Bruce is Loose

From Rockstar to sidewalk musician; that would be a fitting way to describe the last six months of Bruce Pearl's life. Earlier this week, after six years as the headcoach of the University of Tennessee Men's Basketball team, Pearl was abruptly fired. The crime? Well that's the most frustruating part of the situation if you're a UT fan; the alleged violations would have been secondary and already forgotten. The cover-up? Well as always that's where it all lies (no pun intented). What does this all mean for the program going forward? Well that all remains to be seen.

In his brief tenure with Tennessee, there's one thing we can all agree on, Bruce Pearl proved to be both a marketing genius and a master of the x's and o's. His accomplishments include improving the average attendance at the often cavernous Thompson-Boling arena from an average of 14,869 to an average of 19,507 during his six years. From those numbers you could deduce the impact of Bruce Pearl was an additional 25% to the attending fanbase. He brought the program to #1, reached the NCAA tournament each year and got to the Elite 8 for the first time in school history. Pretty impressive right? And I didn't even begin to discuss his philanthropic impact off of the court or facility upgrades. He was the total package, which makes the firing extremely tough to swallow.

So how did we get to this point? I've often held the philosophy that celebrities, star-athletes, famous musicians, etc think they can get away with so much because that is what society has enabled them to think. In this case, I'm not sure we are very far removed from a similar situation. The timing of Bruce Pearl's cover-up and lying to the infraction committee was not soon after he wrapped up arguably the most successful season in Tennesee Basketball history. In April of last year, Pearl was a media darling, could do not wrong, larger than life version of himself. He was close to the pinnacle of his basketball career. That's when the bottom fell out. He started playing by his own rules and coloring outside the NCAA lines and in the end could not quite cover his mistakes with the equity he had built up. I really think that the administration was being honest over this period when they publicly supported Pearl; that's how talented this guy was/is. The last straw came when Pearl was accused of a Bump violation and did not self-report to local compliance. I guess he figured I can do no wrong; I lied to the NCAA and I'm still here so no big deal. That aggressive attitude is attributable to Pearl's celebrated success and ultimate demise.

So where does the University go from here? Obviously a new coach is order, but may prove difficult given the mess left from the Pearl Era. You also have an athletic director in place who is willing to throw their coach under the bus at inopportune times. While most people are calling for Mike Hamilton's job; it may require more careful consideration than an emotional reaction. What the program needs right now is stability. The likely punishment even without Pearl, could mean recruiting restrictions, scholarship reductions and possibly a post-season ban. Keeping Hamilton employed until the next hire is in place may be the only thing that holds the glue of this situation together. And tell me as a Tennessee fan if the hiring of Lane Kiffin and Bruce Pearl were bad hires at the time; we all know that hindsight is 20/20. The argument can be made that Hamilton is great businessman, but lacks the proper PR accumen.

So how does this story end? For Pearl, it means starting over. Probably a Division II job somewhere in cornfield USA. In the meantime maybe he's a talking head at ESPN while he is serving his 2 year ban from the game for unethical conduct. Either way Pearl can get back to the mountaintop if he is contrite, continues to work hard, and puts his mistakes behind him. The future for TN, however, is a little more bleak. Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and his minions will be busy rebuilding the program and honestly may never restore it to the heights of the Pearl Era. I always like to end my entries with a lyric and due to my ever growing fascination with the Beatles lately I will leave you with this: "I have to admit it's getting better, getting better all the time. It can't get no worse."

No Bark, No Bite

Giants fall the hardest; and this past weekend a massive golf figure took a painful plunge to reach the lowest point of his career. The 2010 Bridgestone Invitational may have been seen by some as season rallying point for Tiger Woods. After all he had record seven wins at Firestone C.C. and had never shot higher than 72. Maybe this was the tune-up that Tiger needed for the last major of the year. Those thoughts were quickly banished from the minds of golf fans after the 1st round of play on Thursday. By Sunday, many may have wondered if we will ever see the greatest golfer of all time win another tournament in his career.

The world #1's play was downright painful to watch. Woods at times looked like a weekend hacker playing on a golf course he had no business being on. But besides the collage of horrible shots and his highest 4 round score in his PGA tour career; Tiger reached a new low this weekend - he gave up on his game. In my years watching this incredible talent, I have always marveled at the determination and sheer grit that this guy displays on the links. He is never out of a tournament in his mind and always battles to the end. At times during this tournament, we saw Woods often shank a bad shot and nonchalantly stroll to the next and swing without batting an eyelid. While it was disappointing and tough to see, it's hard to blame the guy. His life is in shambles and he just can't compartmentalize his emotions and problems off the golf course. He is facing a massive divorce, finds it difficult to see his kids and the whole world has criticized his every move for eight months. What Tiger has gone through since last November is more than most people would experience in the majority of their lives.

Rather than taking this entry to try and fix Tiger's problems. Let me simply state the obvious - This season on the course is over, period. That's even hard for me to accept as a fan, but I think it's important to do so. Let's stop saying that Tiger is close and predicting him to win tournaments. Yes, I'm talking to you golf writers of the world. Woods should play out the PGA next week and hang it up for the year.

At the rate events are unfolding, I don't think the guy can endure much more embarrassment, especially on his hallowed ground, the golf course. Not to mention that Whistling Straits next week is no place "to find your game". I am actually cringing at the potential outcome for Tiger next week. Trust me this course is BRUTAL. I would much rather see the remainder of the season sans Woods, than see his career end abruptly now. The long term effects on the game without him would be catastrophic. Go look up the TV ratings of tournament without Woods in the field - the numbers are staggering. Good night and Good luck Mr. Woods, we'll see you next year. The golf world will be better for it.

Time for the "One and Done" to be Done (And a few shots at John Calipari)

As I was watched the NBA draft last week I really began to question the "One and Done" Rule in College Basketball. If you're a sports fan you know that this isn't a new rule, but after seeing the reaction of Kentucky Coach John Calipari having 5 of his players being drafted (4 of them Freshman); I really began to question the current and potential impacts of this rule on College Basketball.

In 2005, NBA Commissioner David Stern added an age limit that required players entering the draft to be at least 19 years old or have completed their Freshman year of college. On the surface this was a great idea; players will have a year of college to develop and mature and will be more ready when they make the leap to the next level. Another benefit is that college fans would have the opportunity to see players in college that otherwise would jump straight to the League from High School. There have been plenty of success stories with this rule, most notably Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Darren Williams, Derrick Rose - oh wait maybe that last one didn't quite work out; at least for the college program that was left behind. Remember how I mentioned Coach Cal earlier? Well let's just say he personifies all that is wrong with College Basketball today. Let me add the disclaimer that I am a complete Tennessee Volunteer homer and while I absolutely despise Kentucky basketball and their coach, I think my argument has some validity.

In several instances (not just John Calipari), college coaches today have lost their purpose on the job. Remember when it was a coach's job to teach the game and help develop young men in life? Trust me it seems like it was back in the good old days. Over the last 5 years we have seen the coaching profession of leading young men transform into a narcisstic, self-promotional ego contest, with the reward being insane amounts of money. In fact, do you know who the highest paid employee is in most states around the country? The governor? A senator? No, the basketball or football coach of the state's charter school. Now to their credit, for all the money that these guys make, they do bring in revenues for their university and state that are exponentially higher than their salaries. The problem is the players who chose to go to school in alot of cases are paying for those revenues and not in cash, but in a way that is detrimental to their futures away from the field of play. And worst of all, the athletic directors of these programs are asleep at the wheel because these hires make them look like geniuses. All a part of the viscious ego cycle.

Back to the draft; I think the most interesting nugget of the night was that the first Senior taken was not until the 23rd pick. That means (in most cases) 22 underproven, untested and undeveloped underclassmen were taken before Trevor Booker of Clemson. Think about that for a minute; can you imagine 10 years ago not having Juniors or Seniors being the stars of draft night? Of course not, and the answer is simple; 10 years ago there was no "One and Done" rule and NBA caliber players were setting up camp in the NBA directly from High School. Now for the best soundbite of the evening; in reference to what he thought about draft night John Calipari described it as "A two-hour infomercial for our league and the University of Kentucky and will speak volumes for the next five years, maybe longer". I have two problems with that statement, first it wasn 't about the SEC or UK, it was about a coach taking advantage of young kids and using them for his own shameless self-promotion. And then the last part about five years-I look at that as a foreshadowing of what's to come; in five years I wouldn't be surprised if Cal has bolted for the next big thing and left behind a wake of turmoil in the Bluegrass state. After all it wouldn't be the first time that's happened and we all know history has a tendency to repeat itself.

I think the Derrick Rose experiment I alluded to earlier is a perfect example of this darker side of college athletics and I don't think it was a coindidence that it was under Coach Calipari's watch. As many of you know, after Derrick Rose was taken #1 in 2008 NBA draft, a story came to light about a possible SAT cheating scandal involving an unknown player at the University of Memphis. Many believe that unknown player to be Derrick Rose. What is the lesson here, cheat to get ahead? One of Calipari's best selling tools in recruiting is that he's the best at getting guys to the NBA, a point that was proven in this year's draft. But often times when that is the focus of a coach there is a chain reaction of debris left behind. I swear if he worked at the local Ford dealership, he would be a perinnial top salesman for the company; because that's what he is, just a salesman. Not to mention, what it's teaching the kids that are being recruited. Let me paraphrase his line, "Hey, come to my school, I'll hype you up, make you think that you're a basketball god, you'll only have to go to class for 2 semesters if that, and in one year you will be making 20 million dollars playing basketball." Let me know of any 18 year old kid with talent in anything that would say No to that. If someone would have given me 20 million dollars when I was 18, I think it's safe to say that my life would probably not be very succesful today. I probably would have blown through the money and would be lucky not to be in jail or worse right now. The missing piece here is the teaching of responsibility and humility. These kids are missing out on this by not learning those life lessons that come with maturity through tenure in college. All I can say is be careful what you wish for Kentucky fans.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every kid that makes the jump to the NBA is going to be a menace to society, but the potential for that is heightened under the current College Basketball landscape. And while there have been plenty of success stories of young players in the NBA, there are just as many stories of scandal and dissapointment around past players and universities. So if I'm the NBA, get rid of this stupid rule, stop trying to act like you care about the maturity of the kids and just let them make their own decisions. If they have the talent to make the jump, let them. Don't ruin college basketball in the process and continue to make a mockery of college coaching. As AC/DC once sang, "C'mon, C'mon Listen to the money talk"; I think it's safe to say that the money has alot to say about the present and future of college athletics.

What's Wrong with the World Cup?

Let me first start this entry by saying that depending upon who you are you may or may not agree with the title. If you are the typical American sportsfan who loves football, baseball and especially Nascar you'll have to agree with me; I just don't get this game. If you are "soccer elitist guy/gal" your response would be that I don't get soccer and probably never will; and trust me I've been hearing that alot of over the past week.

The FIFA World CUP kicked off last week in South Africa and has been the leading sports topic over the last week. Since I only have one chance every four year to comment about soccer I will take the time to do that now. Let me first compare soccer to hockey and trust me there is one glaring similarity. Let me be honest, the only hockey game I've seen in the past 5 years was this year's Olympic gold medal game between the USA and Canada, and I think my 80 year old grandmother and my cat caught that one (My cat's not even a tv-watching pet).

But back to my point, after that incredible Olympic match all of the hockey supporters were screaming that the momentum from those Olympics would carry the sport for the remainder of the NHL season. Now to be fair, ratings have increased since then, but the NHL still can't match other pro sports leagues in U.S. viewership. I had to see a link on CNN just to know who won this year's Stanley Cup and that's saying something for a guy who never misses playoffs or championships series in sports (By the way congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks). But the reason hockey and for that matter soccer will never rival any of the "Big 3" sports is because the majority of the viewing audience in this country can't relate to the product on the ice or field because the big moment for each sport occurs every 4 years. For hockey it's the Winter Olympics and soccer it's the World Cup. All other major sports have momentus occassions occuring yearly, monthly or even weekly. Unfortunately, these two sports can't say that. I imagine myself at my job telling my boss that I will be really good once every 4 years; um yeah, that's just not good enough.

Now I will say that both soccer and hockey are probably two of the most physically demanding sports on the planet in terms of toughness and endurance. In fact, on average a professional Mid-Fielder can run 6-8 miles during a normal soccer match; that's more than I've run in the past year. That being said, the sport just doesn't translate to most Americans. Futbol is just not as entertaining as football. And I know that "crazy soccer guy" will rebuttle that soccer is the fast growing and most popular sport in the world and he's right. One thing we have to keep in mind is that America is not the world, no matter how much we think it is. And that's the problem, most Americans don't care what the world likes, we like what we like. Maybe that's why we are the fattest country in the world, because we just don't care what other people think or what they like. But why is soccer so dull to the majority of American viewers? Answer: there is no action, there is little excitement, and we don't see the players as superstars. There is also a cultural barrier that is holding back the sport in this country. So what's the solution?

Well of course the game needs to be more exciting. Imagine watching a basketball game in which no one scores for 60 minutes or better yet a NCAA tournament game that ends in a 0-0 tie. Unfathomable and you wouldn't watch if there was a possibility of either of those two outcomes. My solution give more points to a scored goal. Have you ever heard a man complain if he spends 4 hours watching a football game that ended in a 14-7 score? Well probably not and in soccer that's a 2-1 game. Each goal can count as 6 points and then there is penalty kick for the "extra" point as there is in football. I can hear soccer purists cringing at this suggestions, but it makes sense. Also, no game will end in a tie because there will be a shoot-out to determine a winner always. What about the problem of soccer being irrelevant in the U.S? Well I have some bad news; that will never change. The reason is the cultural differences I referred to earlier. As an example the average soccer player in the Premiership (England's Top League) is paid around $100,000 - PER MONTH. The average salary for an American soccer player in the MLS (America's Top League) is $90,000-PER YEAR. The average MLS attendance is 15,000 compared to 34,000 for an English Premiership game. That would explain why people in Europe are far more passionate about the sport than we are; they are actually watching the games. Do you think that we would care about Tiger Woods, Lebron James or Alex Rodriguez as much as we do if they were making 92.5% less in salary than they do. Of course not. We love our superstars and the MLS has only 2 that I can think of.

Back to my question, "How can we fix the world cup and soccer in general?" The answer is we can't until the games are more exciting so that people attend more games to allow ownership to pay higher salaries. After all money does equal fame. And finally, you can't rely on every 4 years of moderate excitement to produce interest in a country which is raised on backyard football and NFL Sunday afternoon football. In this case futbol is not even close to football.

What a Phil-ing!

The 2010 Masters might have been the most anticipated golf tournment in the last 30 years and rightfully so. The return of the King, Tiger Woods, was definitely the focus of the week-long event in Augusta. Beginning with his Tuesday press conference, it was clear that the golfing world had been recharged after a quiet beginning to the 2010 season. Who would have thought that by the end of the week the focus would turn and be directed towards his left-handed nemesis.

Well I have to start by saying that I was shocked with the way that Tiger played the first two days, heading into the weekend 6 under par and strongly in contention in the his first event in 5 months. It was truly remarkable the way Tiger was able to focus and compete under intense media scrutiny. But as the week wore on I began to think to myself that maybe this isn't an impressive level of focus, but maybe this says more about Tiger, the person.

Tiger's struggles both personally and professionally had been well documented in the 5 months leading up to the Masters, in fact you would have to not own a television or have contact with the outside world to not know what had transpired in his life. From losing giant sponsorships (AT&T, Gatorade, Accenture, etc) to losing his marriage; Tiger has had the most tumultous five months anyone could possibly imagine. Despite these events, Tiger came out on Thursday firing on all cylinders and in the process trying to shut down all of his critics.

Another man in the field who had a forgettable 12 months was Phil Mickelson. In a matter of months his wife Amy and mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Comparing which of the two men has had a rougher year is debatable, but most would say that Mickelson did not self-inflict his predicament.

Now to the golf: the tournament was one of the best I've seen in a long time. You had Tom Watson at the ripe age of 62 in contention after the 1st day, an ailing Fred Couples in it until the back 9 Sunday and of course Tiger and Phil. These two are the modern day Jack and Arnie, or at least every golf fan hopes they will be someday in terms of rivalry. Saturday brought one of the most electrifying 3 hole stretches in Master's history with Mickelson going Eagle, Eagle, birdie. Hell, Augusta builds bridges for golfers with that kind of magical performance. As Phil began to surge into Sunday, Tiger began to fall apart. One enormous contrast between the two, Phil's wife and family were on the 18th green for the first time in a year and Tiger, well he was going it alone with no family there to support him.

As Phil put a bow on his 3rd Green Jacket in six years, it was apparent to me who the good guy was in this story. Not the nemesis of Tiger, but the anti-thesis, an all around good guy

who had his family to share in his victory. Not stalking the course, uttering expletives when there was a bad shot, but a man who kept his cool and a smile throughout the week.

Tiger may in the end may be called the greatest golfer ever, but I have hard time believing that he will be the greatest man to play the sport. That will still belong to Jack Nicklaus, even if Tiger breaks the magical "18" major mark. Tiger's game needs tweaking and he is far from regaining his status as one of the greatest athletes on the planet.

Thoughts on Favre

So I'm catching the end of the Vikings/Saints game on Sunday and I can't help but begin to think about history about to made. Favre is methodically driving his team down the field and chaos suddenly strikes. After 2 up the gut runs from the Saints 33 (legitimate field goal range), an untimely penalty cripples the drive and forces Favre to throw on 3rd down to give his kicker a chance. Any football fan knows that rolling right and throwing across your body into the middle of the field is a recipe for disaster. This is inadvisable not only for a rookie QB, but even for a legend like #4. Suddenly the incredible story of a 40 year old QB going to the Superbowl with 2 different teams in his career is shattered.

Looking back on Favre's career, the ill-advised throw in the NFC championship game is a visual representation of what we've grown to love about him. The man is stubborn, determined and the ultimate football warrior. This is the guy's mentality. This is why he came back to play at the ripe old age of 40. This is why he got off a tractor in MS twice, once to play for the Jets and now with the Vikings.

As the season ends for the Vikings, we enter the dreaded "Will he?/Won't he?" saga that has seemed to plague us for the last 5 years. Will Favre finally hang it up or will he come back for one more shot at glory? If history tells us anything, it's that Favre can't go out like that. He couldn't end his career with the Packers on an interception in a Championship game and won't end his time with the Vikings like that.

The mentality that made him throw that pass is the same philosophy that he will lead him back to the NFL next season. Hate him or love him you have got to respect the man's determination and passion for the game.

Vol Basketball

Just listened to an interview with Bruce Pearl here in Nashville and just got me thinking about the relationship between coaches and players.

Despite the potential season-ruining events for the basketball vols, it is incredible how Coach Pearl has united his team and re-defined the helter-skelter style of play that was established upon his arrival. With a shortage of players the team has been forced to play a slower style and adapt running a half-court offense. Coach Pearl has been able to do this by keeping bench warmers and potential "nobodies" ready for action by instilling a mutual trust with his players. For the record, the trust between coaches and players seems to be rapidly unravelling in college athletics. With coaches leaving at the drop of hat for bigger money and notariety, establishing a father-son type of relationship can be difficult. Pearl's montra of "keep ready" has rung true with his players. Case in point, Skylar McBee, a then unknown "walk-on" hitting a game winning 3 pointer to beat then #1 Kansas. He trusted his coach and kept ready in the biggest moment of their season so far.

The story is not just that the Vols have been able to win throughout this period, but their fight is as intense as it was 4 years ago, when Pearl began to establish a notable program in Knoxville. Many will say that Pearl taking the Vols to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances were his best coaching jobs ever. In my opinion this season is proving to be the best coaching job I've seen in a long time in college athletics.