Pearl says coaching changes 'out of whack'

SEC Coach of the Year one season, fired the next.

That was the story Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl found himself reading about Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie, who was fired Friday.

Gillispie missed the NCAA tournament this season and was let go, despite going 20-12 in the SEC over the past two seasons.

"I know that Mike Krzyzewski's first three years at Duke were losing years and Digger Phelps lost his first two years at Notre Dame and then he beats UCLA,'' Pearl said. "There are some things about their (Kentucky) roster that he just couldn't control.''

The Vols had a hand in that, winning a last-minute recruiting battle for point guard Bobby Maze last spring and snatching Kentucky Player of the Year Scotty Hopson from both Gillispie and Louisville coach Rick Pitino.

Pearl will enter his fifth year with Tennessee as No. 5 on the SEC coaching tenure list.

Georgia and Alabama are also making coaching changes this season. South Carolina and LSU made changes last season, Arkansas and Kentucky changed coaches two years ago and Ole Miss made a change three years ago,

It has left Pearl's head spinning and kept his assistant coaches busy changing scouting reports.

"I understand expectations, but the SEC is different it has changed,'' said Pearl, whose Vols have finished first or second in the league each of his four years at the helm. "This is one of the toughest divisions in college basketball. I know it wasn't strong this year, but it was competitive.''

Pearl said he felt Gillispie did a "good job'' with Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley a season ago when he won 12 SEC games and shared SEC Coach of the Year honors with Pearl.

"The race this year could have gone any way,'' Pearl said. "He could have won the (SEC) East as easily as he finished third or fourth.

"I don't think anybody predicted we'd go to Florida and South Carolina and win the thing.''

Nor would anyone have expected Pearl to become the first coach in SEC history to finish ahead of Kentucky in the league four consecutive years.

"These coaching changes ... it's just out of whack,'' Pearl said. "You're just not gonna win this division every year.''

Indeed, not even Florida could repeat as SEC East Division champions in the years they were repeat NCAA tournament champions.

"Obviously, in Billy's case, there was more to it than just winning or losing games,'' Pearl said. "I can't speculate as to the areas he didn't perform up to task.''

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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