Man, that was the moment Tennessee owned the sport of basketball. The state I mean, not just the school. And Pearl knew the right way to sell it. He always did. He was great at speaking, great at motivating.
I think it started in earnest with that first Florida home game, what with the students camped out for tickets for unranked Tennessee versus #2 Florida, and Pearl got up above the crowd outside TBA, started all humble by saying "we've done nothing to deserve this," and then followed that up by yelling "we are your basketball team, I am your basketball coach, and WE WILL KICK FLORIDA'S ASS!" Just a smooth speaker. Knew exactly what he was doing. And to his great fortune, Tennessee *did* beat them -- with that, the era was on. That Florida game was the start, and the #1 vs #2 Memphis win was the high water mark. The two biggest bookends of the best era in modern Tennessee basketball history. Sure, they had success later, with the Elite Eight and that big Kansas upset, and so on, but man oh man. I wanted him there forever. I realize the reality of what came after, but I remember being tuned in and willing to travel to great lengths for Tennessee basketball during his time there.
I certainly hope we get back to that kind of level (sort of like we have this year with our rep for being a hard game). Barnes is a really good coach too. Just, not going to ever look back on Pearl with anything other than a smile. He put Tennessee front and center on the map during his years there.