Packer: Bradshaw huge in UT turnaround

Don't ever use the phrase "overachiever," when you talk about Dane Bradshaw. It's a phrase that neither he nor men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl like to hear when talking about the former Vol.

"I don't like the word," Bradshaw said. "I think it was always used as a compliment, but I didn't really like it. I think people used it because they appreciated that I tried to do the best with what I was given."

"Dane Bradshaw was not an overachiever," Pearl said. "He achieved greatness at a very high level because he worked harder than anyone else on the court. The bottom line was that Dane stood all of 6 feet, 2 1/2 inches tall and still dominated Florida's Joakim Noah on the block. That wasn't "over achieving," that was out-working somebody. Dane was a heck of a basketball player."

With how hard Bradshaw worked to reach the elite SEC level of play, it was a bit difficult for him to understand how some athletes didn't put in the effort that he did.

"Some guys don't give it their all. That's what makes great players great. There are a bunch of great athletes out there, but not all put in the work necessary to be great.

"I wasn't blessed with Kobe Bryant's athleticism, but I had the same work ethic that he has. There are players that have the work ethic, but not the athleticism. The truly great ones have both."

The question is always asked regarding team sports: How important is the coaching?

According to Bradshaw, great coaching cannot be underestimated.

"A coach makes a huge difference when you go from losing to winning. Coach Pearl showed us how important coaching is to the system. Before Coach Pearl came, we didn't have an identity as a team. That's a big part of the reason that we went 14-17 the year before he got here.

"The first time he talked with us as a team he told us what our identity was going to be. He said how we were going to do it and that it was going to work, period. He told us that we would out-work our opponents in practice. Our foundation was that we were going to run and make fatigue a factor in every game. He said that our bench would help fatigue be a major part of every game that we would win. He told us what our identity was going to be and it was.

"To say there was a huge difference between Buzz Peterson and Bruce Pearl is an unfair statement to make because nobody compares to Coach Pearl, nobody. Coach Pearl could go to any program in the country and make it better. I don't care what college you're talking about he could make it better.

"Some people say that coaches are overpaid but I completely disagree with that, if the coach is successful. Not many people can see the scrutiny that a coach is under every day at this level. Nobody sees the sacrifices made when it comes to life, family and personally. I'll promise you that Bruce Pearl is worth every single penny they pay him because he is simply the best there is."

When Bradshaw's career was coming to an end, Pearl honored him in a way that few athletes receive. Pearl donated $100,000 to the "Dane Bradshaw Scholarship Fund." It is a scholarship that will go to a student-athlete who stands for higher education, hard work and personal faith.

"I've joked to him that the first recipient will end up being Steven Pearl," Bradshaw joked. "Seriously, it is a huge honor that says more about Bruce Pearl than it does about me. Bruce will never ask anyone to do something that he won't do himself. If he tells us to be up at 6 a.m. in the weight room, he's up working at 6 a.m. himself. If he asks a donor to support the program, he can look them in the eye and say he's already doing it himself."

Pearl, however, made it clear that the award is for Bradshaw's legacy.

"When people look back to the time when Tennessee basketball was resurrected, I want them to attribute a major part of it to a guy who won't show up in any of the record books for statistics," Pearl said. "This means that Dane Bradshaw will have a legacy that will stand the test of time and will be here years and years from now. It would be so easy for people to overlook him because he's not in the record books. He wasn't the tallest, didn't jump the highest, didn't run the fastest, but he was our leader."

If there's one play the epitomized the career of Dane Bradshaw, it was the game-winning play at Florida in Pearl's first season that clinched the SEC East championship.

"I'll always remember having a hand in turning the program around with that play," Bradshaw said. "When we got to the locker room I looked around and realized that these were the same guys that went 14-17 just one year earlier. We didn't have an identity before, but a new coach gave us one and believed in us. It was a special moment that I'll never forget."

At the end of my interview with Dane, he said, "Thanks for keeping me alive."

I don't think it's stories in the paper that will keep Dane Bradshaw's legacy alive. I think it's a scholarship that his coach named in his honor that will keep his legacy alive forever.

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