Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is operating without a contract, yet the father of star freshman forward Tobias Harris said the situation won’t impact his son.
“There’s no impact on Tobias,” Torrel Harris said. “He’s very focused and ready for the basketball season. He’s working extremely hard and his energy level is very high. I expect great results for Tobias and the UT basketball team.”
Pearl, in turn, called the 6-foot-8 Long Island native “the hardest working guy I’ve ever had.” Pearl said 13 of 14 Vols also cited Harris when asked to name the team’s hardest working player.
Tennessee lost three starters, including post player Wayne Chism, so Harris, a 2010 McDonald’s All-American, should play a key role.
“Tobias Harris is one of the most mature freshmen in college basketball, and he comes to Tennessee at a really important time,” Pearl said. With those losses, “you need a guy that you can plug in there and really not have a lot of dropoff.”
It was recently reported that in a letter from Tennessee officials notifying Pearl his contract would be terminated, the Volunteers coach told men’s basketball recruits and their families that a visit to his home for a team cookout would be an NCAA violation.
The letter, released Friday by the university, outlines the reasons why athletics director Mike Hamilton ended Pearl’s contract. The letter also states Pearl told the recruits he would not report the violation and asked that they do the same.
Tennessee is under investigation by the NCAA because of recruiting practices by Pearl and his staff. The coach has acknowledged he mislead the NCAA and Hamilton has punished Pearl by docking his salary by $1.5 million and banning him from off-campus recruiting for a year.
(The AP contributed)
BostonCat / October 25, 2010
he knowingly committed violations, tried to cover it up, lied to the NCAA about it, and told recruits to lie about it as well putting their future in doubt.
its abusrd he is still allowed to work for ut.
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cdoherty / October 25, 2010
Backing Pearl? Nothing said he was backing Pearl. He’s living his kid there for one year and he’s going to try to go pro. If he’s not good enough, then other decisions will be made.
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JonHuskyMS / October 25, 2010
for once i agree with you wholeheartedly Boston Cat
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BostonCat / October 25, 2010
ut’s football is in ruins right now, starting over from scratch. to fire the bball coach right now would be a double whammy. ut appears to be fine with the bad PR knowing they have a proven coach and will weather the storm.
knowing this, if i’m the NCAA i think you need to suspend pearl and his staff who was also involved in all this at least 1 season.
those other recruits who went to others schools, if they did lie and were caught doing so…would have likely faced the same punishment as dez bryant. as a result i think its only fair to dish out the same punishment for a coach for putting a kid in that position to begin with.
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