Pearl Stiff-Arms $3-3.5 Million Memphis Offer; Tennessee Is A Basketball School
Friday, April 3, 2009
It's rare that a college coach anywhere takes less money to stay at his old job. Hell, it's rare that anyone at any job takes significantly less money to stay at their old job. On Thursday, after a day of intense speculation that sent the internets afire, Pearl turned down Memphis. Here's the Knoxville News-Sentinel article.
Now that Pearl has turned down Iowa, Indiana, and Memphis in the past couple of years, I think it's time for Tennessee fans to accept that Pearl isn't leaving anytime soon. The one thing that scares me a bit is that the NBA might come calling one day or another, but I think Pearl is ours to keep for a long time.
By the way, can we put to rest the ridiculous media cliche that Tennessee isn't a basketball school? I saw where Gus Johnson, whom I normally love, spouted off to Dan Patrick about this. Would someone please tell me what it takes to be a basketball school?
Does finishing in the top four in the country's attendance with over 20k fans per home game, not demonstrate basketball interest? (I haven't seen 2009 numbers yet, but Tennessee's numbers went up this year. Meaning 2009 Tennessee would be greater than North Carolina and Syracuse in 2008. So number two in the country is an outside possibility.) Does paying your basketball coach more than than your football coach not indicate basketball interest? Does having one of the most lucrative basketball facilities in the country (thanks to all the suites and the attendance), not indicate basketball interest? Any media member who says that Tennessee isn't a basketball school is guilty of misspeaking. And worst than misspeaking, they're just being lazy.
Just because Tennessee ranks number one for women's basketball attendance (by the way 5k less people attend the women's games, the other fallacy is that women's basketball attendance dwarfs men's), number four for men's basketball, and number three for men's football just means that there are a ton of Tennessee fans, not that men's basketball doesn't matter. Tennessee is the only program in the country that ranks in the top five for all three of these sports. I may be wrong, but I don't believe there is any other program in the country that ranks in the top 20 in all three of these categories.
It's time for talking-heads to let go of the antiquated notion that a school is a "football" or "basketball" school. If you're a top athletics program in a major conference, you shouldn't take any season off. And, for the record, Tennessee basketball drew an impressive amount of fans even without Pearl. The arena was just so large, it wasn't full. Even when the team sucked, fans were turning out. Now they're just turning out more. With Pearl there, they'll keep coming. Tough luck Memphis. Labels: pearl staying at tennessee new contract memphis offers 3.5 million
Posted by Clay Travis at 9:27 AM
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