BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
His reception will be more cordial than hostile, and it's unlikely anyone will burn him in effigy, but Bruce Pearl's first game back in Knoxville as an opponent Saturday has at least one thing in common with Nick Saban's "homecoming" in Baton Rouge.
The home team's fans, if they're honest, have to wish he were still coaching the home team.
Plenty of LSU football fans felt that way about Saban after he took over at Alabama. No doubt some still do, especially given Alabama's consistent strength and LSU's gradual slide since Alabama 21, LSU 0.
If Tennessee basketball had picked a new coach by popular vote a year ago after Cuonzo Martin left for Cal, Pearl almost certainly would've been the overwhelming choice of the fan base even though he'd just taken the Auburn job. He was the overwhelming choice of an Internet petition even before Martin's departure, and even last season's Sweet 16 run didn't seem to juice Martin's popularity all that much.
Nothing against Donnie Tyndall, who has to be on a short list of candidates for SEC coach of the year for the job he's done in his first season with the Vols, but he's not Pearl. Neither was Martin, which helps explain his otherwise curious move to a ho-hum Pac-12 program.
Pearl was and is a force of nature. Wherever he is, he doesn't just do the job. He inhabits it. He gets out in the community and makes friends and contributes to charities and makes people believe it when he says he wants to spend the rest of his career there.
He also gets the job done in a big way. Tennessee enjoyed its best run ever under Pearl. Six NCAA trips in six years. Two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight. Three SEC East titles and one overall SEC championship.
His on-court progress at Auburn has been a lot slower in Year One because even the best coaches need players to compete at a high level. This year's Auburn roster pales in comparison to the group he inherited at Tennessee.
At 10-10 overall and 2-5 in the SEC, with a good chance the Tigers will be an underdog in every game from here, it'll take the best work of Pearl's career to avoid his first losing season. But that won't change the way Auburn fans feel about him any more than his inglorious exit from Tennessee - getting fired after lying about breaking NCAA rules - will dampen the greeting he'll receive in Knoxville tonight and Saturday.
Like Saban at LSU, Pearl was the best coach Tennessee's had in a long, long time, maybe ever.
Les Miles has done a quality job in Baton Rouge, but there's no question LSU football would be better today if Saban had never left to scratch that NFL itch. The same would be true of Tennessee basketball if Pearl had never made the mistakes that forced the school to force him out.
A lot of LSU football fans chose to greet Saban's return with hostility, no doubt because Saban had chosen to leave Baton Rouge for the Miami Dolphins and then decided to return to the college game at a bitter division rival. A lot of Tennessee basketball fans will embrace Pearl this weekend because he never wanted to leave.
This homecoming's a little easier for Vol fans for another reason. Auburn basketball's rarely been much of a threat to anyone. The longer Pearl makes his home on the Plains, the more that'll change.
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