Bruce Pearl is coming and going, adding meetings, appearances and trips to an already busy schedule.
It's not easy staying near the top of the collegiate basketball world, but Tennessee's head coach is trying as he prepares for his fourth year at the helm.
"Yep, I was there (in Tampa, Fla.) to see the Lady Vols win last night (Sunday). Wasn't that great?'' Pearl said. "I'll be headed back down there for the championship game.''
Pearl was in San Antonio on Thursday to be honored as the Adolph Rupp national coach of the year, and on Saturday he did the pregame Final Four show on CBS from the Alamo City.
"You know what's great about the title game between Memphis and Kansas?'' Pearl said. "One way or another, we'll be playing the defending national champions for the third year in a row, with that game at Kansas (Jan. 3, 2009) and our game with Memphis.''
The Vols won three of four against the Florida teams that won national titles in 2006 and 2007 before sweeping the young Gators this season.
Pearl said the Vols' upcoming schedule, which also includes non-conference games with NCAA tournament teams Gonzaga, Temple and Belmont in addition to a Thanksgiving weekend swing through the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., has had the desired effect.
"We're obviously on the right track with our scheduling,'' he said. "Playing the teams that we do helps us recruit.''
The UT players on campus are doing individual work on their own, but Pearl stresses their main focus must be on academics.
"There is no organized team stuff going on; we want them on top of their studies before coming back revitalized and fresh,'' Pearl said. "We'll start offseason conditioning next week.''
Pearl said having Kansas and Memphis on the schedule is sure to get his players' attention.
"They know where we're going and who we're playing,'' Pearl said, "so they know they need to be excited about improving.''
Pearl said he is headed to Port Smith, Va., on Thursday to assist departing seniors JaJuan Smith and Chris Lofton at an NBA draft camp featuring 32 of the nation's top outgoing seniors.
"I want to help Chris and JaJuan through the process as much as I can, with all the pro scouts and agents that will be on hand,'' Pearl said. "My guys don't care how much I know until they know how much I care. Part of that is taking care of them after they leave.''
Pearl said he expects to receive NBA draft evaluations on Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism within the next couple of weeks. Smith has said he will not return for his junior season if projected to be selected in the top-half of the first round.
Schedule update: The Vols' non-conference schedule to date (with 2008 RPI in parenthesis) includes road games at Temple (No. 47), vs. Marquette (No. 20) in Nashville, at Middle Tennessee State (No. 110) and at Kansas (No. 5).
There are non-conference home games with Gonzaga (No. 30), UT Chattanooga (No. 146), UT Martin (No. 209), Belmont (No. 78), Memphis (No. 3) and Louisiana-Lafayette (No. 182). The Vols still have a home game to add.
Tennessee also plays three games in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando on Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day/night), Nov. 28 and Nov. 30. That field includes: Gonzaga, Michigan State (No. 16), Maryland (No. 85), Oklahoma State (No. 77), Siena (No. 66), Wichita State (No. 199) and a team to be named later.
Dates and times will be released when approved by the SEC office.
Vanderbilt 93, Tennessee 79, Feb. 9…
Signing day celebration at Neyland…
Notre Dame beats Tennessee 72-44…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 81
cdonsbach writes:
GO VOLS!
Bruce Pearl is the man and he has us headed in the right direction.
bmaples writes:
Play Louisville again, so I can win again no matter what! :--)
Bruce in Louisville, who's also a long-time Vol fan
keeso1 writes:
Pearl is just what the doctor ordered!!!
BDavis writes:
I was watching the NC game and saw Calipari blow it, Coach Pearl would have fouled Kansas and sent to the line instead of letting them hit the 3 and send the game into OT. You think Calipari would have figured out that. Thank goodness we have Bruce.
billadcock#209476 writes:
Memphis just got beat.......I can't help it, I am glad!!!!!
DooleyNoted writes:
I can't believe they didn't foul Chalmers either.
coach75 writes:
not only did memhpiss come in second in the nc game but they came in second in the battle for state bragging rights.
rbatten9#231828 writes:
I hope the Memphis fans learned their lesson about coming over to the Knoxville board and bragging before the game.
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
MrBamSeydu writes:
Where's that Memphis fan who loves to run his mouth on these message boards????? He wanted to bust on us for losing in the Sweet 16, but finishing 2nd is no different than finishing 16th... it just means you're the 1st loser!
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!! I HATE MEMPHIS!! GO VOLS!!
richvol writes:
Pearl represents UT so well in everything he does. Recieving the Rupp Award is really special. Coach Mears,who held Rupp in such high esteem,would have been very proud of Coach Pearl.
I'd like to see a series with Louisville too. We need to figure out how to beat them.
Fullamanure...that's funny.
HotlantaVol writes:
I look forward to all of the Memphis players going pro and us whipping them in K'ville next year. Tennessee by 30+!!
HotlantaVol writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
richvol:
To be really fair, UL has a long, proud basketball tradition and we are, well, spotty. UL has nearly always had more talent.
We have played them several VERY good games. Seems like there was a game WAY back when Dale Ellis was playing where we had a good chance...but the dang gym was VERY hot, and Dale wore down. If I recall correctly, the teams Dale was on were Basically Dale and not much else.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Wow, just reading about CBP's schedule wears me out! He is the greatest salesman for Vol bball and the university we have ever had. He is really building something special here. Next year's schedule should be enough to concentrate the minds of the players wonderfully. It's great...to be...a TENNESSEE VOLUNTEER!!!
BTW, mparker, I think richvol and most of the rest of us are all on the same page with regard to Louisville. We are still striving to reach their level, but I think we are almost there. The best is yet to come!
lnbadger320 writes:
bdavis, that is a great point. 3 needed to tie, foul them before the shot. i know BP did that earlier this year and it worked great.
BigMikeUT writes:
Well, to be fair, Memphis was trying to foul Collins, but they didn't blow the whistle. Collins managed to get it to Chalmers and the rest is history. Great championship game last night. Two truly great basketball teams. Looking forward to UT getting the opportunity to measure themselves against both next year. Memphis will likely take a big step back next year without CDR, Rose, and Dorsey though. I've gotta admit that I did get a good bit of pleasure watching Memphis blow the title with poor free throw shooting at the end (especially since I had Kansas winning it all and therefore won my pool). I'm looking forward to owning Memphis yet again in Knoxville next year.
utvol1961#212938 writes:
The city is Portsmouth, VA...........not Port Smith.
THE_VOL writes:
utvol1961 - what do you expect? It's Mike Griffith!
bflynn - yeah right! The season ended less than 24 hours ago and you wanna start that phooey. There is a HUGE difference between optimism and denial of reality pal!
BigMike - don't care what Cheater Cal said about trying to foul, there was NOBODY on the floor that looked to be trying to and more than one had great chances. IF he REALLY wanted to foul em, why didn't he take a timeout after the free throw to set his D and make sure they knew what to do??? It looked to me like the pussycats just flat choked and that includes the great Cheater!
BigMikeUT writes:
You're right...I had obviously seen the replay multiple times last night, but hadn't watched very closely to see if they were fouling or not. I had just remembered Collins falling to the ground and figured that they had fouled him after reading Calipari's comments this morning. But yeah, I just looked at the replay and they definitely were not trying to foul. Dumb coaching.
TommyJack writes:
How about that KU shirt that Roy Williams was wearing? Not a Coach Cal fan, Roy? Hmmm?
knoxtenor writes:
I dare ya, Bruce! Get out the orange body paint tonight!
overatedvols writes:
What happened overatedTigers did you get banned over at the memphis board..ha.. I do believe you did along with anybody posting trash this time around. They let you guys do it last time but seems they are stopping it this time. Anyway, there is only one true overated.....the VOLS..ha
It's funny. All those vol trash talkers have had to wait and wait..just waiting on the tigers to lose so they could go talk trash and i'm sure it was so frustrating because they would never lose. You guys came over there talking trash awhile back and then proceded to crash and burn. As a result you got a dose of your own medicine..trash talk. So.. you had to sit and take it and hope and hope we lost. I know it was a long long frustrating wait. We just rarely lose. Finally you got your chance so you come swarming back over. It's funny to us though that a team that did nothing... talk about choke.. choke in the sec tourney and choke in the big dance... would come and try to talk trash to a team in the national championship game.. ha.. pretty funny but not surprising for so many vol fans. Oh well, at lest your women's team did good this year.
overatedvols writes:
Well I see some more posters on the memphis site that says the championship game proved we were really not that good and never worthy of a top rating. Yea... that came from one of you idiot vol fans. We hear it all over there. They came out of the woods again. Or out of the cracks maybe I should say. We've got to use stronger roach spray over there.
Oh, also an ongoing comment is that UT is better because you won that game. Now come now.. in looking at Memphis anniliate so many teams in the tournament you guys knew you wouldn't want to run into us again. If you did you would have met us in the title game..ha ha..what happened?
Also if your reasoning is that tenn is better because you won the game then...how does it feel to know Arkansas is better than you?
overatedvols writes:
HEE
overatedvols writes:
HAW
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Memphis choked...Calipari is a chump. Could he stutter and mumble anymore? I am glad he finally got to a Final 4 after being a head coach at the D-1 level for 16 years. The Final 4 from his Umass days was stripped from the NCAA records books due to NCAA violations.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Pearl owns Calipari...I love it!!!! Just like Tennessee owns Tiger High!!!!!LOL!!!!
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Funny how Louisville, DePaul, Marquette, and Cincinnati ditch CUSA and and then Memphis all of "sudden" starts winning big and going to the NCAA tournament on a regular basis. Coincidence? I think not. Chumps.
overatedvols writes:
Workin. those schools had nothing to do with us beating so many schools this year and making an incredible run thru the tourney...just ask texas, michigan st and ucla and might even mention it to miss. state also. Then there is georgetown..usc..on and on. You people need to accept it. We have the better basketball program and always have. You have a better football program. We don't argue about the football..we are smart enough to realize it..So, what's wrong with you people. People saying Tenn is better cause you have beat us two times are in denial. That is the equiavelent of the Tigers beating your football team for two years in row but yet your football team only loses 2 games all year and our football team loses many and then I say..well.our football team is better than yours. Well we aren't stupid enough to believe that. So, what's you guys problem?
One day maybe you guys can advance farther than the sweet 16 and then maybe people will say those Vols are pretty good but..right now nobody is saying it except for vol fans.
Just put basketball behind you and look forward to your football season. I think you'll actually have some sucess there. I hope you beat Alabama this year though. That one stung. I have many relatives from alabama and they think since i'm in Tenn that i'm a vol fan.They have no idea that memphis and vol fans hate each other. Sine we don't have anything in football I pretend to be a vol fan in football season just so I can have some wins. In basketball.....I don't need Tenn.
Anyway, at least you have the lady vols so you won't always have to be disappointed in Vol basketball. Oh.and one more thing....hee haw
TommyJack writes:
Overrated: I've stayed out of the Memphis feud. Don't particularly have anything against Memphis State. That said, the game last night was perhaps one of the biggest chokes in the history of the NCAA. Good lord, man. You're guys needed the Heimlich Manuever applied by game's end.
BigMikeUT writes:
I'm surprised overrated is able to type since I'm sure both his hands are still clasped firmly around his throat, much like CDR and Rose last night at the foul line. I think its rather funny that he comes on here to talk trash to a team that in the past two years has blown them out in Knoxville and beat them at their place against their "best team ever". Have fun replacing CDR, Rose, and that big thug Dorsey. We'll see you for your annual whooping next year. This time it'll be in Knoxville. Oh, and please stop pretending to be a Vol fan during football season, you give us true fans a bad name...
ULTIMATEVOLUNTEER writes:
overated...you idiot-ut did beat arkansas -by 20! it just EATS at you NON-STOP that the VOLS OWN MEMPHIS!!!!!!! The only way to compare is head to head and UT killed Memphis last year in Knoxville and went to Memphis on the "biggest game in Memphis history to date" (according to chokapari)and knocked them off their perch! WHOSE YOUR DADDY???????
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Memphis choked....LOL!!!!!!! We lead the overall series with Tiger High in their #1 sport. Pearl owns Calipari. Enough said. We OWN you in every sport although Memphis does have good basketball program from time to time.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
Our players will enjoy their SEC rings while Memphis players will be reminded of choking. I'm sure they'll really appreciate their CUSA/Great Midwest/Metro/Mississippi Valley conference title rings though. Memphis used to play home games at the YMCA and Messiah High School. Tiger High! LOL!!!!!!
THE_VOL writes:
GREAT POST MARCY!!!! IT TOOK YOU LESS THAN A FULL HOUR TO PUT MY THOUGHTS INTO YOUR WORDS!!! YOU ARE SUCH AN EXPERT ON THIS GAME IT IS TRULY SCARY!!! JUST THINK, WHEN YOU LEARN TO TYPE WITH TWO FINGERS YOU'LL BE ABLE TO GIVE US EVEN MORE OF YOUR INSIGHT! JUST STFU YOU WORTHLESS WANNABE MORON!!!
TommyJack writes:
who?
Razzle writes:
Nothing chokes like tiger high.
VolCane7979 writes:
"Sine we don't have anything in football I pretend to be a vol fan in football season just so I can have some wins. In basketball.....I don't need Tenn."
ARE. YOU. FREAKING. KIDDING. ME? You must like the Red Sox, Lakers, Buckeyes, Red Wings, and Cowboys too, right? I seriously hope you are kidding because if what you wrote is true, you are the worst kind of fan. You're THAT guy.
VOLS85 writes:
overated - My thought is that Memphis wanted to win two big games this season...
#1 - National Championship. Just like us, you didn't win it. Now you can quibble and say that we will never make it out of the sweet 16, but hell, at least we didn't blow a 9 point lead with 1:57 left. No one remembers the loser of the NC, only the winner.
#2 - Tennessee. It's a given that you MSU fans hate Tennessee more than we hate you, but at any rate, we own you in all sports, and I guess I can't blame you for hating us...
So to look back in retrospect, you won C-USA, we won the SEC, and neither of us won the national championship...but at least we took care of business in Memphis. I bet you would rather go 2-38 and win the national championship and beat UT, than go 38-2 and pull off one of the biggest choke jobs in college basketball history.
overatedvols writes:
Hey guys, at least your women took care of business and had some accomplishments. Maybe one year the mens team can get past the sweet 16. To the poster who said something about UT enjoying their SEC rings? Do they give rings to the teams that lose in the SEC. Wow, that's quite a conference.
I have two regrets about the season. The last two minutes of the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME that WE were in and for the Vols losing so quickly and being listed in the 'teams that bombed in the tournament' list. We wanted you again ..this time loser is out. If you will be truthful with yourself you'll admit if we had of played you in the last two weeks you would have been lucky to be within 25 points at the end of the game. It most likely would have made one of those lists like... worst vol beating in 30 years. We were in the championship game. Where were you? Ha.. i know.. you were watching us on tv. Your coach..ha.. he reminds me of one of those salesman at a car lot. You know.. the kind when you pull in you see this guy with a bright orange jacket walking toward your car waving. You quickly make sure all the doors are locked and get out of there as fast as you can to avoid this guy. You guys were concerned he might leave. Ha.. why...? He's not gonna leave there he's found a place where the people are stupid enough to believe him.
Tigers are the best team in the nation!!!
Razzle writes:
Tigers are the best team in the nation at choking i'd say.
overatedvols writes:
The Memphis game is very very big to these people. It's their national championship since they can't really make it to one. This is as big as it gets for this program.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
You don't care about us but you need us for the football welfare check we provide you. That's right if you don't need UT, than quit playing us in basketball and then you won't have that nice million dollar check waiting for you most years to keep your athletic department afloat. We really don't care about Memphis unless it's when you come on here to justify your basketball program after the choke job of the century because you can't really win anything that matters or beat us in anything. Maybe little brother will grow up one day and not need big brother UT for help.
overatedvols writes:
Hey stupidasheck ...we were in the national championship game....where were you? Oh, you were too, I forgot, but it was the womens team.
Tenn. mens basketball = 3rd best in the state wannabes
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
the Men's and Women's basketball programs at Tennessee have a combined 8 national titles while Memphis has 0. LOL!!!!!
overatedvols writes:
Making Tenn fans? I didn't make the classless scum do anything. That's inbred into them. The feelings of Vol insecurity toward the Memphis program is something a lot of vol fans are born with. They have no idea how ignorant they make themselves look to try and criticize a team in the national championship game. A game a Vol fan can only dream of being in. Oh..by the way the Grizzlies stink.
overatedvols writes:
BrownieVol nobody is disrespecting the lady Vols. Heck that's a great team, a dynasty. It's just the big arrogant vol trash talkers that try to act like the vols mens team is so much better than the memphis team. Now...that is ridiculous. You have fans of a team that has never been past the sweet 16 and crashed and burned at the end of the year talking about how bad the memphis team is. I don't get it do you? I only come here for a bit of revenge. Vol fans did tons of trash talking on our site awhile back and thats when overatedvol was born. Overatedvol goes away ..until more trash talk shows up on the Memphis site and then he returns. We've had the trash talkers lately so overatedvol lives. I had retired when you guys lost to louisville but too many coming over to the memphis board to talk trash so i've had to make a return.
Anyway, i'll gladly return to hibernation when the trash stuff ends over there. Until then, I have to say that the Memphis Tigers woke up the nation during the tournament. They now know what we knew all along...that they were an incrediblely awesome team. The nation agreed, the two best teams in the country played Monday night. (Too bad the griz are so bad though)
overatedvols writes:
Ok..brownie..i've had enough for today. I'll go back into hibernation. Hopefully I won't read a bunch of junk over on the memphis board that makes me want to come back and tell you wonderful things about the Tigers.
Razzle writes:
Mempuss choked in it's two biggest game this year. Really sticks in the tiger high craw doesn't it? What an embarrasment to lose at home in front of the nation to their most hated rivals the Vols. That was the biggest game of the year to you clowns. Even bigger than the Kansas choke job.
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