Bruce Pearl is Not Leaving Tennessee

Someone let Florida Coach Billy Donovan know that he can control some of the coaching carousel speculation around him if he wants. Bruce Pearl did it nice and quickly to before there was even any major issue as to whether he would leave Tennessee for Iowa.

The men's basketball coach was contacted Tuesday by Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, who got clearance the night before from Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton to talk to Pearl, a former Iowa assistant.

Pearl told Barta he was not leaving Tennessee, and then he wanted fans to know.

"I'm putting it out there just as fast as I can because I don't want it to be a concern of our fans, and I want to demonstrate my loyalty and my commitment to this program. I appreciate very much being here, so I don't want them to worry about me going anywhere," Pearl told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "This is where I want to be. I want to be here as long as they'll be happy with me here."

In a statement issued by the school, Pearl expressed appreciation for support from fans, administrators and other coaches, namely football coach Phillip Fulmer and women's basketball coach Pat Summitt.

"It was never a consideration for me to leave Tennessee," Pearl said in the statement. "I had a phone conversation with Iowa's athletic director early this morning as a courtesy for a place I have coached at and have great respect for. The University of Iowa is an outstanding school, and I know they will find a quality coach to continue their strong tradition of great basketball."

And now the issue is over. In a way, I'm a little saddened. There is this whole hatred Illinois fans have for Pearl because of his part in ~~entrapping~~ exposing some recruiting shenanigans at Illinois in the late 80s. Illinois already has a hate going at Indiana with Kelvin Sampson grabbing top point guard Eric Gordon after he verballed to Illinois. This would just fire up the Illini up against another Big 10 school even more. That's always fun.

Ah, well. It's good for Tennessee at least. Iowa is rumored to be interested in Dana Altman at Creighton, but he seems very content where he is.