Athletes - Bruce Pearl

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	Athletes - Bruce Pearl

Bruce Pearl is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as the head coach of the University of Tennessee mens' basketball team. Before coming to Tennessee he 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. Tennessee recently received a controversial #2 seed in the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.

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 North Carolina, needed 370 games).

Recruiting Scandal

During the 1988-1989 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at 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 recorded a phone conversation with Thomas in which Thomas said he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins. Pearl then turned over the tapes to the NCAA.

When the NCAA investigated the alleged violations, the allegations proved spurrious, and Thomas himself said the story was false. Ultimately, Thomas and Collins were both cleared, and Thomas played for Illinois for 4 years. However, other improprieties were uncovered in the NCAA investigation, and Illinois suffered a one-year postseason ban and two years of scholarship reductions. Because of his actions, Pearl is reviled in the Illinois basketball community for tarnishing the image of Illinois basketball.

Success at USI and UWM

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.

Pearl took over as head coach of UWM in 2001. In just four seasons, he compiled 86 wins (including a school-record 26 in 2005) and led the Panthers to their first NCAA tournament appearances in 2003 and 2005, having won the Horizon League conference tournament in those years. Their 2005 run capped the best season in school history, as the Panthers won both the regular season and conference tournaments. Utilizing an intense full-court press (labeled the "UWM Press"), the Panthers scored two upsets in three days over Alabama and Boston College en route to the Sweet Sixteen. The Panthers finished their season 26-6 and were ranked in the coaches poll at the end of the season for the first time (#23). Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage (51-13, 79.7%).

Moving on to Tennessee

Pearl's 2005-2006 Tennessee squad finished the season ranked #18 in the country, and earned themselves a controversial #2 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Vols season ended in the round of 32 at the hands of a mid-major, Wichita State, with previous limited tournament experience.

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Athletes - Bruce Pearl

Recruiting Scandal

Success at USI and UWM

Moving on to Tennessee

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