Wisdom of Pearl

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Maybe what best describes Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is that his leadership in high school got him elected class president and his personality won the vote for class clown.

In his second season since coming to Tennessee from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, that mix has put the Volunteers into the Sweet 16 for only the third time in school history. Tennessee takes its high-pressure defense and fast-break offense to the court tonight against No. 1 seed Ohio State, which narrowly eked out a two-point victory against the Vols at Columbus in January.

Pearl’s up-tempo attack this season earned Tennessee its first four-game win streak against ranked opponents, and his comic moments included showing up at a Lady Vols game with his chest painted Tennessee orange.

“Not a good look,” admits Pearl, who, with a gray V on his barrel chest, spelled out V-O-L-S with some of his players at the January women’s game against Duke.

“I ask our students to do that kind of stuff,” Pearl, 47, said. “The least I should be willing to do is do it with them.”

At halftime against Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Pearl came into the Tennessee locker room laughing out loud about how poorly the Volunteers were playing and marveling they were only down three.

But there’s also a stringently serious side to Pearl. That tough-love edge showed in his second day on the job in March 2005, when he had four Volunteers in the gym and running at 5 a.m., for study hall infractions.

“I told them they were going to run until someone put their head in a bucket,” Pearl said. “It didn’t take long.”

He told them, “Look, this isn’t personal, this is business. We’re going to do it the right way. We’re not going to cut corners, and we’re going to deserve victory.”

Two of the punished players – the Southeastern Conference’s top scoring tandem of junior guards Chris Lofton (20.7 points) and JaJuan Smith (15.3) – dropped plans to transfer after the predawn sprinting session. The others, center Major Wingate and power forward Jemere Hendrix, eventually were dismissed from the team by Pearl.

“I was close to leaving,” said Lofton, who has six games of at least 30 points this season. “I really didn’t like the situation we were in.”

Smith said Lofton immediately told him, “This is the guy we need.”

“Transferring was on a lot of guys’ minds,” Smith said of the transition period from coach Buzz Peterson’s 14-17 final season to Pearl. “We had been trying to give it our all, but we couldn’t find a way to win. It was tough on all of us.”

Before Pearl’s arrival, Tennessee had a winning record in half of the previous 16 seasons and had won only three NCAA tournament games in 22 years. Pearl has won that many in his two seasons.

Under him, the 24-10 Vols have the second-most victories in a season in school history. In their 121-86 first-round NCAA victory against Long Beach State they tied the mark for sixth-most points in a tournament game and scored the most since UNLV put up 131 against Loyola Marymount in 1990.

Average attendance has risen by about 7,000 to 19,961, Tennessee’s highest since the Vols’ inaugural season at the 24,535-capacity Thompson-Boling Arena in 1987-88.

That structure typifies Tennessee’s supersized approach to sports. But before Pearl, men’s basketball had been the conspicuous underachiever amid a perennially contending football team, a women’s basketball team that has won six national championships and a women’s softball power ranked No. 1.

“Why did I come to Tennessee?” Pearl asked. “Because they win in everything else. You’ve got a school that’s committed to winning.”

Learning from Summitt, Pearl quickly tapped into the mind-set of Tennessee’s proven winners. Although some men’s coaches might be uncomfortable playing on a court named for their school’s women’s coach, Pearl regularly seeks advice from the namesake of Pat Head Summitt Court.

“I really feel the chemistry between our two staffs has been very special,” Summitt said.

Monday, Pearl held a light practice after Summitt told him that might be a good leg reviver after Tennessee’s 77-74 second-round win against Virginia.

“Who am I going to argue with? Her?” Pearl said.

Pearl, Summit said, “has been a great fit for Tennessee. He brings incredible energy and enthusiasm to his team, to the community. He’s passionate about what he does.”

The first time the two met was after Pearl was hired and he flew to Philadelphia to watch the Lady Vols beat Rutgers and gain a Final Four berth in the women’s NCAA tournament.

“That made quite an impression,” said Summitt, who couldn’t coax Pearl into joining the on-court celebration.

“He didn’t want to take away from the team or anything that was going on,” said Summitt, who responded to Pearl’s chest-painting exhibition by wearing a vintage cheerleader dress when the men defeated defending national champion Florida at Tennessee on Feb. 27.

To import a football influence, Pearl moved weightlifting sessions to the football team’s gym.

“There’s a little more pressure over there,” he said. “If you can’t put up 185 (pounds), you’re going to feel pretty sorry.”

“Losing is not much of an option,” Pearl said. “I’m motivated by the fear of failure and Jewish guilt, and I work hard. I don’t want to let them down, and they don’t want to let me down.”