A Tale of Two Coaches
By Matt Mottern
It was Sunday March 17th, 2013, a day that every college basketball player in the nation anticipates. It was Selection Sunday, the day in which college teams around the nation learn of their post season fate. For one group of guys in particular, the day was brutal.
The Tennessee Volunteers had struggled quite a bit throughout the season. Early losses both out of conference and in the SEC had put a damper on any hopes of making the Big Dance in coach Cuonzo Martin’s second year. Fans were getting restless. Then, it clicked. The Vols went 9-1 in their final 10 regular season games. They went in and won their first SEC tournament game, and looked to face a surging Alabama team in their second round game. Unfortunately, it was not in the cards that day. A 58-48 loss to our bitter football rivals was a tough one to swallow for the team, the university, and the fans. We all knew this was bad. Experts such as Joe Lunardi had had us on the bubble for weeks. Throughout our late season run, we saw our chances improve with every game. But we also knew a deep run in the SEC tournament was almost a necessity. And as expected, the selection committee did not see things our way. For the second straight season, Tennessee was NIT bound, where we would once again find our lack luster ways, and fall to an inferior Mercer team in the first round.
This was tough for fans to accept. We were brimming with talented players such as Jordan McRae, Jarnell Stokes, and Trae Golden. We had so much hope, so much belief that this was a team destined to do great things. The early loss of senior Jeronne Maymon to injury definitely hurt, but after medical red-shirting the season to maintain another year of eligibility, there was one silver lining that Vol fans clung to…next season. With the return of Maymon, and almost no seniors graduating, we knew this was going to be a dangerous team, a better team, a winning team.
The Pearly Gates
To fully understand the pain of a Tennessee fan, one must know the mind set of one. Let’s rewind the clock to an even darker time in Tennessee basketball. The year was 2005. Tennessee had just come off a 14-17 season and had recently fired head coach Buzz Peterson. It was a time of turmoil for the men. Pat Summit and her Lady Vols were taking care of business as usual, dominating the ranks of women’s college basketball. And that was the face of our school. I would even go as far as to say there might have been some out there who were unaware the men even had a team. They were an after-thought.
Enter the new guy to the program. A northerner coming to Tennessee to attempt and clean up the mess left behind. Enter, Bruce Pearl. This Vol fan will readily admit that I had little knowledge of Pearl prior to him being hired. In the days that followed, I heard all sorts of rumors, facts, and opinions on our new coach. But with a depleted roster, not many expected him to work any miracles. However, he did just that. In his first season, Coach Pearl took a team of underdogs and dominated the SEC East. He took his team to the second round of the NCAA tournament, eventually losing to Wichita State in the round of 32. And though getting put out of the tournament is never ideal, fans had a new sense of something that had been missing on Rocky Top for years…victory.
Pearl was a special kind of coach, one that only comes around once in a blue moon as the saying goes. He even went as far as to paint his chest and cheer on the Lady Vols with the rest of the students at Thomson Boling. Needless to say, he was loved. The university and fans took to Pearl like a group of teenage girls take to Bieber. His charisma and passion for the game were second to none. He took our team to new levels, and put Tennessee basketball on the map. In his time here he lead us to victories over two number one teams in Kansas and in-state rival Memphis, eventually brining the elusive number one ranking to Knoxville, though only for a short stent. It seemed for a bit that it was almost too good to be true, and just like that, we realized it was.
Darkness returns to Knoxville
For the sake of a good story, let’s say it was a beautiful sunny day in east Tennessee, the kind of day that makes you want to go for a hike, or swim in the lake, or, I don’t know, have a barbeque. And that’s exactly what Pearl did, he had a barbeque. But as we all know, the best barbeques are the ones with all of your friends, family, teammates, and others. The downside falls into the “others” category. It came in the form of a recruit, a recruit named Aaron Craft. Being such a nice day, why not invite Craft over to join the fun while he’s in town for a recruiting trip to Knoxville? So, once again, that’s exactly what Pearl did. Of course to us, this sounds harmless; after all it was only a simple backyard barbeque. Perhaps Pearl knew what he was doing when he did it, or perhaps it was simply overlooked. All that can be known for sure is that it was an NCAA violation. And as we all know, the NCAA takes these matters seriously.
The news rattled the state. Our beloved Pearl was being called a cheater, and liar. But how could this be? How could the man who brought such passion and happiness to Knoxville be our undoing? We’re still not sure exactly what would’ve happened had Pearl simply told the truth. Due to the almost laughable nature of the offense, it probably would have been next to nothing. Of course we all know that’s not what happened. Instead, Pearl lied to NCAA investigators, in a move that still puzzles me every time I think about it. And if there’s one thing that can come out of all of this, it’s that the NCAA hates liars even more than it does barbeques. And just like that, our beloved coach was fired from the university and slapped with a three year show cause penalty by the NCAA. Our coach of six years, our coach who took us to the NCAA tournament in every single one of his seasons at UT, our coach who took us to our first elite eight, was gone.
Who’s this guy?
Pearl’s exodus from the team left a gaping hole in the hearts of Tennessee fans. Our numbskull (not the word I really want to use) athletic director, Mike Hamilton, in all of his infinite wisdom, decided it best to inform the team and the fans of Pearl’s firing right before our first round match-up in the NCAA tournament against Michigan. And for those of you who don’t know, or chose to block that memory from your brain, we got destroyed. It all seemed to be falling apart. The program we had all come to love appeared to be on a one way plane to hell. There was no hope left. Fans knew Hamilton was incapable of making a homerun hire. And so we’re introduced to the future of Tennessee basketball, Cuonzo Martin. Avid basketball fans likely had heard of Martin before. But since he wasn’t coach K, Izzo, or Self, most Tennessee fans had no clue who he was. All we knew is that it was his job to pick up the pieces and return us to the promise land that is the NCAA tourney.
In his first season, Martin failed to do this. As fans, we had gotten used to seeing that beautiful orange power T in the post season. It felt so good to get there, and yet we wanted more. We wanted that Final Four, we wanted to taste that National Championship taste. But we knew in order to do so we must first make it to the Big Dance. So you can imagine our disappointment. But the season came with a silver lining, for in that January, we picked up highly recruited forward Jarnell Stokes. Tennessee fans shook off the let-down and rooted our team on in the NIT. The common feeling around Knoxville wasn’t too bad. After all, it was Martin’s first season, and he was bringing in some promising talent. And with such a young team, we were surely to be much better in his second season. Season number two was like a bad case of déjà vu. Once again fans helplessly watched as our Vols constantly underperformed. As noted earlier, even our impressive late season run wasn’t enough to sway the committee.
Third time’s a charm
I’ve always loved that saying, “the third time’s a charm.” It always gave me hope when I failed on my first two attempts, yet seemed to only make me panic when on my third. As the season started, Vol fans were ecstatic. We had Maymon back and healthy, and alongside Stokes, the pair seemed unbeatable. Of course there was the offseason drama that saw the exodus of Trae Golden, but with it brought Memphis point guard Antonio Barton. The team was stacked. This of course led to utter disappointment once again. We saw our team struggle early, losing to teams such as UTEP, N.C. State, and Xavier out of conference. The SEC schedule didn’t help the cause. Tennessee dropped games to low level, mediocre at best, teams such as Vanderbilt and Missouri, and got swept by Texas A&M.
Fans were shocked. How could this be? How does a team with so much talent fall so hard? It didn’t help to see Virginia, who we demolished by 35 points, climb the rankings and eventually win the regular season ACC title, as well as the ACC tournament. We knew the talent was there, but why wasn’t it showing? For the third time in three years, it appeared we were once again NIT bound. Now, for those of you who don’t know Tennessee fans, this was absolutely unacceptable. The first two seasons were easier to play off. After all, we were a young team. But not this year, this year was our chance at greatness. This was the last year for McRae and Maymon, and possibly Stokes as well. It went from déjà vu to a full on nightmare. Eventually fans had had enough.
Pearl was working for ESPN, yet he never left Knoxville. His show cause was about up, and the further we dropped into oblivion, the more the memories of teams past took a hold of us. We were sick of the NIT. We wanted to go dancing again. Our shoes were covered in dust, and some thought they would never come clean again. And so it began: the Bring Back Bruce campaign. Everyone was talking about it. A petition was even started, and eventually amassed a staggering 36,000 plus signatures. That’s enough to roughly fill Thomson Boling Arena one and a half times. I would be a stone cold liar if I said I didn’t sign it myself. I had also had enough. The NIT didn’t have the same feel. I wanted more. I wanted Pearl back at the reins. He was so personable with the fans. His intensity was so intense that it turned Thompson Boling into one of the most daunting arenas to play in for visiting teams. As fans, we seemed to have a sense of who Bruce was. He was the face of success for Tennessee basketball. And it was clear that without him we wouldn’t see that success return.
This where things took a turn for this team. Cuonzo doesn’t have the personality Bruce did, that much is evident. But he’s not Bruce Pearl, and we shouldn’t expect him to be. He still does a lot for the community and is said to be an absolute top notch individual. What the fans saw in Cuonzo was directly correlated to the results of the games he coached. We got so overly engulfed with demanding perfection that we lost sight of what should really matter in college sports, and that is the players. It shouldn’t matter what our opinion of Cuonzo is, what should matter is how the team views him. After dropping our second game to A&M, the petition went crazy. More and more fans flocked to the site to sign it in hopes of getting rid of Cuonzo once and for all. But he never faltered under the pressure. He seemed to block out the negative attention and focus on the team. He seemed to not even notice. But guess who did, the team.
As I type this, I sit in my office with my orange tie on with my orange suit jacket draped over the back of my chair. It’s game day. The tournament is in full swing, and tonight my mighty Vols have a date to the dance. We meet up with Michigan in the Sweet 16 for a shot at the Elite Eight. So what happened to this team? What did Cuonzo change or do to turn things around? The answer, nothing! Instead, the group of young men who call Cuonzo Martin their coach decided it was time to shut up the critics. For them Cuonzo is more than just their coach. He is their mentor, their father on campus, and it has become vividly evident that they have an unmatched admiration for the man holding the reins. When you hear their interviews it’s nothing but praise. You hear stories in which they tell how Cuonzo has taught them more than just basketball, he has taught them to be men, to be humans; he has taught them some of the most important life lessons. And they love him dearly.
So after a stinging loss to A&M, they decided it was enough. No longer were they going to accept loss, and even more so, no more were they going to let the man they look up to most be scrutinized. Since that game, this team has been electric. They went 5-1 in their final six games, absolutely demolishing their opponents along the way. They were again put out of the SEC tournament, but this time it was the number one team in the nation in Florida who made it happen. Yet we still played well enough even in that game to impress the selection committee. And finally, our name was called for the big dance.
Dust off those dancing shoes
So here we are, the Big Dance. We have an opportunity of winning it all, yet we were still not in the final grouping of 64. Instead we made a play-in game for the chance to be an 11 seed in the tournament. Our opponent: Big 10 foe Iowa. On paper we matched up well, and the game itself was nothing less than excruciating to watch. We were down the entire game, but this was not the same Tennessee. They never quit and surged to a strong second half and into overtime, eventually winning by 13. That was the game that did for me. I have never seen this group bear down and grit it out the way they did. They never quit. We have since moved on further, leaving a path of destruction in our wake, consisting of UMass and Mercer. And that brings us to tonight, to the Sweet 16, to Michigan.
It was clear to me all of a sudden on why this dramatic change in our team took place. These guys are no longer playing for the fans, the school, the state, or even themselves. No, this is for someone else. These guys are playing for Cuonzo. He can coach and teach basketball all day long, but at the end of the day, they’re the ones who have to put it to work, and that’s what they’ve done. This dance is for their mentor and coach. If nothing else to give back to him just a taste of what he’s given them. He’s taught them success, not only on the basketball court, but in life. And now they’re giving that success back, and it’s truly beautiful to watch.
I have been stuck on the petition for some time now. I can’t take my name off of it, and it honestly makes me feel a bit hollow inside. I have been completely proven wrong. Yet I don’t regret it, and I don’t feel as if anyone can even now judge our fan base for creating it. I mean look at us. We’re playing the best basketball in years, and we knew it was in us all along. That was the point of the petition. If anything, this run has further made our point. And I honestly feel that the petition itself is what fired up this team to prove us all wrong. The question I’ve been mulling over in my head is, where would we be had it never been created? Would this team found the motivation elsewhere? Would we be in Indianapolis right now preparing for the Sweet 16? We can never know for sure. So I don’t regret signing the petition, but I do regret making any unkind remarks towards Coach Martin. I have never seen a team come together for their coach like this before.
We knew Pearl through his own personality. He flaunted it for everybody in the world to see. So though we felt we really knew him, I believe we really only knew the Pearl he wanted us to know. Cuonzo is much more introverted. He doesn’t make the big scene Pearl did. He’s much more modest. Yet I feel like through this run I’ve got to know him even more than Pearl, and this feels much more authentic. I know Martin through his team, as his respect and professionalism absolutely bursts out of every single one of them. It’s almost as if looking back, that Pearl is that drunken sorority girl you can have a good time with, but Cuonzo is the one you want to start a life with. Sure, we appreciate what Pearl did in his time here, but Cuonzo will turn our players into men. And as much as I love wins, I want my team to have integrity. Regardless of tonight’s outcome, this team has been inspiring. So put on your nicest UT orange attire, and be sure to wear your most comfortable shoes, for tonight, we’re going dancing.
