Pearl proud of team for winnning SEC East
The Volunteers (20-5, 11-3), who dropped one place to No. 11 in this week’s poll, lost 73-69 to Arkansas on Saturday, their first defeat at home this season. Tennessee had already clinched at least a share of the East title by winning at Florida. The Vols won it outright when the Gators lost to Alabama and fell into a second-place tie with Kentucky on Sunday.
Tennessee was picked to finish no higher than fifth in the division.
“I think back in the fall if you’d given me an opportunity to come into this Monday morning press conference as SEC East champions having just lost to Arkansas on Saturday and asked if I’d have taken it, I think I probably would have taken it, so I’m absolutely positively not going to beat my team up today because they don’t deserve it,” Pearl said.
Tennessee hosts Kentucky (18-10, 8-6) on Wednesday in the final home game and will try to sweep the Wildcats for the first time since 1998-99. The Vols are still playing to improve their seeding in the NCAA tournament and battle LSU for the regular-season SEC crown.
Meanwhile, negotiations to sweeten Pearl’s contract are continuing, and athletic director Mike Hamilton said Monday he expected to announce the new terms before the SEC tournament, which begins March 9.
Hamilton has said he believes Pearl should be one of the highest paid coaches in the league. Pearl’s annual package now stands at $800,000.
By winning the SEC East, Pearl is guaranteed a bonus of at least $45,000. The biggest bonus he could get would be $72,000 for winning the NCAA championship.
Pearl said he believes there will be more success at Tennessee, but he was happy with the Vols’ accomplishment so far.
“We will win more championships during my time here. We’ve won championships in the past. This one is going to be significant and it’s going to be special because it was so unexpected and accomplished with a lot of obstacles and a lot to overcome,” Pearl said. “That said that’s about all the reflecting I’m going to do on it because we have a lot of basketball to play.”
One of the main factors in Saturday’s loss was fatigue coming off the victory at Florida, Pearl said.
“I played them too many minutes and didn’t keep C.J. (Watson) in particular and Chris (Lofton) to some extent and Andre (Patterson) to some extent fresh enough to make plays,” he said.
“From that standpoint, I put them in a position to fail at the end because obviously that’s when games are won and lost.”
Pearl used the word “popped” on Saturday to say the players were tired, and he introduced a new term on Monday that described in particular some jump shots taken by post players Major Wingate and Patterson against Arkansas.
“I can’t have offensive possessions where we get a couple of ‘Huh?’ shots from Major and a couple of ‘Huh?’ shots from Andre. I call them ‘Huh?’ when they take them and you go, ‘Huh?’ You can’t have that,” Pearl said.
Tennessee will recognize its four seniors — Watson, Patterson, Stanley Asumnu and Eddie DeBro — on Wednesday, and there will be a halftime ceremony to honor former coach Ray Mears and play-by-play announcer John Ward. Mears coached from 1963-77, had a record of 278-112 and took the Vols to the NCAA tournament three times. Ward retired in 1999 as the “Voice of the Vols.”
There also is a promotion for fans seated in the lower tier of the arena to form a human orange-and-white checkerboard by wearing special T-shirts. The game is sold out.
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