ESPN Men's Basketball

A few weeks after his tearful news conference during which he admitted to lying to NCAA investigators, Bruce Pearl put on an orange jacket and a smile while appearing at a promotion for the United Way as a celebrity gas pumper.

"In coaching, you always need to have a profession you need to fall back on if you don't win enough games, so I'm just here practicing," Pearl joked of pumping gas.

Pearl had the charisma and charm to emerge as one of college basketball's most recognizable coaches, and now he has decided to serve his exile in the private sector. He won't exactly be pumping gas, but as a vice president of marketing for a Knoxville-based wholesale grocery company, Pearl has decided that he won't coach after the NCAA handed down a three-year show-cause penalty.

For Pearl, it's quite a fall from grace. It's not expected he'll be in the spotlight much with his new job. And selling groceries wasn't supposed to appear on a resume for a coach with NCAA tournament success.

But for Pearl, it's also a time to reassess and spend time with his family. He'll also get to utilize his marketing skills while working for a familiar and friendly face.

"I've known Bruce Pearl for years -- his leadership, competitiveness and understanding of marketing is a great fit for our organization," said CEO Bill Sansom, a former University of Tennessee trustee.

Pearl told Andy Katz it will depend what happens over the next three years whether he will coach again. After that point is when it becomes more likely that a school will even think about hiring him.

For now, all he can do is sell an entirely different kind of brand.

Cuonzo Martin walked head-first into a storm. Worse yet, he committed to the move when he didn't know how severe the storm would be; in the parlance of the East Coast's weekend weather, Martin couldn't predict whether he was facing a tropical storm or a Category 3 hurricane. But he decided to leave Missouri State for Tennessee anyway, hoping the NCAA committee on infractions would spare the Volunteers from a potentially devastating postseason ban.

The committee announced its decision late last week, and Bruce Pearl was the one punished most harshly. Tennessee, on the other hand, came out just fine, avoiding a dreaded postseason ban as the committee recognized Tennessee's unprecedented self-penalties and the fact that Pearl, his staff and former athletic director Mike Hamilton have all been removed from their positions.

That means Martin can officially breathe a sigh of relief. As he told reporters this past weekend, the outcome couldn't have been much better:

"I think we came out as good as we possibly could in a situation like this," Martin told reporters. "I think prospects are more at ease making decisions; guys who liked Tennessee now like Tennessee even more."

"I've been on the phones with recruits and in meetings with our staff members and players," he said. "I think the recruits' biggest concern was a potential postseason ban, and that was the biggest thing we were hoping to avoid. Everything else, you have a chance of overcoming, but that's hard for a young high school player to overcome."

Martin's right: A postseason ban effectively kills your ability to recruit. It's nearly impossible to convince elite talent to come to your school, because that elite talent often believes it's going to the NBA after one season, and why would you spend that one season playing for a school that can't go to the NCAA tournament and the exposure it provides? And it's not exactly easy to get marginal prospects, either, even if the postseason ban only lasts one season. For players, it's wasted time.

That kind of temporary setback and subsequent transfer exodus can set your program back years at a time. Tennessee will have some struggles ahead, that's for sure. But Martin can still make a credible case to former Tennessee recruits that little has changed at the program, that it's still a place that can compete in the SEC and NCAA tournaments every year. There's no way to understate the importance of that ability.

The irony is just too massive to miss: On the day after he was punished for misleading NCAA investigators with a three-year show-cause penalty, Bruce Pearl addressed the media at his house. In his backyard. While serving barbecue.

Gallows humor? Unintentional coincidence? A simple overwhelming preference for barbecue? (This would be totally understandable, because barbecue is awesome.) Whatever the reasons, Pearl addressed the media at a makeshift news conference next to his pool, saying that while he understood the NCAA's penalties, he thought he deserved more credit for going back to the NCAA and correcting his false statements after the fact. From the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

“I was in control of that situation, and I didn’t handle things right at my house,’’ Pearl said. “Had I been more forthcoming in my interview (June 14, 2010) with the NCAA, we wouldn’t be here.’’ [...] “I believe I should have gotten more credit for coming forward and telling the truth,’’ Pearl said. “But the damage that was done was too great.’’

I suppose one could make this argument; Pearl did, after all, initiate the second meeting with the NCAA. The problem is the timing.

Pearl's first meeting with the NCAA took place on June 14, 2010. His second interview was granted on Aug. 4, 2010. It was a matter of weeks before Pearl decided to correct the record. Had Pearl redialed the NCAA enforcement staff's office immediately after his first call, apologized for lying and said his panic had rushed him into a regrettable mistake, that may have been a different story. But a few weeks is a long time to think about things. It's time enough to call John Craft, Aaron Craft's father, and get a feel for what Craft will or will not say in his interview with the NCAA. It's enough time to have a Raskolnikov-level breakdown. It's enough time to figure out the NCAA knows you're lying anyway -- and enough time to come clean while you can still save some face.

In other words, despite his protests to the contrary, it's difficult to believe Pearl deserves extra credit for returning to the NCAA after the fact. Confessing when you've already been caught isn't exactly cooperation.

That all said, Pearl did make one really valid point in his barbecue presser: The alleged bump charge -- wherein Pearl supposedly bumped into a recruit illegally at an AAU competition after he was already under investigation for the barbecue mess -- essentially cost him and his staff their jobs. Until then, Tennessee chancellor Jimmy Cheek and athletic director Mike Hamilton were full-throated in their support of Pearl and their desire to keep him coaching at Tennessee. After that, the school -- fearful of further angering the NCAA gods -- dropped him like a Terrell Owens crossing pattern. From the News-Sentinel again:

“The timing of that charge led directly to the termination of my coaching staff,’’ Pearl said. “We were out there doing our jobs representing the university with an expectation to be judged as every other coach that was in that gym.

“Our chancellor and our athletic director went on record as saying that supposed bump violation was the beginning of the end for me,’’ he said. “I waited a lifetime for a job like Tennessee ... It was my hope our staff could have survived.’’

Now, Tennessee would have had to fire Pearl eventually anyway, because the NCAA would have levied its three-year show-cause, and no matter how much you want to keep your coach, you can't keep a program viable if your coaching staff can't recruit. But Pearl's right. The allegation that officially ended his Tennessee career didn't even register, at least not with the NCAA. Tough break, that.

But in the end, Pearl's barbecue is what really got him in trouble. A question, then, to any of the local media that made it out on Thursday: Was the pulled pork worth it?

The father of the BCS champion quarterback allegedly shopped his son around for six figures.

North Carolina football is bogged down in a quagmire of agent involvement that has cost both the coach and the athletic director their jobs. At Ohio State, the self-proclaimed (vest)ige of virtue has been cast aside amid a threads-for-tattoo scandal. And NCAA investigators are sifting through potential violations at Miami that might be both illegal and immoral.

It almost makes a person nostalgic for the little old barbecue that landed Bruce Pearl in the trash heap. What a quaint, simplistic rule violation that was.

And yet here we are, on Tennessee’s day of reckoning, and Pearl not only is out of work -- he’s almost assuredly out of college athletics for three years, courtesy of a show-cause penalty.

Some folks in and around Knoxville today might cry foul. They will argue that their beloved coach was taken to the cleaners for a silly barbecue and that, compared to the landmines blowing up all across the college athletics countryside, his crime is nothing.

It’s true. The barbecue wasn’t a big deal.

The lying afterward was.

That was the kerosene tossed onto this brush fire. Had Pearl merely extended an ill-advised invite to a few recruits and their families, he would have been docked a few recruiting trips and maybe even some scholarships, but he’d still be coaching at the University of Tennessee.

Once he played Peter and denied the invite, denied the picture taken inside his house and denied knowing his assistant coach’s wife (and then even told Aaron Craft's father to deny, deny, deny), he elevated his petty fine to one of felonious proportions.

In the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ report, it is referred to as "unethical conduct." That’s NCAA-speak for lying, and you don’t lie to your parents. You don’t lie to your teachers. You don’t lie to your spouse. And you most certainly don’t lie to the NCAA.

“This case was narrow in scope,’’ COI vice chair Britton Banowsky said on Wednesday's NCAA conference call. “The serious nature relates to the unethical conduct. I’m not sure we would be here were it not for those allegations and those findings.’’

The proof that Pearl was fricasseed by his fibbing more than his barbecuing is evident in the punishments doled out by the COI. Or more accurately, in the punishments not doled out by the COI.

This could have been worse, much worse, for the Volunteers. There could have been more significant scholarship reductions or recruiting limits. There could have been a postseason ban similar to the one imposed at USC.

Instead, the committee accepted the wounds Tennessee inflicted upon itself -- a one-year off-campus recruiting ban for the former staff, a $1.5 million cut in Pearl’s pay plus the SEC’s eight-game ban -- and, for once, punished the actual culprits.

If there has been a common refrain about the NCAA’s punitive measures, it is that the guilty keep right on going while everyone else is left to clean up the scorched earth.

Not in this case. Here Pearl and his assistants were charged with the most egregious offenses -- lying, covering up their lies or impeding the investigation -- and they were punished accordingly.

“It’s important to understand that those who are not forthcoming, who are not cooperative, who are unethical in their response, the committee takes that very seriously and the penalties will be levied appropriately,’’ COI chair Dennis Thomas said.

Certainly Tennessee helped itself by kicking the accused to the curb before the ax fell. Pearl and his staff were dismissed in March, and athletic director Mike Hamilton resigned in June. The AD was an unfortunate but necessary sacrificial lamb. With football also under investigation, keeping the man in charge wouldn’t exactly sell the message that UT was cleaning up its department.

But the good news -- and yes, there is some in Knoxville despite this and the much more sobering news that Pat Summitt has early-onset dementia -- is that there is life after the barbecue.

By reserving its harshest punishments for those who did wrong, the COI allowed new coach Cuonzo Martin the chance to do his job. He will operate under the looming shadow of two years' probation, but that comes into play only should he muck things up. And by all accounts, Martin is admired for his ethical standards as much as his coaching acumen, so odds favor the Vols keeping their record clean.

Probation shouldn’t impede Martin’s ability to grow the program or attract recruits. As he said in May, “As long as there’s no postseason ban, we’ll be OK and we can weather the storm.’’

The Committee on Infractions still has plenty of storms to weather. Its case load grows seemingly by the hour, as do the stakes for some name-brand programs that only wish they were on the hook for hosting a hamburger hoedown.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz has the story:

Former Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl will receive a multiple-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA's committee on infractions, and his three former assistants -- Tony Jones, Steve Forbes and Jason Shay -- will receive one-year show-cause penalties, multiple sources with knowledge of the report told ESPN.com Tuesday.

When Pearl lied to NCAA investigators last year, it was commonly assumed that his punishment would be some form of the show-cause penalty. The precedent had been set, and Pearl's actions -- telling the NCAA he didn't recognize a photo of his own house before eventually correcting the record -- were consistent with that precedent. Since then, the coach has entertained offers from NBA Development League teams and discussed the possibility of taking on a TV role. In other words, however long the show-cause lasts, this comes as a surprise to no one.

That said, it doesn't tell us much of anything about what the committee on infractions will do about Tennessee itself. For the Volunteers, the best-case scenario is the hope that the NCAA's harsh penalties toward Pearl and his staff are indicative of the committee's belief that much of the fault lies with that staff and not the school's athletic department or compliance apparatus.

And worst case? The NCAA sees the show-causes as one part of an all-encompassing correction of a program that allowed its coaches to ignore NCAA rules, adapting only after the NCAA forced its hand. That's when you get into "lack of institutional control" territory, and that's when things can get especially ugly.

But I won't make any predictions. We'll know soon enough. For now, UT fans, you may commence whatever superstitious ritual you think can help your team's cause. Bite your nails, arrange your memorabilia just so and be sure to iron your lucky shirt.

At the very least, you now know when you'll know: tomorrow.

Interested in a $2.69 million home in the Knoxville area? Probably not. That's a lot of cash for a place to live. Throw in the taxes, the energy and water outlays, the landscaping fees, and regular home maintenance and, well, good luck. If you can afford that, clearly, this whole recession thing has nothing to do with you. Congratulations.

I don't know who, exactly, is looking to buy a $2.69 million house in Knoxville these days, but I do know who is selling it. That would be Bruce Pearl, who bought what he called his "dream home" for $2.1 million in 2008.

You might know the house better as the site of the infamous barbecue -- where the infamous photo of then-recruit Aaron Craft was taken -- that Pearl told NCAA investigators he didn't recognize. That lie eventually cost him his job, and, thanks to a probable show-cause penalty from the NCAA, will almost certainly cost Pearl his ability to coach college hoops for the foreseeable future.

In case you're interested, the Knoxville News-Sentinel has photos and details on the house. To wit:

Pearl said Monday that the property was "clearly my dream home", but that he needs to downsize. "Now that I'm not the basketball coach and may not be doing quite as much entertaining, it's bigger than what we need," he said.

Elliott-Sexton, who also handled the recent sale of Villa Collina, said the Pearl home is on an acre lot and has five bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths, eight fireplaces, three laundry facilities and a saltwater pool. "It is just fabulous for entertaining," she said.

I have no interest in begrudging a man the spoils of his success; Pearl made a lot of money at Tennessee, and he's welcome to spend that money however he sees fit. But I will say this: Three laundry rooms? Eight fireplaces? Eight?! That is a ton of fireplaces. I'm pretty sure a house with that many fireplaces doesn't even need central heating. Eight fireplaces, a saltwater pool -- that, my friends, is what the kids these days call swag.

Anyway, it's a tough housing market out there, so Pearl might have a little trouble finding a taker unless he's willing to drop his ask a bit. It's a buyers' market. But if you play your cards right (and, you know, have a ton of money), you could own the house that eventually cost Bruce Pearl his job. It might not be the Gatsby estate, but that's something, right?

Last time we checked in with Bruce Pearl was last Tuesday, when ESPN NBA hoops guru Marc Stein reported Pearl was in talks with the Dallas Mavericks about a potential job coaching the Texas Legends of the NBA Developmental League. I wondered whether Pearl was truly interested in the job, or whether he had come to the conclusion that a) college wasn't an option, b) TV wasn't going to happen and c) the only way for him to get to an NBA sideline was to work his way up through the D-League.

In an interview with the "3 Hour Lunch" show on Nashville radio's 104.5 Monday, Pearl talked at length about the investigation, his mistakes and his future career plans. He sounds genuinely excited about the Legends position, but he also makes clear that his true hope is to remain a college coach if the NCAA is willing to allow it:

Asked if he was leaning towards taking the job, Pearl wavered: "Prior to going down to Dallas for my interview the lean was that I was probably not going to do it. But having been there and met the people the lean now is that it's a possibility. It's a family decision. I'd have to leave my family, I'm a divorced dad, and there'd be some kids that aren't out of school yet and in college yet that are encouraging me that are saying, "Daddy it's only six months, you should go."

Asked if he expects to coach college basketball again, Pearl replied, "Yeah, I would. I certainly would." Pearl continued, "As soon as I'm allowed it (coaching in college) would be my intention. I've been doing it my entire life and I would like to think that the good outweighs the bad. And the good has very little to do with winning or losing, it has to do with ... six kids graduating this year."

We still don't know exactly what the NCAA will decide about Pearl's future, but it hasn't looked good since the Tennessee scandal broke. As Dana O'Neil wrote last year, the NCAA's precedent for punishing coaches in Pearl's situation -- coaches charged with unethical conduct -- is a matter of cold, hard math: In all but one of the 20 unethical conduct cases to go before the NCAA in the past two years, the coach charged with unethical conduct received at least a two-year show-cause penalty. Pearl doesn't say that specifically, but he seems to know -- or at least he's come to grips with the possibility -- that he's going to receive something similar from the NCAA at some point in the near future.

Anyway, eventually Pearl may coach in college hoops again. But it must be nice to have other options in the interim. Because that college coaching thing doesn't seem too realistic -- at least not anytime soon.

Former Tennessee Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl talks with "Pardon the Interruption" about the investigation into his NCAA violations.

Back in May, as it became clear that Bruce Pearl's next job wouldn't be at an NCAA program -- Pearl may or may not receive a show-cause penalty from the NCAA Committee on Infractions; either way, no athletic director will be taking that chance anytime soon -- Yahoo! Sports reported that an NBA Developmental League franchise, the Maine Red Claws, was making a push to hire Pearl as its next head coach.

That unlikely connection never materialized. Pearl is reportedly interested in one of two things: a spot on an NBA bench or a spot in a television chair. But according to a report from ESPN's Marc Stein, that hasn't stopped another D-League franchise from giving Pearl another hard sell. From Marc:

The Texas Legends are making a hard push to hire former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl to replace Nancy Lieberman as coach of the D-League franchise, according to NBA coaching sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Pearl will be in Dallas on Wednesday for a formal sitdown with Legends officials after ongoing negotiations between the parties.

Said one source: "The job is [Pearl's] if he wants it."

The idea of a formal sit down makes this slightly more serious than the dalliance with the Red Claws; things in Maine never seemed to progress to this point. And it is an interesting prospect. Pearl may prefer to land a job on TV -- he almost certainly does -- but would a TV network have reservations about his credibility in the wake of a massive NCAA scandal? What about an NBA assistant's position? Pearl seems to prefer that route, too, and you'd assume he has a few connections in the league that could land him a Kelvin Sampson-esque career parachute in the next few years.

But if those options are exhausted, or if NBA franchises would prefer Pearl spend a year in the D-League before jumping to the pros, the Texas Legends might be the best option after all. It's a quality D-League outfit. It plays in the same market as the Dallas Mavericks, whom you may have heard of on occasion this summer. And, hey, it's a gig. A gig's a gig, right?

However you try to sell it, though, it remains remarkable that Pearl finds himself in this position at all. A year ago, he was the most successful coach in the history of Tennessee men's hoops. He coached in a sparkling arena in front of thousands of fans. He recruited some of the best players in the country. He occasionally took photographs like this. Now he's meeting with D-League officials for a "formal sit down," and I'm here seriously debating the merits of the move. What a year, huh?

Update: Pearl spoke with ESPN's Andy Katz on Tuesday, and he confirmed he will interview Thursday in Dallas.

"When the world champions call you have to listen," Pearl said. "Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson have been great and I'm looking forward to talking to them."

Pearl said he was told that the D-league would still be held even with the lockout.

"Right now college is not an option for me," Pearl said as he awaits his NCAA fate. "I've always enjoyed working with players and coaching them during their development."

Thanks to the Knoxville News-Sentinel's acquisition of Tennessee's response to the NCAA's notice of allegations, we get to take a peek at yet more details from Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's conversations with investigators in June of 2010.

This morning, the big news was Pearl's interactions with recruit Jordan Adams in the "bump" violation incident that eventually forced Tennessee's administrative hand. On Saturday, News-Sentinel reporter Andrew Gribble also published the exact nature of Pearl's discussions with investigators when he was originally asked about the infamous photo of he and then-Tennessee recruit Aaron Craft. Contrary to popular opinion, Pearl wasn't caught off guard by the photo. In fact, he knew about it before the NCAA presented it to him. But he still panicked and lied about it anyway. From the report (warning: long blockquote dead ahead):

"Have you, and I apologize, this is a grainy photo that we received in our office, and I received this through e-mail just to let you know," Thompson said, looking at Pearl. "But, um, we received this picture and it purports to be you with Aaron Craft.

"Do you have any recollection of that incident or maybe where this picture was maybe taken from and..."

"That's Aaron, that's me," Pearl said. "I don't really know where that's taken."

"OK," Thompson said. "Any place on campus but you don't know?"

Glazier interjected.

"Do you recognize the woman that's in the picture?" he asked, referring to a shot of Jana Shay, the wife of Pearl's assistant coach Jason Shay, positioned with her head down in the background.

"No," Pearl said. "I really don't."

"Coach," Glazier said, "is that in your home any place?"

"No," Pearl said.

"OK," Thompson said.

As Gribble writes, that was the beginning of the end of the Pearl era. Had he come clean right away, the Tennessee coach might well have saved his job. At the very least, the violations he incurred on that day -- hosting junior recruits in an informal meeting at his house, providing free food and beverage, allowing current players to mingle with prospects, and so on -- would have likely been deemed minor by the Committee on Infractions. Pearl might have served a suspension. He might have faced additional inquiries. But it's unlikely his mistakes would have roiled Tennessee's program to the point that it eventually felt compelled to fire its most successful coach in school history. Pearl certainly wouldn't be facing the indignity of a possible show-cause penalty, the one-time whistleblower now the poster child for what happens when you decide to lie to the NCAA.

What remains impossible to understand is just what Pearl was thinking, exactly. In his many interviews since, even he doesn't seem to know. At some point, given the conversations detailed in this report, it seems he assumed the issue would just go away. But he also knew the NCAA's information was potentially damaging; that's why he called Craft's father, John, to see what the Crafts planned on saying to the NCAA:

"I said, 'Well, coach, you know, if we're asked we will tell what is the best of our ability, you know, the recollection of what happened that afternoon, that day, that visit,'" John Craft said during an interview with Thompson. "He right away said 'Well, John, we,' his tone kinda changed and it was like, uh, 'Well, we — I've had a discussion with my staff and,' uh, 'we remember the visit and we remember telling you that we were going out for an informal cookout at my house and that it was illegal for you to be there.'

"And I said, 'Coach, if that's your story then,' you know, 'we're gonna have two.'"

[...] Pearl stressed that he was not instructing Craft to lie, but understood how others could imply the situation that way.

"Obviously," Pearl said in a follow-up interview with the NCAA, "I made a bad decision in calling John."

Among many others. Obviously.

By then, of course, the damage was done, and there was no choice but to go back to the NCAA and come clean on the photograph. But this was a big lie. You can't tell the NCAA you don't recognize your own house. From there on out, you're done. The NCAA might be understanding if you broke some vague minor recruiting restrictions, even if you're a veteran coach who knows better (and even if you did so in a somewhat brazen way).

But you can't tell recruits not to talk about those visits, and you certainly can't sit in a meeting with NCAA investigators and pretend you don't recognize your own domicile. The fact that this would even seem like a route worth pursuing at all is consistent with the recurring theme of this entire story, especially now that we're seeing the actual conversations Pearl had with the NCAA: It's just unbelievably baffling.

Could Tennessee -- with Pearl at the helm -- have possibly handled this worse? It is a bungle of immense proportions, and the more one reads about it, the worse and worse it seems.

For Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers, the lion's share of the damage brought on by Pearl's decision to lie to NCAA investigators -- amid the host of NCAA issues Tennessee is dealing with right now -- has already been done. The most successful men's coach in UT men's basketball history is gone. Whatever the NCAA's final judgment in Pearl's case, from scholarship sanctions to a tournament ban and everything in between, there probably isn't much the Committee on Infractions could do that would have a larger impact on the program than that.

In other words, delving into the details of Pearl's firing -- understanding just what the NCAA discovered about his behavior before and after he misled investigators last year -- almost feels beside the point. But it is a worthy exercise, if only as a cautionary tale.

And yes, thanks to the release of Tennessee's 190-page response to the COI's notice of allegations filed earlier this spring and provided to the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Friday, those details are now being made public. What's the new news? Perhaps the biggest revelation is the discussion of Pearl and assistant Tony Jones' infamous "bump" into recruiting target Jordan Adams that occurred -- get this -- just four days after Pearl "emotionally confessed" his lies to NCAA investigators. Yikes:

"The conversation, if you would call it that, probably took 10 to 15 seconds at the most," Pearl said in a Nov. 16, 2010, interview with UT and the NCAA enforcement staff about the "bump" with recruiting target Jordan Adams. "I know the difference between, you know, acknowledging, say hello, and having a brief encounter or a contact, and I did not make a contact with him." [...]

The visit occurred Sept. 14. NCAA associate director of enforcement Joyce Thompson conducted her first interview regarding the bump 15 days later.

"He told me he lied to media, and then he said he confessed to it and that they're just having a violation," Adams told Thompson during his first interview.

Adams said the conversation lasted "about three minutes." He didn't recall much of what Jones said during the interaction, only that he pointed to his Elite Eight ring and "said something to the effect of, 'You can get one of these.' "

Adams also initially told investigators that Pearl gave him specific instruction during a workout with his team; Pearl described the conversation differently, and Adams said Pearl was talking to the entire team, and not him specifically, during the instruction. In its response to the COI, Tennessee argued that the violation was secondary and minor in nature:

"The University understands that a 'bump' that begins inadvertently can easily fall out of that category when the coach realizes that a violation is occurring and he continues the encounter with the prospective student-athlete," the response reads. "However, based upon the brevity of the encounter and nature of Pearl's and Jones' statements, the weight of the evidence supports the conclusion that the violation was inadvertent."

That very well could be true. And yes, this is one of those NCAA rules that feels a little outdated. But both of those things may be true, and it doesn't change the fact that Pearl made a massive error in allowing himself to be anywhere that could possibly cause a violation to occur. He was four days out from admitting he lied to investigators. He knew the stakes. He knew that he had the NCAA breathing down his neck. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go out recruiting like nothing was happening; the NCAA doesn't work that way. And -- inadvertent or not -- he still bumped into Jordan Adams.

It's really sort of shocking, and not even in a moral sense. It's just ... baffling.

It's not often you'll hear a coach openly say he doesn't want to play an opponent. Usually -- even when coaches are padding their schedules with early season softies -- coaches try to sell their schedules as master documents of their own making. Defiance and competitive solidarity are much more coach-y, and thus much more popular, ways to discuss scheduling in public.

Count Memphis coach Josh Pastner as among those willing to tell it like it is. Speaking with Knoxville-area radio show hosts Josh Ward and Will West on WNML-AM 990 Monday, Pastner was in a candid mood, fully admitting that he -- much like his predecessor, John Calipari -- doesn't like playing in-state rival Tennessee and preferred the game wasn't on the schedule at all. From the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

“I have no desire to play Tennessee,” Pastner told hosts Josh Ward and Will West on WNML-AM 990. “I don’t think it does us any good. I’m just being honest with you. For us, it’s a game that, I don’t know why we play it, but we play it because the athletic director wants me to play it and he’s my boss and what he says goes.”

Reached later, Pastner said he hasn’t hidden from his feelings, which he said are rooted in recruiting and aren’t personal. To Pastner, it’s simple: He doesn’t consider Knoxville a fertile recruiting ground, so why give Tennessee exposure in Memphis, a place where the Vols actively recruit players.

Pastner said he understood why his athletic director, R.C. Johnson, is so in favor of the game: It's great for the fans. Provincial bragging rights are on the line, and the game promotes a rivalry between the schools that can only be good for each team's bottom line. Frankly, when both programs are on the rise -- as they were during the John Calipari and Bruce Pearl years of the recent past -- the fixture is probably good for both schools. It's a big one on the calendar. It garners national attention and exposure. College GameDay's been known to show up from time to time. That can't be a bad thing, right?

But things have changed. Under Pastner, Memphis is ascendant, stockpiling young talent in loaded recruiting classes, another of which arrives on campus this summer. At Tennessee, Pearl's departure and the impending NCAA sanctions have put the Volunteers into what will likely be a protracted rebuilding period. You can understand if Pastner doesn't want to do the Vols any favors just this very moment. As Sean Combs' character in "Get Him To The Greek" would say, Pastner is in the power position. If the game works for both sides, great. If not, maybe it's not as worthwhile as everyone thought.

Still, the Tennessee-Memphis rivalry doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Why? Because Pastner, like all good employees, knows when to sit down, be quiet and let the boss make the final call:

“(Johnson) feels it’s great for the state of Tennessee,” Pastner told the radio station. “A lot of people want it in the state of Tennessee, and so I understand that. … I’m OK with it. Look, my athletic director, I think he’s the best. I mean, the absolute best. If he tells me to do something, I totally believe in chain of command. He’s the boss. If he told me to go play Ole Miss, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi State and anyone else, I would do it, because he’s the boss.”

Former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl believes he will get another chance to coach.

Tony Jones spent eight games last season leading Tennessee in the interim while Bruce Pearl served an eight-game SEC suspension for violating NCAA rules and misleading investigators. For the associate head coach Jones, it was an interesting time to be getting experience as a college head coach for the first time. After all, he too was named in the notice of allegations and was forced to accept a pay cut from the school.

With Pearl out, there was no way Jones was going to be retained after the season, and as a sign of how far you can fall when tied to rule-breaking, Jones today accepted a new job as a high school coach. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, he'll coach at Alcoa High School while teaching health and physical education classes.

"I am truly blessed," Jones said. "I'm so excited about this opportunity. I get to keep my family in the area, I get to teach and work with young people in a classroom setting, and I get to coach in a special community at a great school."

Former Vols coach Bruce Pearl, who along with Jones and the rest of his immediate staff were dismissed in the wake of an NCAA investigation, fully endorses the hire.

"I think it's an absolute blessing for Tony and his family and the people of Alcoa,'' Pearl said. "I don't know the people who made that decision, but my hat is off to them.

"They may be excited about what they're getting, but they have no idea what they are getting in full."

Teaching America's high school students in no way is something to be looked down upon, but on the basketball front it is a lower level of competition Jones is accepting. It isn't easy finding another major job in college coaching when you're tied to Pearl these days, especially after you've had to plead your case in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions. Pearl's other two former assistants, Steve Forbes and Jason Shay, are now coaching together at Northwest Florida State College -- a junior college. Pearl is left looking for work as well after all he achieved at Tennessee.

Exile from Division I basketball can't be any fun once you've tasted coaching at the top. But Jones will get another opportunity to lead young men and return to his roots. From 1986 to 1991, Jones coached at Detroit Southwestern High School as an assistant varsity and head junior varsity coach. Success there led to a Division I career.

It can happen again at Alcoa, just south of Knoxville.

After months of public statements to the contrary -- remember when Tennessee seemed so devoted to its maligned coach? -- Volunteers athletic director Mike Hamilton fired Bruce Pearl. The dynamics behind this firing was complicated and by all accounts acrimonious. Pearl seemed to expect his school's continued support, and he was reportedly surprised and hurt when that support suddenly vanished in the wake of yet more revelations about his conduct before and during the NCAA's investigation into his alleged violations.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely we'll ever hear Pearl's side of the story. That's because Pearl is "contractually obligated to adhere to restrictions and stipulations which include not making any disparaging remarks about UT or face up to $50,000 in fines," according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

That's why you haven't heard Pearl say anything about Tennessee or Hamilton since the settlement agreement was signed in March, and why Pearl isn't likely to start making any such comments now. The agreement also requires cooperation with the NCAA Committee on Infractions -- Tennessee had its hearing Saturday, and hey, Lane Kiffin showed up! -- and prevents Pearl from any future legal action against Tennessee whether Pearl was aware of the hypothetical claim at the time of the settlement agreement signing or not.

In other words, when Pearl emerges from this mess -- and he is likely to do so, albeit not anywhere near a college hoops team -- it's unlikely we're going to hear much from him about his final days as Tennessee's coach. That's not unusual, but Tennessee fans, many of whom believed Pearl shouldn't have been fired in the first place -- or believe Hamilton deserved to be fired with him -- may well be disappointed at the news.