Former University of Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl receives three-year penalty from NCAA
University of Tennessee’s legendary head coach Bruce Pearl, who was fired by the team in March as a result of mounting violations, has received a three-year show-cause penalty from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The 51 year old coach was cited for failure to monitor men’s basketball program; providing false and misleading information; improperly hosting recruits and encouraging others to do the same. This happened during an investigation
that was conducted by NCAA in September 2010.
On Wednesday, the NCAA finally took a restraining action against Pearl and announced the punishment of 3-years.
“As these allegations are becoming more and more regular, it's very clear that a head coach is being held responsible for his program.” Vice-Chairman of NCAA Britton Banowsky said.
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissionaire Dennis Thomas gave his viewpoint that the teams, players and coaches should be punished appropriately for violating or providing misleading information and that’s exactly how Pearl
was treated.
“Those who are not forthcoming and not cooperative and unethical in their responses, the committee take that very seriously, and they will be punished appropriately.” Thomas said.
Considering the penalty that is exercised on Bruce, it has become harder for the former University of Tennessee coach Pearl to join some other college team for the period of next three years. The only way Bruce Pearl van be hired
is if he succeeds in convincing NCAA to remove the three-year- show-cause penalty.
It was reported that the NBA Development League Texas Legend, who is an affiliate to the NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks, was planning to hire Bruce Pearl to replace Nancy Lieberman. A number of negotiations had taken place between
Pearl and the Legend management and reports suggested that the team will be offering him a package of $500,000 approximately.
However as of Wednesday, Bruce Pearl’s shift into the Texas Legends is highly doubtful.
Bruce had a splendid tenure with the University of Tennessee and he was pivotal in guiding the team to the top. Under the leadership of Pearl, Tennessee compiled 145-61 record in six seasons. On 21st March, 2011, University
of Tennessee parted ways with Bruce after it was found that he committed violations.
If the penalty remains and a college team fails to convince NCAA to remove the punishment, Bruce Pearl won’t be able to coach any team until the year 2014.
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