SAN ANTONIO — As one college coaching job after another one comes open, I keep waiting for a link to Tennessee's Bruce Pearl.

I'm not saying he's in the market. I'm just saying I can't think of a better candidate based on what he has done in two years at UT.

Never mind that his team blew a 20-point lead in losing to Ohio State 85-84 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA's South Regional on Thursday night in the Alamodome.

Forget that game. Remember the last two years. Better yet, remember all the disappointing basketball seasons that preceded the last two years.

In just two seasons, Pearl already has won three NCAA tournament games. That's as many NCAA tournament games as the Vols won in the 22 previous seasons.

Pearl hasn't just won games. He has won over the fans.

A caller to the News Sentinel's radio show, The Sports Page, said Friday morning he would rather invest his sports dollars in UT basketball tickets than the football tickets he has held in the past. And he said that within 12 hours of one of the most disappointing losses in UT history.

Following such a loss, fans are sometimes ready to run the coach out of the town. UT fans are clamoring for Pearl to get a raise.

Why not? You know the history of UT basketball. You also have seen a preview of what's ahead. The Vols will lose only one of their top nine players from a team that won 24 games.

Pearl has proved he can coach and recruit. He has proved he can hire assistants who can coach and recruit as well.

But he also can promote. Man, can he promote.

In Thursday's USA Today, Pearl's picture was at the top of the front page. He and UT basketball were the featured story on the sports front.

That's what he has done for UT basketball. And that's why I'm surprised his name hasn't already been linked to more coaching jobs.

Texas A&M and Memphis were in the midst of one of the best college basketball games you will ever see Thursday night when a press-row pundit pointed out the significance of the outcome. He wasn't referring to a spot in the Elite Eight.

"It's a play-in game for the Kentucky job," the sportswriter joked.

By then, Memphis coach John Calipari and Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie had been mentioned as possible candidates for the Kentucky job Tubby Smith left behind for Minnesota on Thursday. So has almost every other successful coach younger than John Wooden.

Sure, Kentucky would like to hire Billy Donovan, a former assistant to former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino. But why would Donovan leave Florida, where he already has won one national championship but where the expectations never will be as high as they are at Kentucky?

One answer: Prestige.

Ask Smith about the prestige of coaching at Kentucky.

In fact, Smith was never a good fit at Kentucky. He had the coaching expertise, but not the personality.

Pearl has both. And that's why his name should be a topic for discussion at Michigan, Iowa and Arkansas.

Although the Arkansas job isn't open yet, that could change any minute. If Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles decides to fire Stan Heath — and the odds are he will — the Razorbacks can offer a coach great tradition, a readymade NCAA tournament team and, of course, big bucks.

Of all the schools in search of a new coach, Iowa has the strongest connection to Pearl. He was a young assistant there from 1986 through 1992 under then-coach Tom Davis.

But it's questionable whether Iowa, if it were interested in Pearl, could offer him enough money. And even if it could, why would Pearl want to leave UT for Iowa?

He has made the UT job a better one than it was when he was hired. He's adored in Knoxville. His son, Steven, is a redshirt freshman on the team. And his next team should be his best yet.

Also, there's the Mike Hamilton factor.

Hiring Pearl is Hamilton's crowning achievement as UT's athletic director. Pearl is the last coach guy Hamilton would want to lose. He wants to be known as the guy who hired Pearl, not the one who let him get away.

So I can understand why Hamilton would do everything he could to keep Pearl at UT. I also can understand why Pearl would want to stay put.

But I don't understand why any school in need of a basketball revival would leave Pearl off its list of candidates.