The Right Choice?

[GVF]

First off, let me say that not being a BBall wizard, Pearl looks like a great choice for us athletically, and from an ambassador for the University standpoint, seems to be a very supportive and polished professional fit. The man just landed the job of his career, and his first order of business was to go to the LadyVol game, while his staff got to work. Instant fit.

Now, for the question...Will he truly bring success to the program. Afterall, most of the posts here during the weeks leading up to the announcement centered around not bringing in another up and coming mid-major coach. Well, SIU and UWM are mid-majors or less. Now, the posts are singing his praises as a great hire. Buzz was an up and coming. Personally, I had thought we could have attreacted a major conference coach, but there were thoughts in these threads of why would someone leave a major soild program to come here. Apparently those thoughts were correct. If in fact a major coach came and was only moderately successful, his career is tarnished. But for Pearl, it's a no lose game. We can't go down. We could remain as is. We could improve. In either case, Pearl doesn't lose.

Personally, I think we will inprove. How fast? I think Pearl was a D1 coach stuck in mid-major jobs due to the Illinois incident years ago. I think he was black balled. I don't view him as the typical D1 up and comer. Could we have done better if a major coach was truly interested. Probably. But, we got the best of what we had options for, and I think it will be a good fit, and i think we finally got a coach that can shut the revolving door of UT men's Bball coaches.

 

[USIEagles]

You will find the answer to your question soon. He was stuck in Mid-Major D I because of the incident. He can coach circles around most of current coaches in the SEC. The mark of a great coach is winning games with inferior talent. Coach Pearl can do that.

 

[donsargegolf]

amen, nice post. Bruce will be the man!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dizzyvol]

I love Bruce's attitude towards things

 

[UTVOLFAN]

It's easy to have a nice attitude when you just signed an over a million dollars a year contract...Hopefully he relays his attitude on the court.

 

[vols2345]

Lets only hope he can bring intesity to our team. I don't care if we win next year, just hanging in the games, no meltdowns, and solid defense is good enough for me.

 

[crazyguy]

aint that the truth...i'm so sick of gettting killed in the final 5 minutes...bust some heads bruce!!!

 

[LadyinOrange]

Originally posted by UTVOLFAN@Mar 31, 2005 5:58 PM
It's easy to have a nice attitude when you just signed an over a million dollars a year contract...Hopefully he relays his attitude on the court.

Amen to that.

 

[USIEagles]

What is interesting is seeing people on here saying they love his attitude so far. And that is what is the best thing about Pearl. He is the most confident upbeat coach you can find. Never panic, play hard and let er rip. That is the philosophy. And I have to think that is why he is successful. Who would you rather play for if you were a freshman? Coach Knight who is arrogant, set in his ways and will publicly humiliate you if you don't march to the beat of the general. Or Pearl who has confidence that makes him borderline on arrogance, even though that is about as far from the truth as possible. A coach that will let you make mistakes as long as you sell yourself out on the court the entire time. He will tell his team the only way you lose playing time is if you don't volunteer to take yourself out of the game when you are taxed. Which also leads me to my last point. In his system the play of the bench is crucial. He had a 10 man rotation at USI because he had the talent to do so. He had to shrink his bench at UWM because of need. He would prefer to press and run and shoot the entire game, but we are going to need 8 players than can play right now. Do we have 8?

 

[OWB]

Originally posted by USIEagles@Apr 1, 2005 4:19 PM
He would prefer to press and run and shoot the entire game, but we are going to need 8 players than can play right now. Do we have 8?

That is a tough question to answer. We have 8 guys, but each is only good at a certain thing so far. It would be hard to say the we have 5 complete players and even more difficult to say that we have 8.

 

[USIEagles]

We will have some problems playing the system he would like. He will have to adapt a bit, which he had to do to a certain degree this year at UWM. He will still press but you might see some more zone and Pearl does NOT like to play zone.