UT's final four: Pearl joins Lutz, Anderson, Altman as candidates

Bruce Pearl officially joined Dana Altman, Mike Anderson and Bobby Lutz as a finalist for the UT men's basketball coaching vacancy on Friday.

One day after University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee lost to Illinois in the round of 16 of the men's NCAA basketball tournament, Pearl was expected to meet with UT athletic director Mike Hamilton in Chicago on Friday.

"Tennessee did make us aware that they were interested in speaking with coach Pearl once we were done with the NCAA tournament," University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sports information director Kevin O'Connor said Friday.

"Obviously, we would not stay in the way of coach (Pearl) looking into the opportunity and learning more about the situation."

Hamilton did not return calls seeking comment.

Pearl obviously has the hot name in the search to replace Buzz Peterson, who was fired March 13.

Pearl led the Panthers to back-to-back NCAA upsets of Alabama and Boston College.

But Pearl, 45, isn't a "one-year wonder." He was a longtime assistant coach at Iowa under Dr. Tom Davis.

He led Southern Indiana to a Division II national championship in 1995 and has spent the past four years putting UW-Milwaukee on the map nationally.

Pearl signed a five-year contract at the Horizon League school prior to the start of this season.

He's making a base salary of $275,000 with that escalating to more than $300,000 in a deal through 2008-09.

While the NCAA tournament approaches its Final Four, the group of Pearl, Altman, Anderson and Lutz appears to be UT's version of the Final Four.

Cedric Dempsey, the man in charge of the Champ Search operation for UT, has said the ball is basically in the court of Hamilton at this point.

The Los Angeles-based search firm has identified its suggested candidates and Hamilton continues an ongoing interview process.

Dana Pump, a representative of Champ Search, was in Chicago this week, as was UWM.

Altman is remaining quiet on the subject of his possible interest in Tennessee.

"You know, I'm not going to talk about that," Altman told the Omaha World-Leader.

UT officials have reportedly already talked with Altman and were "very impressed," the News Sentinel reported previously.

Anderson and Lutz also have been contacted by UT and are mentioned as possible "B" list candidates for the vacant Virginia coaching job.

Currie Is MTSU Finalist: UT's John Currie, associate athletic director under Hamilton, has his own final four to worry about.

He's one of four finalists to become athletic director at Middle Tennessee State University.

The 1993 Wake Forest graduate has been on UT's staff since 2000 and is currently aiding Hamilton in the coaching search process.

The other finalists are Tom Collins, an associate athletic director at Arizona State; Kathleen DeBoer, a former senior associate AD at Kentucky; and Chris Massaro, a 20-year veteran in the South Carolina athletic department.