Packer: Pearl hire cornerstone of Hamilton's legacy

When Mike Hamilton took over as Tennessee's athletic director in 2003, I asked him what he wanted his legacy to be when his time was done 20 to 30 years from now. He told me that he wanted the athletic facilities to be his legacy.

I can see the facility improvements and can see that Hamilton's goal will be achieved when he has overseen his last game as UT's AD.

However, I don't think the number one thing mentioned in relation to his legacy will be facilities made of brick and mortar. The number one thing, at this point any way, will be the house that Bruce Pearl built. That house is one that no one in America thought could be built.

It's kind of like that building that has had four or five tenants who have all failed. It's that building that a restaurant fails in and it stays vacant for six months before another one moves in. The business stays open for a couple of years and then that "For Lease" sign shows back up outside by the street. This time a florist moves in and sells flowers for a year or two then goes out of business, and here comes that "For Lease" sign again.

What Hamilton inherited as A.D. was a football program that had been in business for years and years that was based on great business and huge profits. He inherited a baseball program that would have success for a couple of years, then suffer through several bad years, only to have another great year. It was a baseball program that wasn't broken, but wasn't the model of success either. He made the decision to put the "For Lease" sign outside and bring in a new business.

Hamilton looked at the basketball program and saw a building that couldn't keep customers coming in the door and had a "For Lease" sign out by the street every few years. He went so far as to pay one coach $1.4 million to walk away so that he could put a new tenant in charge who might actually stay in this building for more than just a few years.

I heard a promo on ESPN yesterday, leading into Saturday night's game against Memphis that I never thought I'd hear about Tennessee men's basketball. It went like this, "Tonight, undefeated Memphis, No. 2 Tennessee, the battle for NUMBER ONE tonight!" Are you kidding me? Are we talking about Tennessee basketball here? They must have been talking about Tennessee football or the Lady Vols.

Hamilton went on a nationwide tour looking for this "savior" three years ago. We heard the names of Bob Knight and Kelvin Sampson throughout the process. There was excitement with the idea that Knight would come in to Tennessee and put this program in the national spotlight. We thought of the success of Sampson and wondered if he could make Tennessee a respectable program. As of today, neither one of those coaches is still coaching and respectability has not exactly been next to their names in recent years.

Then the news came of Pearl's hire. Who in the world was this guy? Oh, we were intrigued when we heard the guy talk, but was this the guy to do what no man had done before? At the time his talk was nothing different than what we'd heard before.

We all had thought that Kevin O'Neill had a chance to turn this thing around. He had had great success at Marquette. But, he ended up being a foul-mouthed hot head who didn't represent the program like anybody in Tennessee wanted and he ran to Northwestern in the middle of the night, like the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis.

Jerry Green was a no-name from Oregon, but my 7-year-old daughter could have coached the talent he had to the NCAA tournament. He ran the program into the ground and begged for a buyout and a trip to a fishing boat in North Carolina.

Buzz Peterson was an up-and-coming young coach with the lineage and the look to be the man for years and years to come. He brought in talent and had the program headed in the right direction. Don't forget that Peterson discovered Chris Lofton, gave a walk-on named JaJuan Smith a chance and had signed Tyler Smith. He was close to getting Jamont Gordon, who went on to be named the freshman of the year at Mississippi State last year. Buzz said he needed one more year and the program would take off. He was right, the program took off the next year. It just happened with him on the sidelines at Coastal Carolina instead of the program that he built at Tennessee. Hamilton said he just couldn't forsee long-term success from Peterson, so he made a change.

The "For Lease" sign had just gone by the street when Hamilton found Bruce Pearl. Now, 2 1/2 years later, there's a different problem. The tenant is having such success that the university must ask itself if it's willing to keep this tenant in the building by going to him and offering him the sweetest deal in the history of the men's basketball program. I'm betting that this tenant won't have to go to the landlord and ask for a sweeter deal. My guess is that the landlord has realized that his greatest legacy is the man walking the sidelines for a program that never before was in the battle for No. 1.

Because, if the tenant has the opportunity to hear offers from other landlords, the tenant might realize that his business will thrive in any building. This A.D. is too smart to let that happen. Mike Hamilton runs a business, and he runs it very well. He has built his greatest facility with a coach named Pearl.

It's the cheesiest line I've ever used, but that was one Pearl of a hire.

Mark Packer hosts the Locker Room, presented by Parkwest Medical Center, on Sunday at 10 p.m. on MyVLT2.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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