Argue the merits of Bruce Pearl (merged)

#352
#352
hatvol96 said:
At their lowest ebb, Louisville was still on national TV all the time and signing top 100 players. At no point in the last 30 years has Louisville been irrelevant.
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No one cared about Louisville in the late 90s
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#353
#353
orangetanker11 said:
Just out of curiosity, why Gonzalez? His record at Seton Hall doesn't really scream greatness.
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It's a tough place to coach, they don't exactly have a great winning tradition and the Big East is brutal pretty much every year. That said, while the record didn't improve from last year to this year, what I have seen of them looks much improved. They aren't spectacular, but they are probably only a couple of years away from challenging for a tourney birth. He also did well at Manhattan and coached under Pete Gillen. There is a lot to like about him, even though his record at Seton Hall may not exactly show it.
 
#354
#354
emainvol said:
It's a tough place to coach, they don't exactly have a great winning tradition and the Big East is brutal pretty much every year. That said, while the record didn't improve from last year to this year, what I have seen of them looks much improved. They aren't spectacular, but they are probably only a couple of years away from challenging for a tourney birth. He also did well at Manhattan and coached under Pete Gillen. There is a lot to like about him, even though his record at Seton Hall may not exactly show it.
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Seton Hall will make the NCAA Tournament next year.
 
#355
#355
hatvol96 said:
Seton Hall will make the NCAA Tournament next year.
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It wouldn't shock me. He is doing a good job up there.

What do you think hat, is Gonzalez a "next level" type of coach?

Further, and hypothetically speaking of course, where would he be on your list of candidates if Pearl were to leave?
 
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#356
#356
emainvol said:
It wouldn't shock me. He is doing a good job up there.
What do you think hat, is Gonzalez a "next level" type of coach?

Further, and hypothetically speaking of course, where would he be on your list of candidates if Pearl were to leave?
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What do you think the people outside of the Tennessee fan base are saying about CBP? I've heard many people say "He is doing a good job up there." (Or down there, depending on who you're talking to.)
 
#357
#357
orangetanker11 said:
What do you think the people outside of the Tennessee fan base are saying about CBP? I've heard many people say "He is doing a good job up there." (Or down there, depending on who you're talking to.)
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I think Bruce Pearl does a fine job of selling the program. Bobby G. does a good job in a lot of the areas that CBP is lacking.
 
#358
#358
emainvol said:
It wouldn't shock me. He is doing a good job up there.

What do you think hat, is Gonzalez a "next level" type of coach?

Further, and hypothetically speaking of course, where would he be on your list of candidates if Pearl were to leave?
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Bobby's awfully high strung. I'm not sure a job like Tennessee, where the Vols are the only game in town, wouldn't drive him crazy. I can't imagine Gonzo enjoying the Big Orange Caravan and the other bootlicking foolishness UT coaches are expected to engage in with regularity.
 
#359
#359
emainvol said:
It wouldn't shock me. He is doing a good job up there.

What do you think hat, is Gonzalez a "next level" type of coach?

Further, and hypothetically speaking of course, where would he be on your list of candidates if Pearl were to leave?
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It's always tough to speculate on candidates if you don't know when you're going to be needing a coach. Tim Jankovich is a name that comes to mind.
 
#360
#360
emainvol said:
I think Bruce Pearl does a fine job of selling the program. Bobby G. does a good job in a lot of the areas that CBP is lacking.
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Selling the program? I agree he is the face of UT basketball, but he can coach. I don't think Pearl is perfect, far from it. However, I cannot ignore the fact that he led a team with middle of the road talent to being the #1 team in the nation last year. With the players he has now and the players he had in the past here, in my book he has flat out overachieved. Now, if becoming a #9 seed in the tournament starts to become a trend, then we need to start thinking about getting someone else in here. Until then, it's not going to happen, nor should it.
 
#361
#361
orangetanker11 said:
Selling the program? I agree he is the face of UT basketball, but he can coach. I don't think Pearl is perfect, far from it. However, I cannot ignore the fact that he led a team with middle of the road talent to being the #1 team in the nation last year. With the players he has now and the players he had in the past here, in my book he has flat out overachieved. Now, if becoming a #9 seed in the tournament starts to become a trend, then we need to start thinking about getting someone else in here. Until then, it's not going to happen, nor should it.
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Leading a team to number one is to be commended, but I just can't ignore the flaws in his coaching anymore. He has yet to field a good defensive team. Creating turnovers is great, but if you can't do that (and this year Tennessee hasn't been able to) then you have to be able to at least slow a team down in the halfcourt. He hasn't had a team that can do that yet. The team looks lost in the halfcourt offense, which has also been a problem in his other years. They can't get it done in the postseason, the discipline problems are glaring. It's frustrating and my opinion of his coaching ability isn't going to change unless he can fix these problems.

That said, I do think he has earned at least two more years to try to work everything out and grow as a coach. I am not trying to dismiss what he has done so far, but this is his team now, he needs to take that next step.
 
#362
#362
emainvol said:
Leading a team to number one is to be commended, but I just can't ignore the flaws in his coaching anymore. He has yet to field a good defensive team. Creating turnovers is great, but if you can't do that (and this year Tennessee hasn't been able to) then you have to be able to at least slow a team down in the halfcourt. He hasn't had a team that can do that yet. The team looks lost in the halfcourt offense, which has also been a problem in his other years. They can't get it done in the postseason, the discipline problems are glaring. It's frustrating and my opinion of his coaching ability isn't going to change unless he can fix these problems.

That said, I do think he has earned at least two more years to try to work everything out and grow as a coach. I am not trying to dismiss what he has done so far, but this is his team now, he needs to take that next step.
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I agree with you that he needs 2 more years. I'll also agree with you that this year, there have been few instances where we have shown that we even knew what defense was.

Now, at this moment, would I would like to believe is that he doesn't have the talent that can execute. Also, the argument could be made that all the players he has are his recruits. J.P. was a transfer, and a waste of a scholarship. Duke and Ramar were shown the door. Hopson will be a superstar. Tatum will be fine. Maze will be fine. Woolridge will be fine. Tyler Smith, a transfer, in my opinion, is overrated. Chism, if he stays one more year, can be a superstar.

None of the above mentioned guards and SF's, from what I've seen, have learned HOW to play defense on the collegiate level. Prince is...well...you know how that ends. Hopson, of course is a freshman, which I can guarantee you has never had to learn how to play defense against quality opponents. Woolridge is seldom used unless someone gets in foul trouble, so we really don't know what he can do. Tatum just hasn't figured out defense, in general.

I'm not trying to persuade anyone into believing CBP is the best coach in the nation. The message I want to get across is that aside from Chism, (you can make an argument for Tyler) the talent level is not necessarily championship caliber. I think this team can be great, but just as much as the blame can be placed on the coach, it can be blamed on the players.
 
#363
#363
I get the impression some on here think it is easy to recruit great basketball players to Tennessee and its not.

If pearl was gone for greener pastures tomorrow who comes in that will elevate the program?

Self, Izzo, Donovan, who, dangit,,, WHO ,,,, I said WHO!

No one else I see is a better fit and ambassador for the University. Even down in Tampa I have heard him on the radio about five times inthe past week. He is workin it for UT.
 
#365
#365
Tampavolz said:
I get the impression some on here think it is easy to recruit great basketball players to Tennessee and its not.

If pearl was gone for greener pastures tomorrow who comes in that will elevate the program?

Self, Izzo, Donovan, who, dangit,,, WHO ,,,, I said WHO!

No one else I see is a better fit and ambassador for the University. Even down in Tampa I have heard him on the radio about five times inthe past week. He is workin it for UT.
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Just wondering, what do you think it is that makes it so hard to get great players to Tennessee?
 
#369
#369
Any of you guys that think pearl should go are just stupid. He has built this program like never before. If he starts finishing in the middle of the SEC for a few years then talk about it.
 
#370
#370
bop_rocco said:
Any of you guys that think pearl should go are just stupid. He has built this program like never before. If he starts finishing in the middle of the SEC for a few years then talk about it.
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With this SEC, fielding only 3 teams, one of which got in because we choked, consider this a middle of the pack finish.
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#371
#371
Pearl has been GREAT for UT--no question about it. He's got energy and personality, and his style of basketball is fun to watch--all of which have brought recognition to the Vols. Recognition helps with recruiting--and believe me every team in the SEC needs all the recruiting help it can get, because 80 percent of the true blue chips go the blue-chip programs in the big east and acc, mainly.

While I like watching uptempo basketball, I seriously question whether you can win a title with it--unless you've got Louisville or UNC style talent. I'm not a fan of duke, but I do believe that Coach K is the best pure coach in the game, and if I were a young coach I would certainly try to emulate his philosophy. He puts a major emphasis on defense, and his teams are pretty disciplined on offense--they'll shoot a lot of treys, they'll run when they have numbers, but they are not sloppy and they do not typically have a lot of turnovers. You've got to be able to play half-court basketball, on both ends, to really succeed. It's interesting that duke actually doesn't get the ballers that it used to--and that memphis, louisville and and unc get--because K opted a few years ago to stop recruiting players who were considered short-timers. He does not at all like the idea of recruiting some stud who's going to play a year, maybe two and then leave--and I applaud him for that philosophy.
 
#372
#372
myrobbins7 said:
Just wondering, what do you think it is that makes it so hard to get great players to Tennessee?
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Got excited in my last post... and wanted to see the larger fonts for a change.... I think UT is not unlike 98% of all D-! schools in this regard. If we were populated like Philly, New England, or DC - Virginia area we would be able to get continuous quality players.
 
#373
#373
Tampavolz said:
Got excited in my last post... and wanted to see the larger fonts for a change.... I think UT is not unlike 98% of all D-! schools in this regard. If we were populated like Philly, New England, or DC - Virginia area we would be able to get continuous quality players.
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There are plenty of great basketball programs that are in areas comparable in size to Knoxville or smaller.
 
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#375
#375
hatvol96 said:
Green should have invested in body paint and self tanner. Those are the marks of a good coach.
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taking a dead program and making the ncaa tourny 4 straight years is the mark of a good coach. btw he has also won 20 games every year he has been in knoxville. just throwin that one out there.
 
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