Bruce Pearl
From Hoopedia
Bruce Pearl is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as the head coach of the University of Tennessee men's basketball team. A native of Boston, Pearl attended Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts and is a 1982 graduate of Boston College. He and his ex-wife, Kim, have two daughters, Jacqui and Leah, and two sons, Steven and Michael.
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Coaching Career
Before coming to Tennessee, Pearl was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and, prior to that, at the University of Southern Indiana, where he won a Division II national championship. He also served as an assistant coach at the University of Iowa under then-head coach Tom Davis. He has quickly helped turn the Tennessee program around, leading it to one of its best seasons in many years. Among his accolades, Pearl is the second-fastest NCAA coach to reach 300 victories, needing only 382 games to reach the mark (Roy Williams, the current coach at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, needed 370 games). It should be noted, however, that all Williams' victories came at the Division I level, whereas a portion of Pearl's victories came in Division II and contributed to his rise to the Division I ranks.
The Pearl/Thomas Incident
During the 1988-1989 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at the University of Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving the University of Illinois. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl called the high school student and surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with Thomas. During the conversation, Pearl asked Thomas if he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins, and Thomas indicated he had. Pearl then turned over tapes (alleged by Illinois to have been edited) to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events. However, during the subsequent NCAA investigation, Thomas denied the allegations and said the story was false. The NCAA did not find Illinois guilty of any wrongdoing relating to Thomas' recruitment, finding that the proof provided was not "credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs." However, the investigation uncovered other violations, and Illinois was punished due to a finding of "lack of institutional control" based in part on previous infractions involving Illinois' football program.
When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake, reportedly due to lingering feelings over the incident. When Thomas was asked about forgiving Bruce Pearl in a 2005 interview, he was quoted as saying "It's hard to forgive a snake". Thomas went on to play basketball at the University of Illinois, becoming its all time leading scorer.
Success at Southern Indiana
Pearl picked up a Screaming Eagles team at USI in 1992 that had won just 10 games in the previous season. Pearl posted a 22-7 record in his first season and led the Eagles to nine straight NCAA D-II tournaments in addition to winning four Great Lakes Valley Conference titles. In 1994, USI finished with a 28-4 record en route to a loss in the D-II championship game; in 1995, the Eagles won 29 games and claimed the D-II championship. Pearl was named the NABC Division II coach of the year after his national championship. He left USI with a 231-46 record over nine years.
"Sweet" success at UW-Milwaukee
Pearl took over as head coach of UW-Milwaukee in 2001. In just four seasons, he compiled 86 wins (including a school-record 26 in 2005 and a new Horizon League record for winning percentage) and led Milwaukee to their first NCAA tournament appearances in 2003 and 2005. Pearl led Milwaukee to the Horizon League tournament title in both of those years. He also led the school to its first ever NIT bid, as well as its first-ever NCAA D-I postseason victory, in 2004. Milwaukee's 2005 NCAA Tournament run capped the best season in school history, as the Panthers won both the regular season and conference tournament titles, defeating rival Butler University in the championship game. Utilizing an intense full-court press (labeled the "UWM Press"), the Panthers scored two upsets in three days over University of Alabama and Boston College en route to the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois. The Panthers finished their season 26-6 and were ranked in the coaches poll at the end of the season for the first time ever (#23). Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, his fourth, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage (51-13, 79.7%).
Moving on to Tennessee
On March 28, 2005, Pearl was named as the new head coach at Tennessee, succeeding Buzz Peterson. He got off to a rocky start when Jamont Gordon and Tyler Smith, two highly-rated in-state recruits, one of whom (Smith) had signed with the Vols under Peterson, decided not to attend Tennessee. Gordon went to conference rival Mississippi State. Smith opted for a season of prep school before heading to Iowa, although he later transferred to Tennessee and is currently a starter at forward for the Vols. Pearl stirred up more controversy when he released Matthew Dotson from his scholarship.
Expectations were low for the Vols in Pearl's first season. Having lost their two leading scorers from a team that had been just 14-17 the previous season, Tennessee was picked to finish fifth in the six-team Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. However, the season started off well, and Tennessee entered the national rankings in December, when it routed then No. 8-ranked Texas, 95-78.
The Vols went on to lead the SEC East for virtually the entire season, with other highlights being a win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena and two wins over eventual national champion Florida. But after entering the AP Top 10 in February, the team lost six of its last nine games and dropped to a ranking of 18th. Although Tennessee won the SEC East, it was upset in the second round of both the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, the latter as a No. 2 seed. The team's 22-8 record was still one of the best in school history.
Following the season, Pearl drew accolades from national recruiting services for signing one of the nation's best recruiting classes, featuring three top-50 recruits in Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith.
On January 22, 2007, Pearl attended a Lady Vols game in Knoxville, shirtless. He had his upper body painted orange and spelled out "V-O-L-S" with a few of his players (Pearl was the "V"). Pearl stood in front of the student section and cheered for the Lady Vols as they came out. Pearl's actions brought national media attention to the Tennessee program and highlighted efforts to support women's collegiate athletics. Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt returned the favor on February 27, 2007, by coming out as a cheerleader, complete with uniform, and rallying fans. The seventh-largest crowd in school history also witnessed Pearl's squad rout the then No. 4-ranked and defending National Champion Florida Gators.
Pearl's team went on to finish tied for second in the SEC East with Vanderbilt, earning a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Vols crushed Long Beach State by 35 points in the first round, then rallied to upset Virginia to reach Pearl's second Sweet 16. The Vols nearly knocked off Ohio State, the nation's top-ranked team, in the next round, but lost by a point after leading for most of the game. The team's 24 victories were the third most in the program's history.
Pearl was rumored as a candidate for the head coaching position at Iowa, but indicated on March 27, 2007 that he was not interested in leaving Tennessee.
On Sept 10, 2007, just after an 11 day trip to Europe with his basketball team ended, Pearl filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 25 years. The couple's 25th anniversary was two days after Pearl filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
