Pearl resigned from his job with UW-Milwaukee last month to become the Volunteers' coach.
O'Neill, the former Marquette coach, was at Tennessee 1995-97 and is an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers. He disputes notions about the Tennessee program offered by Jerry Green, who coached there after O'Neill left.
Green recently said Tennessee's community lacked an urgency to have the Volunteers men's basketball team on a par with its football program and the women's basketball program.
"Jerry's wrong," O'Neill said during a telephone interview.
"When I was there, I felt we got great support from the top on down, great support from the community, all the money we needed to spend to recruit.
"I think it's a great job. At the time I left, we had recruited enough players that they had four straight 20-win seasons. When I left, all of those kids were freshmen and sophomores."
O'Neill said Pearl would take advantage of all the program has to offer.
"I feel you can recruit there," O'Neill said. "You got the state university of Tennessee, which has good basketball players in the state. Play in a great league. Great athletic tradition. I think it's a great place for Bruce to be. I think he will do a terrific job there."
Football rules Tennessee, but O'Neill said that shouldn't be a problem for the men's basketball coach. Pat Summit's women's program shouldn't be a problem, either.
"First of all, it's never going to be as big as football," O'Neill said, referring to the men's basketball program. "But it was really important to the university when I was there and really important to the community. You have awesome recruiting weekends around football.
"The whole thing with women's basketball is not a problem at all. Pat's great to work with. They have had a great program for a long time. So I saw that only as a positive."
O'Neill said he left Tennessee not because of resources or lack of commitment to men's basketball but because he had differences with the athletic director at the time, Doug Dickey.
- BOB WOLFLEY
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Phillip Fulmer through the years
Bruce Pearl through the years
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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