And rest assured, they'll rip him [Pearl] at Florida. Pearl brought his team through the crowd last January in Knoxville before playing the undefeated Gators, then coached it to an 80-76 upset. He beat Florida in Gainesville, too, while manically sweating through the coat and pants on his gray suit, 76-72. And at this SEC media day he mentioned, oh, five or six times that his overachieving Vols beat the eventual national champs twice.
How much do the Gators want payback for that sweep? Pearl bumped into Florida hero Joakim Noah in July at the adidas camp in Georgia, where Noah was a counselor, and asked the Final Four Most Outstanding Player why he came back to college.
Noah's answer: "The real reason I'm coming back? To beat you guys twice."
Pearl, getting in the last word: "We might play three times."
