Pearl’s “Absolute”
March 25th, 2008 | 
Author: .png "Pearls Absolute")
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In case you haven’t noticed, with their win over the Butler Bulldogs, the Tennessee Volunteers recorded their 31st victory, further distancing themselves from the prior record of 26. This is a feat which, only a few years ago, would have seemed as laughable and unlikely as learning that Bear Bryant was secretly a transvestite with a love child by Johnny Majors. Now, the BasketVols have accomplished what seemed impossible: an SEC Championship and back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances …
… but it’s obvious that’s not the ultimate goal.
GoVolsXtra“>
After the win over Butler (I’m still on round-the-clock EKG monitoring to ensure there wasn’t any permanent coronary damage), Coach Pearl discussed his maverick decision to change up his point guard — giving J.P. Prince the starting nod — for the first time during the NCAA Tournament with the media. Among other things, Pearl said:
The deal is this: I just thought that the point guard play we were getting wasn’t going to win a national championship. So, if we make the decision and it doesn’t pay off and I’m sitting here in front of you and explaining why I made that choice and we lost the game, I could go to bed going, it’s okay. I don’t think this is going to help us advance. Watching tonight gives us a better chance to win Thursday.
It’s not a panacea, but we got five guys out there with J.P. in that position. I was able to do some different things offensively. I was able to do some things that Butler hadn’t seen. And that was fun. Actually, it was fun.
Excuse me? Did I read that correctly? Did Bruce Pearl use the phrase “National Championship” in reference to the Tennessee Vols Men’s Basketball program?
I, as much as anyone else who has followed the BasketVols … well … ever, appreciate that this team is in uncharted waters in terms of success. This season, the Vols have completely rewritten almost every record for Tennessee basketball. It’s obvious, however, that this team — and more importantly this coach — are not satisfied with simply raising the bar a few notches over the Tennessee teams of the past (ala Jerry Green and his “What do you people want? We made the tournament!” mentality). Bruce Pearl wants to rip the bar completely off the wall.
Even I have been guilty of the “We’re better” mentality of judging the BasketVols’ successes in relative terms against how they compared to the performance of teams of the past. Bruce Pearl, however, — without fanfare — has completely changed and elevated the benchmark at the University of Tennessee to one where the BasketVols are now assessing themselves in “absolute” terms. No longer is the question “Are the Vols better than the teams of Wade Houston, Kevin O’Neill, Jerry Green, Buzz Peterson, Don DeVoe, and Ray Mears?” Now, the question is simple:
Are the Vols better than EVERYONE?
That is the mark of a true winner.
Along with this change on the part of the team and the coaching staff, the Orange Nation is changing its perspective as well. Gone are the days of hoping — just hoping — that the BasketVols will be competitive, and maybe win a big game every now and then. Heck, I remember in the 1994-95 season — as Kevin O’Neill tried to pick up the pieces of the train wreck that was Wade Houston’s tenure — just hoping we would win more than 5 games. Now, Tennessee fans expect to win every game.
All of this comes from Pearl and his in-your-face style of leadership. From the very first day he came on campus Pearl knew he had a big task ahead of him. All he asked of the Tennessee faithful (and to suffer through some of the seasons between 1988 and 2005 you had to be really faithful) was to give the BasketVols a chance, come to a game and let us try and win you over. To date, no one has been disappointed. Pearl now is dead-set to push the Vols to the next level of success.
This speaks volumes on Bruce Pearl’s drive, dedication, and character.
I would welcome anyone in Orange Nation to name a single coach which has been more openly and enthusiastically embraced by the Tennessee fanbase than Bruce Pearl. The fact is, there isn’t one. I have never seen the notoriously fickle orange-clad fans so overwhelmingly support and fall in love with a coach like they have with Bruce Pearl. He is approaching the level of Peyton Manning in the minds of many people.
So let’s be honest, with that kind of support, Bruce could play his cards close to the vest — publicly talk about how good the Vols are and his desire to win that mythical “next game” and nothing more. That would be easy — keep the standard right where it is in the eyes of the fans, and win a whole lot, with the understanding that you won’t win them all. What that does is make it easy for a coach to meet the expectations of the backers, and be successful, but not raise the level of those expectations and invite the uncomfortable feeling that accompanies falling a bit short. I am willing to bet that, if Bruce Pearl could only win an average of 20 games a season and go to the tournament 6 or 7 years out of 10, he could stay at Tennessee until he is older than Joe Pa. That would be very easy, and that would be “safe” for Pearl.
Bruce Pearl is not known for playing it safe …
Rather than ride the wave and keep the expectations reasonable, Bruce Pearl is not only accepting an increase in expectations, he’s actively encouraging it. Forget just wanting to win the “next game” — Pearl has drawn the line in the sand: he wants the whole shooting match. Bruce Pearl has acknowledged what all of the Tennessee faithful have been too afraid to say:
We want the Championship!
Now, I know, that statistically speaking, the Vols probably have about a 50% chance of winning an NCAA Championship, maybe less than that. In all likelihood — purely looking at probabilities — the BasketVols will not win the title. Bruce Pearl, however, has acknowledged that it is out there, and Tennessee wants it. The only way you slay that dragon, is to know it. The only way you reach that pinnacle, is by claiming it as your own. You may fall short. You may not reach that goal. You may not make it all the way…
… but, then again, you might.
I, for one, firmly believe that if it is ever in the cards for Tennessee to claim that prize, Bruce Pearl is the one to take the team, the university and the fans there. Either way, Bruce Pearl has made it “absolutely” clear …
… Come Hell or High Water, that’s where Tennessee is heading.
– Go Figure ….gif "Pearls Absolute")
Quotes Courtesy of: UT Sports.com • Image Courtesy of: GoVolsXtra
About the Author: "Lawvol" -- I'm just a guy living in North Carolina who has an unnatural fascination with the color orange. Just because I'm a Tennessee alum and die-hard Volunteer fan doesn't mean that I can't poke a little fun at the Big Orange and anybody else for that matter.
Feel free to complain all you want. >> Read more from this author
Posted in College Basketball, No Pass Out Checks, SEC Basketball | 
Tags: Basketball, BasketVols, Bear Bryant, Bruce Pearl, Buzz Peterson, Championship, Don DeVoe, J.P. Prince, Jerry Green, Johnny Majors, Kevin O'Neill, Love Child, National Champion, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Tournament, No Pass Out Checks, Orange Nation, Ray Mears, SEC, Tennessee Basketball, Tennessee Volunteers, Tournament, Transvestite, University of Tennessee, Vols, Wade Houston
15 Responses to “Pearl’s “Absolute””
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Charlie on 
lawvol on 
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gosh this site has some great articles, especially when im looking around on espn or sportline or si.com for stuff about tennessee, its always worth coming here and see what ya got
ok im done brown-nosing, on another note we have the oppurtunity to do the ultimate revenge tour
round of 32, we already got our revenge on butler for last years debacle
sweet 16, revenge on louisville for all those buzz era games where the refs decided to swallow their whistles to kowtow to rick pitino
elite 8, revenge on UNC for that horrible sweet 16 back in the day and consecutive losses to them
final 4, revenge on kansas for stealing our 1 seed and making us go thru butler louisville and unc to get to them
championship, im thinking either memphis or texas, revenge on texas for earlier this year or another game with memphis where i really hope “pj” prince will shine once again
haha ur first comment is gonna be “lets not get ahead of ourselves” but i think u guys are forgetting who our coach is and that this is OUR YEAR
Well, based upon Bruce’s comment, I’d say that he’s believing that as well. So I figure — what the hell — I’ll have a nice big glass of the Kool-Aid that the man painted orange over there is having, bartender.
After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained…
He is approaching the level of Peyton Manning in the minds of many people.
Woah, there, lil’ buddy! CBP is loved in these here parts, but approaching the level of Peyton Manning? In Knoxville?! Don’t be speaking crazy now!
In all seriousness, excellent work (as usual), LawVol!
I’m just wondering when he’ll get his own street on campus. I’m guessing it’ll be about a day after he signs a long-term contract.
And that contract better have a huge, massive, monolithic buyout penalty. I’m thinking something on the order of paying off the nation’s national debt is a reasonable first installment.
But as to the conclusion; yes, it’s great to have a guy who’s setting his sights on the big prize. That’s what he needs to do if we’re going to have any hope of getting that trophy away from the usual suspects.
First, thanks for the link yesterday.
Now, why would anyone be surprised to hear a coach talking about winning a national championship? Is that not the goal of EVERY team?
When I played football the coach didn’t stand before the team and say, “OK men, let’s concentrate on at least finishing fourth in our conference.” Hell no.
Privately you may well know your team isn’t going to do any better than finish fourth in the conference, but you aspire to be the best regardless. You put that idea of success into your players heads to have them aspire to the loftiest goals too.
Pearl isn’t saying anything I wouldn’t tell my team. Being stuck in the east with UNC is a tough road to hoe. Much less getting past Louisville this week. I’ll be exceptionally proud of this team regardless of what happens from here out.
Nice scribble as always.
MoonDog,
True, that is the goal. But the players have a feel for what they believe is realistic, as does the coach. For example, I kinda doubt that you hear much talk of BCS championships from the Syracuse football team, even though they’re in one of the acceptable conferences. They just haven’t had the track record or the talent for it. In that case, the coach will find more realistic goals to achieve (for example, a winning record). Once that happens, the focus shifts away from the Holy Grail and rests instead on the Kinda Cool Sippy-Cup. Now, if Syracuse did get that winning record, then they’d focus on a bowl win or a conference win. But only in that order. Here, Pearl is looking at what will win the endgame, and tooling the team towards the final step rather than the next step.
It’s one that a lot of coaches won’t explicitly do, because they’re afraid of failure. Here, Pearl is taking the chance on failure in earlier rounds by putting a relatively raw JP at point in order to increase the odds of winning later rounds. Heck, they may not even get a chance at those later rounds because of the risk he’s taking, but it’s a much different approach than maximizing the odds of the next game when it means that you have longer odds to win afterwards.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that if Pearl had lost to Butler, it was because he was trying to get ready to beat UNC, then Kansas, and then Memphis or UCLA. Most coaches would have prepped only for Butler and hoped for the best afterwards.
Hoops, you said exactly what I was trying to say — only more clearly. My point is that if Buzz Peterson had gone around explaining his coaching decisions by saying “I think it will help Tennessee win a national championship” people would have laughed at him.
You have to crawl before you walk, I suppose…
The thing that I was trying to point out is that Pearl is now publicly acknowledging that Tennessee feels it is as good as anyone — and that is a huge step for the program.
Most coaches is Pearl’s position would have simply said we are trying to get better, and hope in their heads that they backed into a championship, not go on record saying they think they are a contender. That’s what I love about him — fear nothing, and if the cards fall against you, at least you went down swinging.
I do, however, understand what you mean MoonDog, no coach says “Well, boys we’re gonna battle our way to the bottom of the conference this year!” Although I do still wonder what exactly Wade Houston was telling the 1993-94 team as the season went on — I mean that year Tennessee just plain sucked … hard … legendary suckage.
Oh yeah, and Aerobab, maybe the Manning statement was a bit over the top, but I do think — in terms of his dedication to the university and his willingness to reach out to the fans as an ambassador, Pearl IS up there with Manning. I mean can you see Phil Fulmer in there with a bare belly painted orange?
Hmmm … you know, there are some visual images that you just don’t need in your head, that was probably one of them … sorry about that.
I should have emphasized that I don’t disagree with MD at all. No coach is looking for next-to-last as a victory, with the possible exception of Vandy football in a down year.
Forgot one thing: “Holy Grail vs. Kinda Cool Sippy-Cup” too funny!
Also, by the way, if any of you would like your own avatars to show up on here, you can go over to http://en.gravatar.com/ and register. The great thing about Gravatar is that once you register, any site that uses the WordPress/Gravatar system will automatically populate your selected Avatar. And for you guys, if you need a cool Avatar, just let me know and I’ll make you one up.
About Gravatar:
Somebody else that uses “hooper” has that staked out. If I used a different username on Gravatar, would I still be able to use “hooper” on sites like yours, but with the Gravatar?
I personally don’t mind the 21 symbol, and I’d much rather stick with the generic than change my handle now.
First, let’s all give the due love to the Lady Vols.
I understand what you guys are saying. I’m actually viewing this from a players perspective. As a player, you really don’t know how good you are in comparison with other teams until you line up.
Just because some banana heads in the media think you’re supposed to be good doesn’t mean you are. See the Vols football team in 2005.
The primary point I want to make is that you depend on your coach to have the insight you lack as a player. Players need to have lofty goals to perform to their best abilities. The coach implants the thought you WILL be competitive.
What the coach tells the media about the team is another matter. I’d agree that as a coach if you know your team is only going to be marginally competitive, you don’t want to talk about national championships. In that regard I absolutely agree with your points.
Why the hell don’t you guys comment like this at my site? I know you’re reading. It’s free advertising when you post. You don’t like my political rants? LOL!
A few final thoughts in the order I read them:
1) On Gravatar, I’m 90% sure that it’s not the registration name at Gravatar that matters, it is the email addresses you tie the avatars to. Thus, anytime I use my email address to comment somewhere, it automatically associates my tough-guy Smokey avatar.
2) You know, I haven’t been doing a very good job of giving the Lady Vols their due this season — mainly because I’ve been so beside myself on the performance of the BasketVols. You got me on that one MoonDog.
3) It’s funny you should mention commenting on other sites, MoonDog, because I was thinking the exact same thing this morning. I don’t do a good job of commenting, and I admit it. Most of my commenting is in response to comments on here. According to my feed reader, I — using the word in the loosest possible sense — “read” (more like “skim”) 258 blogs at present — as a general rule, if you’re in my blogroll, I read your blog (and there are some which aren’t in the roll). About half of my subscriptions have daily postings, which means I have WAY too much to read. Who is to blame? Well, I would like to say Mal Moore, but in the end … sigh … it is me.
I think I need to scale back a bit and focus on a fewer blogs, and start being more active. Duly noted (and I do mean that sincerely, of course, you can never trust a lawyer =) ).
lawvol – I believe you misinterpreted my comment. It wasn’t meant as an admonishment. I was serious about the free advertising though. With people viewing so many blogs one’s attention span is about 60 seconds.
Even if your listed in the blog rolls, people will have a tendency to hover over your screen name on a comment as opposed to linking from the blog roll.
I’m a marketing whiz BTW. That was said in jest too.
MD, it took me a second to follow you. I’m in engineering, so the marketing stuff doesn’t tend to enter my thoughts. I get the humor now (and lol back at ya), but here’s my actual responses:
- I am not technically a blogger in the strict sense; though I post at RTT and am most strongly tied to it, it’s still Joel’s baby and I try not to seem too possessive of RTT elsewhere. He gets the credit, even if I try to encourage readership, etc.
- I don’t frequent that many blogs for a big reason: I have a somewhat addictive personality and I could easily lose myself in them. I learned that lesson in my undergrad days when I threw out about 10 computer games because of too many play-till-sunrise sessions. I am very slow to increase my involvement until I know where I’m going because I have a great career track in front of me and I don’t want to risk messing it up. (Currently in the PhD program in nuclear engineering.)
- To be honest, I didn’t run across your site until after I read a few of your posts at RTT. (Like you said, posting on other sites works.) I first started reading it about the same time a few of us covered for Joel at RTT, and that experience wore me out a bit. I’ve backed off a bit partly to rest and partly because of my second point.
But yes, posting at other sites does work. If you follow my train of link-learning, it goes like this:
FOX Sports (FO feature articles)
Football Outsiders (7th Day Adventure)
MGOBlog
RTT and EDSBS
Gate21, TSIB, MDL, SBNation, etc.
Yup!
The avatar is connected to the email addy, not to the username. Cool. Thanks!