January 30, 2006
First Impressions:
Bruce Pearl
This
is part six in a six part series on the college basketball
coaches making the best impression with their new teams.
After
the firing of Buzz Peterson last season, there was not a lot of optimism in
Knoxville about the future of
Tennessee basketball. The Volunteers were coming off a miserable 14-17
campaign, lost their leading scorer in Scooter McFadgon, and few believed
they could land a top tier coach that could take them back to the
postseason.
What
they got was Coach Bruce Pearl, who had just finished turning little-known
Wisconsin-Milwaukee into a Sweet Sixteen team. As soon as he arrived on
campus, he began musing about the return of Volunteer hoops – even going so
far as to dream of renewing the team’s long dormant rivalry with Kentucky.
Fans remembered hearing the same song many years ago from Peterson, and
wondered if the results would be the same.
Well,
the Vols are now in first place in the SEC East after defeating previously
unbeaten and (as of this writing) #2 ranked Florida. Pearl’s high powered
offense has them scoring 80 or more points in 9 of their 12 wins so far.
The backcourt of C.J. Watson and Chris Lofton are among the top ten scorers
in the SEC.
They
have a 12-3 record overall, which includes another huge win over Texas in
Austin. Tennessee is almost a guarantee to make their first trip back to
the Big Dance since 2001.
Not bad
for a team picked in the preseason to come in second-to-last in the SEC
East. While the players are still adapting to Pearl’s pressure defense (the
Vols are currently last in the SEC in scoring defense), there’s no denying
the program is headed in the right direction. Coach Pearl has done wonders
in his first season, and fans can rest assured that the future of Volunteer
basketball is bright indeed.
This
is #6 in a six part series on the college basketball
coaches making the best impression with their new team. Tomorrow
is Matt Doherty of Florida Atlantic.
