowed_hill, Jul 21, 2012.

  1. hallowed_hill

    hallowed_hill Active Member

    KB-didnt want to hijack the negavol thread, but you said over there that this board treats Pearl unfairly. How so? I disagree but would like to hear your case.
     
  2. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    My one and a half cents on this: people do talk about him on here like he didn't know which basket the team should shoot at. I think that he got what he deserved, but it's always seemed to me that people on here were talking about Wade Houston if I didn't know better.
     
  3. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    He had his system, and he knew it well. But when his system was disrupted by the opposition, he was helpless. If you think that makes him a good basketball coach, so be it. I don't think it does. Good motivator, good salesman, decent coach. That's it.
     
  4. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    I've personally not got a ton of issues with Pearl. He came here to do a job and did it reasonably well. He screwed up, but didn't leave the cupboard completely bare...though in basketball that can be turned around in a hurry, I suppose. I enjoyed the Pearl years...we could have done better, but it was fun. I hope Cuonzo can build on it.
     
  5. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    I think there's a few people on here who just have a powerful hatred for him, and that comes across the board strong.
     
  6. kidbourbon

    kidbourbon Well-Known Member

    Last season it was just that people continued to want to defecate on the guy. Not a major deal, but a few times I chimed in with basically "what's done is done guys...get over it" type post.

    But it was when he was still our coach that I thought the treatment of him here and before this site existed was just completely over the top. Hatvol obviously hated the guy, which is fine, but he seemed to gain legions and legions of followers, and the negative criticisms turned "he is an overrated coach" type posts to "he is completely incompetent" type posts. Which made no sense to me. The guy won games. The guy was the most successful basketball coach Tennessee ever had.

    After the NCAA lying thing came out but before he got fired, it seemed like there was a cadre of posters crusading to spread the gospel that Tennessee basketball was better off without Pearl and that we could get a better coach than Pearl in 5 minutes if he is gone. I never believed that. I mean, as the information started rolling in, there was no question he had to be fired. But had it not all come to a head like that I was quite happy with the job that Bruce Pearl was doing as BB coach. I think he would have continued to recruit well, and I think that the positive momentum that he started for the program would have continued building and resulted in continued winning ways and program relevance. The conversation before every basketball season would take it as a given that we're going to be good, and it would go straight to the question of how good are we going to be.
     
  7. volfanjo

    volfanjo Chieftain

    I think the varied criticisms of him are fair, if not over the top.

    But just wins/losses alone, record vs. ranked opponents, and the 08 team being a shot away from the Final Four? You won't find me saying too many ill words about Bruce. He made Tennessee basketball an event and spectacle again, superseded only by the master of event and spectacle, Ray Mears.
     
  8. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    It was more of him being made out to BE Tennessee basketball that annoyed me. He wasn't. He oversaw it's pinnacle, but he didn't invent the program. He also was less than ideal in how he handled players, academics, and recruiting. He was doing great but doing it with some shortcuts and eventually got burned for his modus operandi (deceit). That isn't opinion, that is fact.

    Honestly, I'd rather have a program built on a rock, than a program built on a sandy hill.
     
  9. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    I try not to let folks overreaction to a coach like Pearl (he IS Tennessee basketball, best coach in Tennessee basketball history, etc., etc.) influence my opinion of the coach negatively - though it is hard. It's not his fault that a good portion of his fan base is oblivious to the history of their program or want to treat him like the beginning and end of its history.
     
  10. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    Agree with this 100%
     
  11. volfanjo

    volfanjo Chieftain

    True, but he will -- for the foreseeable future at least -- be the winningest NCAA tournament coach in UT history. History can't overlook that, even if the program was built on sand rather than rock. And let's be honest, Don Devoe probably is the closest to building on a rock, but he squandered some very talented basketball teams in the early 80s. Bruce went to the Elite 8 with Josh Bone as the backup two guard.

    This isn't reason to exalt him for sure, but it at least has to be repeated.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2012
  12. kidbourbon

    kidbourbon Well-Known Member

    (1)
    To me, he essentially was Tennessee basketball. I can count the number of basketball games I went to when I was in undergrad on one hand. I never devoted a second and a half of thought to Tennessee basketball until Bruce Pearl was the coach, which was after I had graduated.

    (2)
    I'm sorry, I don't speak metaphor. Could you say this in English?
     
  13. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    1) I went to lots of basketball games as a kid. My step dad was a big Tennessee fan, and our income bracket was such that going to basketball games was much more doable than football games. I really liked Kevin O'Neill. I was there when ole Buzz and Ron Slay knocked off number 4 Florida and the UT students stormed the court. I would walk down and get great seats right at tip-off as a student, and watch the end of the Buzz era. I am also keenly aware of UT history prior to my existence. I understand many people didn't pay attention to UT basketball until Pearl. That doesn't make their perspective any less inaccurate or absurd. We were a top ten team under Jerry Green, and were very, very talented.

    2)It's a biblical reference. If you build your house upon a solid foundation, you are able to weather storms Not so if you build on sand.
     
  14. TennTradition

    TennTradition Super Moderator

    IP telling bible stories. Sweet.
     
  15. LawVol13

    LawVol13 Chieftain

    I liked the style his first couple years. I did not like the way it was heading after the Elite Eight run, which, as I said at the time, was magical. I never liked his half court offense, and I really don't think you can win championships with that style. Now, had he not had the NCAA drama, would I have been for canning him? Absolutely not. He's a good coach, not a great coach. People were so grossly over the top in their descriptions of Pearl, and that's what bothered me most about it.
     
  16. kidbourbon

    kidbourbon Well-Known Member

    I was there for three quarters of the Jerry Green era. I don't remember a d a m n thing about it, though, because I didn't give two s h i t s. I do remember Tony Harris. I remember Tony Harris only because I can't even tell you how many times I saw that guy on the strip with people holding him back from getting in a fight. I literally never saw the guy in a social situation not about to fight. This was either a statistical outlier of the highest order, or that guy got in a fight every single night of his life.

    When you say "their perspective is absurd", you are referring to people like me, yes?
     
  17. JohnnyQuickkick

    JohnnyQuickkick Calcio correspondent

    Bruce Pearl was light years better than Jerry Green IMO FTR TIFWIW
     
  18. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    Yes well, on paper not too much separated them.
     
  19. VolDad

    VolDad Super Moderator

    He brought a lot of excitement to the program, plateaued, bought into his own hype, did something incredibly stupid, and paid the price. End of story.
     
  20. LawVol13

    LawVol13 Chieftain

    This is a perfect description.
     

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