Curious how many of you would like to see Bruce Pearl as our next basketball coach.

#76
#76
I would not support rehiring Bruce Pearl under any circumstances. The pro-Pearl crowd needs to accept the fact that the Bruce Pearl at UT ship has sailed and it’s not coming back.

In my opinion, this whole thread is a thinly veiled attack on Rick Barnes. It is amazing to me that we have an element of the fanbase that wants to talk about our next coach when we have a coach in place who has had UT basketball ranked in the AP top 5 well into the season in three of the last five years.

Finally, for all the folks harping about how Pearl rebuilt UT basketball- Rick Barnes did the same thing. I would contend that the rebuilding job by Barnes was even tougher than Pearl’s considering two of the three previous coaches before Barnes left with NCAA show cause penalties.
 
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#77
#77
cncchris33 said:
I agree with all of that save for the last sentiment, to an extent.

There are several who, like you said, hate the very mention of his name, but they are for the most part, the same handful who routinely make that opinion known and are here year-round in the BB forum, so it seems to be more pronounced.

There are, IMO, far more who love him and wish for his return, but aren't quite as ever-present in this forum. They usually show up when we play Auburn (especially when we lose to AU), when Auburn advances further in the postseason, or whenever we struggle. For them, the only answer to our coaching question is Bruce Pearl, and will be until the day he dies.

So I'd say the physical numbers lean heavily toward the Pearl supporters, but you just hear from them far less often. I'm with you...if he, hypothetically, somehow ended up back here as our coach, I'd still support the program, and I know he loves Tennessee. He wouldn't be my pick as I think there are more options outside of Pearl or failure. Some of our fans can't escape that mindset, nor the past, though, and will never accept that other good options exist, and we currently have one.
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As you said in a prior post, it is just strange how many fans are so myopic and incessantly continue the mantra of "Should we bring Bruce back?" given how everything ended although I suppose casual fans don't understand how selfish Bruce acted and how much he hurt his assistants and their families.

My understanding is growing for the "hate" of those who react so strongly to the regularly occurring queries on Bruce returning
 
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#80
#80
Vols till I fall said:
Pearl made a terrible basketball team somewhat relevant

Barnes has stabilized us into a relevant winning program

I'll take what we have now over entertainment and theater.

Pearl was good here at the time, we have our coach now
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No one said differently, my reply was to the question "what did Bruce Pearl accomplish", I don't know why this can't be discussed. It's like the woke people taking down statues of human history. Yes, Barnes actually brought the program back from an even worse position than Bruce. He made bricks with no straw and is a hall-of-fame coach, just ask Calaparie.
 
#81
#81
I'd take him for sure. I accept the fact that much of the fan base has moved on and circumstances are not likely to ever come to fruition but I like Pearl, think he is a great coach, and enjoyed his tenure at UT which was marred primarily by the NCAA's ridiculous unproportionate rulings, not his own behavior.
 
#82
#82
Jersey Moonshine said:
Curious how many of you would like to see Bruce Pearl as our next basketball coach. I’ll start by raising my hand. Pearl put Tennessee basketball back on the map which was no easy feat. I met him shortly after he was hired in 2005 at the Reebok ABCD camp in Hackensack, New Jersey. O.J. Mayo and Kevin Love were the big prospects there. Tubby Smith, Jim Boeheim and other big name coaches were there sitting in the stands at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Told my wife “look… It’s Bruce Pearl sitting up there by himself.“ We plopped down next to him and started a conversation. He couldn’t have been more engaging and passionate about Tennessee despite having just been hired. I told him how we camped out in line for Kentucky tickets during the early 80s with Dale Ellis, Michael Brooks and crew and how wild Stokely Athletic Center was in those days. He looked me dead in the eye and said “I’m going to do everything in my power to get it back to that.“ I could tell he absolutely meant it. You know what? He did. He actually did one better making poorly-designed, acoustically-challenged, non-intimidating TBA a home court advantage. He also knows how to coach deep into the NCAA tournament. Enough water has passed under the bridge. Bruce Pearl should succeed (the fairly-soon retiring) Rick Barnes. Same salary as Barnes is reasonable.. He’s a VFL. Can’t have much more skin here than he had. He had hot chicks on his boat on the Tennessee River and his wife divorced him and turned gangsta naming her hair salon “Alimony.“. Sounds like a very Tennessee thing.
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Stop!! Please get past the old coaches syndrome! Lane isnt coming back, Bruce isnt coming back either.
 
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#83
#83
zaqhhh said:
I'd take him for sure. I accept the fact that much of the fan base has moved on and circumstances are not likely to ever come to fruition but I like Pearl, think he is a great coach, and enjoyed his tenure at UT which was marred primarily by the NCAA's ridiculous unproportionate rulings, not his own behavior.
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Yeah.

It was all the NCAA’s fault.

They told him to lie and throw his own assistants under the bus.

You Pearl worshippers will do anything to defend him.
 
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#84
#84
VolFreakJosh said:
Yeah.

It was all the NCAA’s fault.

They told him to lie and throw his own assistants under the bus.

You Pearl worshippers will do anything to defend him.
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"Primarily" Not saying he didn't do wrong or deserve punishment but to say it was an equitable ruling is ridiculous.

Funny how you totally changed up my words to fit your narrative, isn't it? Makes me wonder what secrets you are trying to hide my guy.

Anyways, I am by no means a worshipper, I am totally fine with someone else leading us but simply responding to the prompt, I'd be fine with him coming back.
 
#85
#85
I loved Bruce when he was here, but that ship has sailed. Don’t even really associate him with us anymore
 
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#89
#89
If I had a chance to hire Pearl or wonder through the wilderness hiring a new coach every 3 years until I get lucky (which seems to be the way we usually do it) then yes. I would be happy to get Pearl back.
 
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#90
#90
While I think he’s a good coach and wouldn’t mind taking him I think we will be able to attract a lot of other big name coaches once Barnes retires.
 
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#93
#93
vols 30 said:
Why do some people believe there is a secret club of Vol fans who want Pearl back?

Vol fan #1 - " Do you like coach Pearl?"

Vol fan #2 - " yeah, I like him and I appreciate what he did here"

Vol fan #1 - " based on your answer, you must hate Barnes and want Pearl back."

Vol fan #2 - "I didn't say that at all."

Vol fan #1 - "too late"
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Gee I don't know....maybe because in 2023 a thread like this exists?
 
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#94
#94
zaqhhh said:
I'd take him for sure. I accept the fact that much of the fan base has moved on and circumstances are not likely to ever come to fruition but I like Pearl, think he is a great coach, and enjoyed his tenure at UT which was marred primarily by the NCAA's ridiculous unproportionate rulings, not his own behavior.
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If we took him back after Barnes retires/whatever then I think that means probably that A) we aren't getting the interest you'd hope we would get and B) Auburn wanted him gone. Basically I'm saying it's a bad sign that we'd have to settle for Pearl for nostalgia purposes.

And honestly can we admit that most of this is more emotional than logical? Because Barnes gets s*** on for his NCAAT problems and last time I checked Pearl ain't exactly Coach K in the NCAAT either. So we get pissed about Barnes but some are more than ready to welcome Pearl back with open arms? That makes no sense.
 
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#96
#96
VolsSportsFan said:
If we took him back after Barnes retires/whatever then I think that means probably that A) we aren't getting the interest you'd hope we would get and B) Auburn wanted him gone. Basically I'm saying it's a bad sign that we'd have to settle for Pearl for nostalgia purposes.

And honestly can we admit that most of this is more emotional than logical? Because Barnes gets s*** on for his NCAAT problems and last time I checked Pearl ain't exactly Coach K in the NCAAT either. So we get pissed about Barnes but some are more than ready to welcome Pearl back with open arms? That makes no sense.
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I think this is a bit of a misnomer, I don't really get pissed at having Barnes. Yes, I wish he'd perform better in the tourney, he is almost inexplicably bad in March but he is a fantastic coach overall and I absolutely want him kept.

I don't think its an either/or situation. Most people who like Pearl also like Barnes. Not like the conversation is dumping Barnes for Pearl.
 
#98
#98
zaqhhh said:
I think this is a bit of a misnomer, I don't really get pissed at having Barnes. Yes, I wish he'd perform better in the tourney, he is almost inexplicably bad in March but he is a fantastic coach overall and I absolutely want him kept.

I don't think its an either/or situation. Most people who like Pearl also like Barnes. Not like the conversation is dumping Barnes for Pearl.
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I didn't say it was. My point is that the BIGGEST problem people seem to complain about Barnes is his NCAAT peformances, yet many of said same people would welcome Pearl back. But as I said, Pearl isn't actually that great in the NCAAT either, certainly not some giant leap up from Barnes. So it gets down to if people's big problem is postseason success, why want Pearl back at all?
 
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#100
#100
vols 30 said:
A few fans. Probably like 5% of fans want him back
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Well now you're changing the topic; you asked why people think there's a secret club of Vol fans who want Pearl back; now you're saying it's maybe 5%. That sounds pretty secret to me and I think it's probably bigger than that.
 
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