Bruce Pearl had the spotlight, but Tony Jones brought the swagger.

Pearl’s right hand man, his top assistant and recruiting coordinator, acts like a coach itching to take on all comers in the SEC.

He’s a Detroit native and former player at Fisk University in Nashville.

When Pearl was named Tennessee’s basketball coach on Monday, Jones was right by his side, fielding the same questions over and over.

Can you guys recruit in Tennessee? Can you go into the Memphis hotbed and be effective?

Jones just smiled.

"We expect to use our down-home personality," he said. "Expect me, Bruce and (assistant) Jason (Slay) to be ourselves.

"It has worked at all the spots I’ve been at. I’ve always been able to assemble top-notch recruiting classes and I’ve always won wherever I’ve been. Obviously, Bruce’s numbers speak for themselves."

Jones spent four years on Pearl’s staff at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to that, he was assistant head coach at Toledo for five years.

"People are the same all over," Jones said. "People understand character and sincerity when you try to bring their young man to your school.

"They’ll be able to decipher the type of character that they’re going to see in our basketball staff."

While Pearl spent his Tuesday going to Philadelphia in support of the Lady Vols in the NCAA tournament, Jones and Shay were getting busy with UT’s returnees.

The initial message was a hit.

"Bruce told them that people are going to be scared to play Tennessee," Jones said. "They’re going to trapped. They’re going to be pushed. They’re going to be shoved.

"People are honestly going to fear playing you, and they really liked that idea."

UT fans are obviously jumping on the Pearl bandwagon as well.

"The basketball office has already taken tons of calls requesting Coach Pearl for speaking engagements," said Tiffany Carpenter, UT’s director of public relations.

UT associate athletic director John Currie had two calls on his personal phone requesting tickets.

"One thing I take from Coach Pearl is his ability to market a program," Shay said, a former Iowa player. "He’ll do fundraising functions all spring and summer trying to get people to understand what we’re trying to do here for Tennessee basketball.

"We’re trying to raise the level of expectations, and he’ll do that in a number of ways. We’re going to get to work right away and start to implement our system."

Pearl’s former players at Wisconsin-Milwaukee are right where UT players were two weeks ago — without a coach.

While expressing regret at Pearl’s decision, they also wished him luck.

"He’s a family member, so we’re all happy for him," UWM senior Ed McCants told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "But it was very emotional in (the meeting Sunday night). ? It was like a father saying goodbye to 16 sons in there."