Jack’s Blog

Bruce Pearl is an enigma.  Few people are as personable - even charismatic.  Yet, this is a guy who, years ago, turned a fellow assistant in for cheating and now, has lost his job for that very reason.

As in most cases, however, nothing is quite so simple as it seems.  First of all, the misdeed that got him riled up was over a school offering a recruit a car.  Pearl had the recruit on tape admitting to the deal.  Is taping a kid, without his knowledge, clever or sleazy?  Probably both, but leaning more toward the latter.  Regardless of how frustrating, a coach just shouldn’t resort such a tactic.

The violations Pearl are accused of committing aren’t nearly so heinous, but far more foolish.  If you can’t have prospects to your house for a barbeque, don’t do it - as great a means as it is to show the recruit what a “regular” guy you are and how you can let your hair down off the court.  Especially with modern technology, e.g. every phone is a camera.  Yet, this is part of his charisma - being uninhibited.  Painting his chest at a Lady Vols game illustrated how extreme he’d act to display his unbridled enthusiasm.  After all, this is a guy who donned the Boston College eagle costume when he worked at Chestnut Hill campus.

If I’m not mistaken, his staff also got dinged for excessive phone calls.  This rule has to be the most violated rule in the history of the NCAA.  No cleaner a coach than Mike Montgomery - and I think Monty plays within the rules as much as any big-time coach - got slapped for this misdemeanor.  Think about it.  A staff gets hired - probably because the previous coach got pink-slipped.  So they hit the ground running.  They know they’d better upgrade the talent.  But it’s a period in which coaches can’t go off campus.  The new staff wants to get in good with prospects, needs to find out which ones are interested.

At a staff meeting, one coach says, “I just had a great conversation with that kid in Podunk earlier today.”  Another coach says, “Oh no.  I talked to him yesterday.”  Why would this be such a horrific scenario?  Because of the “one phone call per week” rule.  Now, what should the new head man do?  Turn the staff in for a minor violation?  During their first week on the job?” 

The problem with the NCAA is there’s so little wiggle room.  When I was coaching in college, it was well known that the NCAA schools nailed coaches for minor violations but penalized them for the major ones they knew the school committed - but couldn’t prove.  That’s part of the reason some of the petty rules exist.

But . . . back to Bruce Pearl.  After lying to the NCAA investigators about the barbeque with the prospects (they obviously knew) he had, the NCAA was ready to throw the book at him.  Not for the recruiting advantage he gained through the illegal contact, but more for his lying.  He came clean, requested another meeting with the parent organization and, after confessing his sins, held a press conference, during which he bared his soul - tears and all.

To compound matters, four days later, he was on a recruiting trip during an evaluation period (can’t speak to prospects) but not a contact period (can speak to prospects).  He apparently broke the “normal civility” rule and talked more than the allowable amount (the extent of the “bump” has not been made public).

The bump rule might be the second most violated rule by coaches.  If it’s an evaluation period, it’s OK to “exchange pleasantries” with the recruit, but no more.  The coaches have to pass a test to show they understand this, and all the other rules.  But the prospects have no such test.  So, when the kid is walking down the hall with his buddy, and he sees a college coach coming toward him, the same coach who’s chatting it up with him - extensively - once a week, he might say to his friend, “See that coach.  His school is really after me.  They just love me!”

Then, as they all pass by, the coach (because he doesn’t want to break the rule) says, “Hi, Jimmy, how ya doin’?”  The kid’s friend says, “He sure didn’t sound like he loved you!”  The prospect is hurt and embarrassed.  By NCAA rule, it isn’t even legal to say to the recruit, “Hi, how ya doin’?  I hope you understand I can’t talk to you now because it’s not a contact period.”

Although much of that is hypothetical, it’s a pretty fair representation of what transpires during recruiting.  In retrospect, Bruce Pearl made mistake after mistake.  What he did wasn’t nearly as bad as offering a kid a car.  But he broke the rules and because of his past action, he needed to realize that any rules violation would expose him as hypocrite.

As far as how much of what he did, and what Mike Montgomery got turned in for, and what other institutions do is known by the NCAA, I compare it to a guy I know who was a major league skirt chaser.  When asked by a friend, “Does your wife what you’re doing?” his response was similar to that of the NCAA regarding the number of schools cheating:

“She doesn’t want to know.”

There was a time that directors of athletics at the college level were former coaches who understood the world of athletics from the perspective of having resided in that world - during their playing and coaching days.  Fewer and fewer ADs have that pedigree today.  Rather, most of the leaders of intercollegiate athletics departments have business, especially fund raising, backgrounds.  After all, these guys preside over multi-million dollar budgets.  They are truly CEOs, and just as with their predecessors, some are better than others.

From a fiscal responsibility point of view, this seems to be a wise change of course.  But upon closer examination, while the university is fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility - and no one in today’s world denies that college athletics is big business - it might be losing the empathy that the bosses from yesteryear had regarding the men and women who are at the forefront of their respective programs.

I was employed as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee from 1980-87.  During my stay, first Bob Woodruff, then Doug Dickey (coincidentally, both were former head football coaches at the University of Florida) were the directors of athletics.  Coach Woodruff was truly from the old school.  There was no formal fund raising campaign.  When money was needed, Coach Woodruff made sure he put his arm around the right person and said the right things.  In nearly every case, a check was written on the spot, usually for the amount that was requested.  Or maybe the word was inferred.  

When Coach Dickey took over, he began the Volunteer Athletic Scholarship Fund - and promptly hired an assistant director of athletics at SMU, an energetic, personable twenty-something young man by the name of Mitch Barnhart - currently the successful AD at the University of Kentucky.  Coach Dickey’s approach to running the department differed drastically from Coach Woodruff’s in that Dickey believed you needed to spend money to make money, while Woodruff counted every dime.  Both of these guys, however, understood coaching as well as “administrating,” i.e. they had a feel for what a coach does, whether he is doing it correctly and that timing is important when decisions are rendered.  Coaching changes were made but the thought process was different from that of today’s corporate AD type.

Consider Mike Hamilton, who was groomed from within UT, to succeed Dickey.  He is a man whose background in athletics is purely fund raising.  What Volunteers’ hoops coach Bruce Pearl did to himself, breaking NCAA rules (that are broken more often than the average fan wants to know), then compounding those mistakes by committing the worst one in the eyes of the NCAA (and most parents) by lying to them during the subsequent investigation, is something he apparently realizes may short circuit his highly promising career.  He’s either rock solid or on the verge of crumbling into a million tiny pieces after going through the season he admittedly brought on himself.

As if what he did - and was deservedly done to him - wasn’t enough, on Wednesday, Hamilton said in a radio interview that Pearl’s future at the school was unclear.  The coach’s pay already had been cut and strict recruiting limitations were part of his punishment after he admitted to his misdeeds.  In addition to the pay cut and recruiting restrictions enforced by the university, Pearl was suspended eight conference games by the SEC.

To make the statement Hamilton did - at the time he did it - reeked of a director’s agenda to make himself and his department look good. at the expense of his coach and, worse, the team.  Preparing for NCAA tournament games is difficult enough with all the distractions that every team has to go through, so when Hamilton went public, saying he wasn’t sure whether Pearl would return next season as the Vols’ coach and saying he would address it “after we’re out of the NCAA tournament,” he came off as either a cold hearted SOB or a buffoon.  It made people wonder if he was hoping the Vols would lose sooner rather than later.

Either Mike Hamilton is in the finals for the “least empathetic person” contest or he’s a puppet for a higher up who doesn’t think before he speaks because he’s not really conveying his feelings anyway.  He’s getting justifiably roasted for the timing - and contents - of his remarks.  Keep in mind that this is the same cat who hired Lane Kiffin, possibly the most reviled man in UT history.  His track record leaves a great deal to be desired which is why it’s baffling he treated his coach (for now anyway) in the horrible manner he did.

In my book, Life’s A Joke, there’s a story about an intern in our sports information office at UT whose job it was, after we were invited to the Big Dance, to write up post-season blurbs on our players which would serve as NCAA tournament notes.  Taking his job a bit too seriously, this young guy wrote what amounted to a mini-scouting report on each of our players.  Our head coach, Don DeVoe, read the notes and afterward, he told the sports information director, in no uncertain terms, how he felt.  What Don said  bears repeating to Mike Hamilton:

“If you want to keep this ship afloat, you’d better stop sending torpedoes at it.”

Last night there were not one, but two MAJOR upsets in college basketball.  Oakland University from Michigan handed the Tennessee Vols their first defeat of the season and Drake did likewise to the Louisville Cardinals.  Not sure which is more astounding on first blush, although the Golden Grizzlies of Oakland were coming off a close loss to Illinois and a heart-breaking one point defeat to Michigan State.

Can you imagine what a win over in-state behemoth MSU would have done for the school from just outside of Detroit?  That game was just a few days ago, as was Tennessee’s decisive win at Pitt, in a building where the Panthers have lost about as many games as they’ve had football coaches this decade.  Would Oakland be despondent after going down by one to the mighty Spartans or would UT be overlooking the little guys from Michigan?  It turned out neither was the case as Tennessee jumped out to an 11 point halftime lead and were up eight with about six minutes to go.  Instead of a pity party, coach Greg Campe’s guys fought back to take the lead - and never gave it up.

Meanwhile in Louisville, the Drexel Dragons were given nary a shot at knocking off the ‘Ville, certainly not in their brand-spanking new arena.  And that was the script - nary a shot was made.  But coach Bruiser Flint’s club found a way to make just a few more than the Cards and nailed one of, if not the biggest, win in the school’s history.

Bruce Pearl and Rick Pitino might have a bigger clothing allowance than the two guys they squared off against last night - and don’t think they’re not beside themselves about dropping the game.  But . . . in coaching, nearly every guy has been in the shoes of Campe (in his 27th year at Oakland) and Flint (at Drexel after serving successfully at UMass, just not as much as his predecessor, John Calipari, which got him pink-slipped).  Pearl toiled at D-II Southern Indiana, followed by a D-I gig at UW-Milwaukee (on par with Oakland and Drexel), before hitting the lottery at UT and Pitino was once the head man at low major Boston U.

Both are giants in the coaching field but each remembers the big upset and how great it felt.  For that, all coaches of big-time programs have a soft spot in their hearts for the little guy.  Undoubtedly, each (now) big-time leader warmly congratulated their counterparts on a job well done.

Although the season will probably play out with Tennessee and Louisville in the Big Dance, with Oakland and Drexel knowing their ticket will be punched only if they win their respective league, tonight everyone understands what Wilt Chamberlain meant when he said:

“Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.”

The Reggie Bush-Bruce Pearl post from yesterday was done quicker than usual as I’m still experiencing Internet connection problems on my home computer.  My latest suggestion to Comcast is that they divert some of their advertising money to R&D.

To further explain the meaning behind yesterday’s entry, consider this: the University of Tennessee has retained the services of Michael Glazier of Bond, Schoeneck & King, a law firm that represents colleges in cases involving NCAA investigations.  What’s the significance of this hire?  In the 1980’s Mike Glazier worked for the NCAA, his primary responsibilities involved infractions, compliance and legislative matters.  When someone’s working for the “good guys” and crosses over to the dark side, there have got to be reasons.

One might be the reason many people are compelled to switch jobs: money. Coaches often would (and, I imagine, still do) share with each other that one job no one would want is that of an NCAA investigator.  It’s so hard to actually nail the guys breaking the rules (coaches can be pretty slick) that the common theme was schools got caught on “the small stuff” and got punished for what they did but the NCAA couldn’t prove.  

It’s obvious how frustrating the job of an NCAA investigator could be, especially when the NCAA is (or at least was) notorious for underpaying their employees, a practice not atypical for a powerful, arrogant and elitist organization.  Mike Glazier and his friend, Mike Slive, had an idea to represent universities in these matters.  The two co-founded the Slive/Glazier Sports Group.  The two partners split up, Glazier founded Bond,  Schoeneck & King and became lead attorney for the group.  Not surprisingly, his business has flourished and his company has no need to advertise.  Intimate knowledge of your opponent is a powerful force.

Mike Slive is currently the commissioner of the SEC, the conference which has UT as a member.  Slive is credited with making the statement, “NCAA rules are part of problem rather than solution.”  No one, not even the NCAA, denies the fact the rule book is entirely too big.  When a reporter asks 20 coaches about NCAA violations and all 20 respond that no program in the nation is clean (see yesterday’s blog), it doesn’t necessarily mean everybody is cheating.  Maybe it’s impossible to follow every rule to the letter - and maintain your job, i.e. win.   

Investigations lead to probations which cause black eyes for the programs involved but also have an adverse affect on the institution’s coffers, a much greater problem.  With all the money at stake (the recent television contract for basketball alone was $10,800,000,000 - looks a little more daunting than $10.8 billion when it’s written that way),  who can blame a university for retaining the services of someone who is so familiar with what needs to be done to save face (and a whole lot of dough)?

College basketball is still, to me, the most entertaining and exciting sporting event.  While intercollegiate athletics might not be as pure as the average fan would like, keep in mind the quote:

“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; just be thankful that thorns have roses.”

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So Reggie Bush is giving back his Heisman.  I can’t believe it’s only because he wanted to put a halt to all the questioning.  What he and his family are alleged to have done, they probably did.  Maybe not all of it, but if they were completely clean, I don’t think the Heisman Trophy would be heading east.

Part of his statement was that he’s “establishing an education program which will assist student-athletes and their families avoid some of the mistakes I made.”  Do kids need an educational program to know they shouldn’t take money and gifts from people?  Extra benefits are explained to student-athletes by their schools’ compliance officers as soon as they get to campus.

While Reggie Bush is the first Heisman Trophy winner to give back his award, does anybody really think he’s the first one to accept extra benefits?  When I was an assistant basketball coach on the college level, I can remember colleagues who worked in the old Southwest Conference telling me there was an unwritten rule that the best high school running back in the state of Texas got $20,000 from whichever school he chose.  Kind of a budgetary measure combined with “honor among thieves.”

Arguably the funniest basketball who ever lived was Abe Lemons, a guy with the southwestern twang who had a dry humor that enabled him to get a point across without directly confronting the issue.  One story he used to tell was when he was the head coach at Texas and he was recruiting a 6′9″ rebounder from Ohio.  The kid’s transcript was one that made admissions directors cringe.  When the director of athletics told Abe the kid was going to be denied admission because they didn’t think he could succeed academically, Abe looked at him and said, “We can solve that problem.  Just give the same courses Earl Campbell took.”

Last week saw another admission of guilt (technically, Bush has never admitted guilt).  Bruce Pearl, the basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, held a teary eyed press conference in which he committed what many in the NCAA office feel is the worst possible offense - lying about transgressions. 

Early reports are that Pearl and his staff violated the recruiting rule regarding phone calls.  This one cost Kelvin Sampson his job at Oklahoma and, then again, at Indiana.  That alone should be a hint-and-a-half that the NCAA is serious about when and how many times recruits can be contacted.  Yet, you’d be hard-pressed to find a school who doesn’t violate at least the intent of the rule. 

Why would they risk it?  “Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program.”  If there’s anybody out there who doesn’t believe that statement, I hope they’re not a college coach.  Recruiting is best done via conversations.  Great players don’t select schools by checking websites.  College coaches are some of the best salespeople in the world - but only if they can sell their product (which is themselves as well as their institution).

That’s why coaches play fast and loose with the phone call rule.  Most of them consider the “extra benefits” rule as cheating.  Yet, when Pearl was contacted by the NCAA about alleged violations, he should have known Rule #1 of answering NCAA people - they never ask you a question they don’t know the answer to.

The ironic twist in the Pearl saga is that a couple decades ago, while an assistant at Iowa, Bruce turned in Illinois for cheating.  And not because they were breaking the phone call rule.  He taped a conversation with a highly recruited prospect who had narrowed his choices to Iowa and Illinois.  The kid told him of a new car and a significant amount of money the Illini coaching staff was offering.

He became a pariah, not because it wasn’t true but because he broke the coaches’ code of omerta.  I was at the University of Tennessee at the time and shared in Bruce’s frustration.  All coaches knew which programs were cheating at the highest levels.  As an illustration, read another Abe Lemons story. 

The year Joe B. Hall retired, the Final Four happened to be in Lexington.  As coaches walked by, cameras would appear, reporters asking for rumors or opinions on who would be Joe B’s successor.  When a guy asked Abe if he’d be interested in the job, he said, “Definitely.  Kentucky wouldn’t even have to pay me.  Just give me the same deal they gave Robey.”  Rick Robey was the center for UK.

Michael Rosenberg of si.com wrote in his Pearl story that big-time college athletics creates “… a system in which cheating is usually rewarded and rarely punished …”  Dana O’Neil of espn.com surveyed 20 coaches this past summer and each said “no program is clean.” 

What the public is seeing now is nothing new.  The seedier side of intercollegiate athletics is being exposed because of the “information super highway” and the proliferation of the “investigative journalist,” made popular by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. 

Call me a cynic but I don’t think Reggie Bush is the first Heisman Trophy winner who should have been ruled ineligible nor is Bruce Pearl the only coach who’s breaking rules.  Take it from Abe Lemons:

“Many a truth is spoken in jest.”