41 Facts About Bruce Pearl

1.

Bruce Pearl previously served as the head coach at Tennessee, Milwaukee, and Southern Indiana.

2.

Bruce Pearl has won four conference championships and three conference tournament championships as a Division I head coach, and has made ten NCAA tournament appearances and one Final Four.

3.

Bruce Pearl was named Coach of the Year by Sporting News in 2006 and was awarded the Adolph Rupp Cup in 2008.

4.

Bruce Pearl served as the head coach for the Maccabi USA men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

5.

Bruce Pearl is one of the few Division I basketball coaches who never played high school basketball, even at the junior varsity level ; a shoulder injury while playing football in his first year of high school prevented him from further pursuing sports as a player.

6.

Bruce Pearl is a 1982 graduate of Boston College, where he served as the manager of the men's basketball team.

7.

Bruce Pearl has been the head coach at Tennessee, Milwaukee and, prior to that, at Southern Indiana, where he won a Division II national championship.

8.

Bruce Pearl served as an assistant coach at Stanford and at Iowa under then-head coach Tom Davis.

9.

Against division rival Kentucky and in-state rival Vanderbilt, Bruce Pearl chose to wear a brightly colored orange jacket in honor of the late UT coach Ray Mears.

10.

Bruce Pearl wore the jacket during the 2009 SEC Men's Tournament Final.

11.

Bruce Pearl was the first president of the Jewish Coaches Association.

12.

Bruce Pearl served as an assistant coach at both Stanford from 1982 to 1986 and at Iowa from 1986 to 1992 under Coach Tom Davis.

13.

Davis had served as head coach at Boston College from 1977 to 1982 and Bruce Pearl had served as his team student-manager.

14.

Bruce Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois.

15.

Bruce Pearl then turned over copies of the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events.

16.

In 1992, Bruce Pearl got his first head-coaching job, at Southern Indiana.

17.

Bruce Pearl inherited a Screaming Eagles team that had won just 10 games in the previous season.

18.

Bruce Pearl was named the NABC Division II coach of the year after his national championship.

19.

Bruce Pearl took over as head coach of Milwaukee in 2001.

20.

Bruce Pearl led them to the Horizon League tournament title in both of those years.

21.

Bruce Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, his fourth, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage.

22.

On March 28,2005, Bruce Pearl was named as the new head coach at Tennessee, succeeding Buzz Peterson.

23.

Bruce Pearl stirred up more controversy when he released Matthew Dotson from his scholarship.

24.

On January 22,2007, Bruce Pearl attended a Lady Vols game with his upper body painted orange.

25.

Bruce Pearl stood in front of the student section and cheered for the Lady Vols as they came out.

26.

Bruce Pearl's actions brought national media attention to the Tennessee program, and highlighted efforts to support women's collegiate athletics.

27.

Bruce Pearl's team went on to finish tied for second in the SEC East with Vanderbilt, earning a No 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.

28.

Bruce Pearl was rumored as a candidate for the head coaching position at Iowa, but indicated on March 27,2007, that he was not interested in leaving Tennessee.

29.

In doing so, Bruce Pearl became the 6th-fastest basketball coach to ever reach the 400 mark and 2nd-fastest among active head coaches.

30.

UT announced that they and Bruce Pearl just agreed to a six-year extension for Bruce Pearl to stay with the university.

31.

At the cookout, Bruce Pearl said that Craft wasn't allowed to be there under NCAA rules, but encouraged all those in attendance not to tell anyone about it.

32.

On September 10,2010, Bruce Pearl acknowledged the violations in the Craft affair, and admitted lying about it to the NCAA.

33.

Bruce Pearl's off-campus recruiting was restricted completely from September 4,2010, to September 23,2011.

34.

On November 20,2010, the SEC ordered Bruce Pearl to sit out Tennessee's first eight SEC games.

35.

In imposing the penalty, the NCAA said that Bruce Pearl's lies turned what would have been a minor case into a major one.

36.

Bruce Pearl was named Auburn's head basketball coach on March 18,2014, replacing Tony Barbee.

37.

Bruce Pearl was greeted by 100-plus fans when he arrived at the Auburn University Regional Airport that afternoon.

38.

Bruce Pearl was formally introduced as Auburn's 20th head basketball coach at a press conference in Auburn Arena that evening.

39.

Bruce Pearl led Auburn to the SEC tournament semifinals in 2015 as a 13 seed, and ended Auburn's 18-game losing streak to Kentucky in 2016.

40.

Bruce Pearl was cited as being uncooperative with Auburn's internal investigation of the program at first, though school president Steven Leath and Bruce Pearl have since come to an understanding of expectations for the investigation.

41.

Also during the 2022 season, Bruce Pearl signed an eight-year, $50.2 million contract extension.