I wasn’t able to attend the Best of the Best Coaching Clinic at Long Island Lutheran High on Sunday, but Luke Winn of SI.com went out there and interviewed embattled Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl.
Pearl was supposed to speak on “Pressure Defense” and “Special Situations,” two topics that he’s now all too familiar with.
Despite an NCAA investigation into his program and mounting pressure on Pearl, he has yet to be fired and hopes his actions don’t justify such a penalty.
“I don’t know,” Pearl told SI.com in an interview following the clinic. “We did what we felt like we needed to do, to take steps proactively to penalize ourselves. I think the penalties were unprecedented in some scope. But we made mistakes. We provided false and misleading information to the NCAA.
“I should be made an example of, and I am — I’m embarrassed. But I hope that the things we did don’t rise to the level of termination, because we run a clean program. We got investigated in a lot of areas.”
Adonis Thomas, a Memphis native and a top Tennessee recruit, told ZAGSBLOG last week that he hadn’t ruled out the Vols, but that Tennessee faces a “problem” on the recruiting front.
“I’m still considering them but like anyone that will always be a problem,” the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Memphis native ranked as the No. 6 small forward in the Class of 2011 said Wednesday by phone following an official visit to Tennessee. “You don’t want to go to a school that takes the [NCAA] tournament away from you. You go to school to play in the tournament. You’re playing for nothing [if there’s no tournament]. That’s a big thing but I’m still considering them. They’re still one of the schools on my list.”
