An Outside View: Nothing more to say

news@theheraldnewspapers.com Bruce Pearl has taken the Vol Nation by storm. Nothing more can be said or written about this Ray Mears-esque coach who has brought unprecedented excitement to University of Tennessee hoops. He is part P.T. Barnum, part Don King, part Zig Zeigler, part Billy Graham, part Houdini, and part Bobby Knight. He is just what Big Orange basketball fans needed to breathe life back into a program stuck in mediocrity. He walks on water and is being heaped with praise. Tear up his contract. Get out the checkbook. Let’s lock this miracle worker up for years to come. But let’s turn back the clock and see what some were saying about Pearl between April when he was hired and October when fall practice started. ~Pearl’s helter-skelter style of play won’t work against SEC talent. ~He talks about recruiting top flight players to UT but he will find out it’s not easy to lure the good players to Knoxville. ~He can forget recruiting Memphis. ~Bruce Pearl has never had a losing season as a college basketball coach. Well, that is about to change. ~The guy has a sense of humor. He actually thinks he can fill up Thompson Boling Arena. Maybe if they book it for a Rolling Stones concert. ~Someone needs to explain the facts of life to Pearl. Doesn’t he know this is a football school? ~What’s this talk about the NCAA Tournament? These guys in orange will be lucky to make it to the NIT. ~Hey, this ain’t Southern Indiana or Wisconsin-Milwaukee. ~With their lack of size and depth, this team won’t win a single game on the road in the SEC. ~If they have to start Dane Bradshaw, they won’t win six SEC games. ~JaJuan Smith was a walk-on. They need to take his scholarship and recruit somebody who can shoot and knows how to play defense. ~Pearl will regret botching the recruitment of high school stars Tyler Smith aid Jamont Gordon. ~He made a huge error by not keeping a single assistant coach from Buzz Peterson’s staff. He should have at least kept Chuck Benson to help recruit. ~Chris Lofton may not be athletic enough to play Pearl’s style of ball. The list goes on and on. The sad thing they are all comments made by this writer at one time or another to friends and co-workers. I was a Bruce Pearl fan long before the decision was made to bring him to Big Orange Country. I thought he was the right man for the job and he has proven me right. But he has also proven me wrong on so many fronts. I tried to quiet what I thought were unrealistic expectations. It would take Pearl at least three years to rebuild the program. Who could have imagined 21-6 and SEC East champs? Who could have predicted wins at Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt? Who would have ever thought tickets would be hard to come by for Vol home games? Who would believe that Dane Bradshaw would be a star in the SEC as a power forward? No one except maybe that guy who has made orange suspenders fashionable. There’s nothing more to say. He’s a showman, a promoter, a motivator, a magician, and a pretty darn good basketball coach. Mix it all together and you have a winner!