Budget, basketball high on UT wish list

Mike Hamilton could have used his three wishes to solve current perplexing problems.

One is the never-ending battle with the bottom line.

While UT's athletic machine enjoys fiscal soundness rare to most colleges, men's athletic director Hamilton conceded, "We are in a belt-tightening time.''

Two, UT is tightening its belt an extra notch to pay Buzz Peterson $1.39 million not to coach basketball next year. The UTAD is currently paying three coaches, two of them former ones.

"I can't put my finger on exactly why we haven't won in men's basketball,'' Hamilton said after introducing new basketball coach Bruce Pearl to the board.

"But I think Bruce will win. I think this is the coach who will take us there.''

Three, the administration isn't sure yet how to address the rash of football players getting in trouble - most of it violent.

"I don't know that we have a magic wand,'' Hamilton said, "but we have taken and will continue to take a very proactive approach.''

In her update to the board, women's athletic director Joan Cronan was the bearer of good tidings. Five of six Lady Vol sports completed to date won SEC championships, Cronan said. As usual, the women have performed as well in the classroom as on the field.

Hamilton's report was a mixed bag.

Revenue and fund-raising are generally positive. Most men's sports are on good tracks, performance-wise, Hamilton said.

Basketball, however, remains an enigma. Pearl promised improvement.

He spoke of raising the current players' expectations for themselves and creating an environment future ones will want to join.

"There's a feeling,'' Pearl said, "among Tennessee's finest high-school players they have to be at Kentucky or Florida to be successful.

"I can change that quickly.''

Meanwhile, Hamilton said the department will borrow from the university to spread the burden of Peterson's lump-sum buyout over several years.

The $192,400 to buy out Pearl's contract at Wisconsin-Milwaukee will come from operational expenses.

The NCAA's new academic reform agenda has put Pearl's team in danger of losing a future scholarship.

Hamilton confirmed the men's basketball team won't be able to improve their APR (academic performance rate) sufficiently to meet the 925 cut-off by next fall. Thus, if a current player drops out or transfers without being in good academic standing, the penalty would be a lost scholarship.

"That's got to be a top priority,'' Hamilton said.

At Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Pearl's program had a solid APR of 953.

As for the football incidents, Hamilton said he met Friday with coach Phillip Fulmer, UT president John Petersen, chancellor Loren Crabtree and others.

"We've got some things we can do,'' Hamilton said. "They may not be earth-shaking in nature, but there's things we're going to do over the next several months that are internal to us.''

Petersen, who attended the board meeting, said, "Coach Fulmer has been as proactive about this as he possibly can.

"It's something we're going to have to work through, but I'm confident that we have a (administrative) team in place that will work very hard to do as much as they can to stem this.''

Facilities: The $107 million Neyland Stadium renovation has been modified to include concourse improvement in Phase One that will be ready for the 2006 season.

With Pearl in place, UT will renew stalled efforts to fund a $15 million basketball practice facility. A critical part of the funding must come from 28 luxury boxes at a revamped Thompson-Boling Arena. So far, there are eight commitments.

Hamilton supports the practice facility. Not only would it be a recruiting tool, but it would also free more dates for the arena to be booked for events that could make it profitable. The UTAD is budgeting $1 million in arena operation debt.

Academics: Dr. Ruth Darling is leaving the directorship of the Thornton Center to head a new campus-wide counseling office modeled after the Thornton Center's success.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276.