NCAA Hands Bruce Pearl Three-year Show-cause Penalty

The Vols themselves will deal with their various self-imposed penalties, including a two-year probation beginning Tuesday. The NCAA’s report lists the probation as being a new punishment, but it isn’t.

The only additional measure that affects the school itself is a public reprimand, which ... I think they get the point, you guys. Hasn’t UT been through enough this week without a reprimand?

Bruce Pearl will reportedly be hit with a three-year show-cause penalty sometime on Wednesday, when the NCAA is expected to announce its findings after a lengthy investigation into allegations levied against the Tennessee football and basketball program. Pearl and his coaching staff were

A show-cause penalty is a nice way of saying a coach is banned from the collegiate ranks for the duration of the period. If a school wants to hire the head coach in question, it must stand before the NCAA Committee on Infractions -- the same committee that hands down the punishments -- and explain why it’s a good idea for the coach to return to collegiate ranks. It just doesn’t happen. Nobody asks the COI for permission to hire a coach who’s been hit with allegations severe enough to warrant a show-cause penalty.

The University of Tennessee escaped further sanctions beyond what they’ve already self-imposed on Tuesday when the NCAA reportedly decided, according to a source.

The NCAA will announce its official findings from June’s Committee on Infractions hearing Wednesday.

The one-time Vols coach stood before the NCAA Committee on Infractions June 11 due to recruiting violations that at one point included an attempted cover-up. He said at the time he expected the news of his punishment to come out mid-August. And here we are.

That show-cause penalty Pearl is supposed to incur means that if any school wants to hire him as a coach, they’ll have to get special clearance from that same committee. Basically, this means Pearl is out of college basketball for the next several years -- he appears to have known this was coming, based on his reported interest in taking a NBA D-League job.

Pearl was fired by Tennessee in March after the NCAA had alerted the university of violations by the coach, including that Pearl lied to NCAA investigators. It’s unclear whether the NCAA will prevent Pearl, 51, from holding a Division-I job for any amount of time, but certainly universities are unlikely to bring Pearl in.

Pearl will meet with Legends officials this week, Stein reports. Nancy Lieberman, who coached the Legends last season, has moved into the team’s front office.

Transcripts from Bruce Pearl’s initial interview with NCAA investigators were released on Saturday and they paint a picture depicting how the Tennessee head coach’s tenure as head basketball coach eventually came to an end. After a picture of Pearl and Tennessee recruit Aaron Craft was mailed to the NCAA, investigators came calling about where the picture was taken. It was later discovered Pearl lied about the picture, covering up a violation and making the situation worse in the process.

The problem, as many immediately noted, came when Tennessee’s own lead attorney, Mike Glazier, put Pearl on the spot in the initial interview. It was two simple questions about where a picture showing Pearl and Craft was taken that led to a series of lies.

After responding to a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA in May, Tennessee has self-imposed a two-year probation period for violations committed by the football and basketball teams, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel. The school had already imposed earlier penalties, but it added several others with the probationary period. However, the NCAA can still impose further penalties should it deem the self-imposed punishment too little.

Football coach Derek Dooley will have just five coaches who can make phone calls to prospective student-athletes when contact is allowed on Nov. 1. New basketball head coach Cuonzo Martin and his assistants cannot take student-athletes off campus for meals.

After being fired from his position as the University of Tennessee’s men’s basketball coach, Bruce Pearl thought the worst was over. Caught lying to NCAA investigators about specific recruiting violations, the 51-year old had fallen down the same tragic path of so many others before him.

“Do you want me to write the book about how do you lose $10 million jobs? I can write the book,” Pearl emotionally explained to Atlanta sports talk radio station 790 ‘The Zone’. “How can you be so dumb and so careless?”

The end of the investigation into NCAA violations at Tennessee is almost wrapped up after the infractions committee met Bruce Pearl and Lane Kiffin on Saturday. The two spent a combined nine hours in front of the committee during a closed-door meeting that’s one of the last stages of an investigation into numerous major violations.

Kiffin spent four hours in front of the board, and was glad the hearing was over as he recalled the three-day hearing during the USC investigation.

Mike Hamilton, University of Tennessee’s men’s athletics director of eight years, will resign today, per a UT source speaking to SB Nation’s Rocky Top Talk and confirmed by every other Knoxville media outlet. The school has announced a press conference at 11 a.m. EDT.

Why Hamilton’s relatively short reign at the top of Volunteer athletics might not be entirely surprising: You might remember Hamilton as the guy who hired Bruce Pearl, fired Phil Fulmer, replaced him with Lane Kiffin, watched Kiffin toddle westward after a single season, replaced him with Derek Dooley, fired Bruce Pearl, hired Cuonzo Martin, and just for funsies, also cut loose Tennessee’s baseball coach. Guy has to be exhausted.

This (hopefully) concludes a difficult time for Vols fans, who had to watch a coach they largely beloved fired. While there will still be plenty of Tennessee fans with questions about an unproven new head coach, at least they’re new questions, right?

For more on Vols hoops, visit Rocky Top Talk.

Frank was an assistant Vols coach for three seasons after serving as manager for Bob Knight at Indiana in the ‘90s. He’s also coached at Marquette and for the Grizzlies and Nets, where he started one season 13-0 and another 0-16, before coming aboard in Boston.

For more on Vols sports, visit Rocky Top Talk.

We know Tennessee Volunteers basketball’s search for a new head coach began almost immediately after Bruce Pearl was fired, if not sooner. We also know Houston Fancher has been named the interim head coach until a new full-timer can be named. But which coaches are Vols media and fan sites listing as potential replacements?

InsideTennessee.com lists bios on pretty much everybody, from Sweet 16 hot shots like Butler coach Brad Stevens and VCU coach Shaka Smart to Vols alum Rick Byrd, currently the coach of Atlantic Sun tyrant Belmont. Former Kentucky and Georgia coach Tubby Smith and Alabama coach Anthony Grant are two other coaches listed there who have extensive SEC experience, which could be a positive factor.

Speaking to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Fancher commented on his new role, saying he received Pearl’s blessing to take over the team for the time being:

Since Tennessee doesn’t have any games left to play this season, Fancher’s job will be to hold the team together as best he can, which could include trying to hang on to recruit Kevin Ware. Tennessee has already begun looking for a replacement head coach, so Fancher’s time on the job could be very brief, but it’s still a critical role and could help retain him a spot on the next coach’s staff, as Pearl’s assistants were also fired Monday.

With Bruce Pearl fired and the University of Tennessee looking for a new basketball coach, you might think folks in Knoxville want to forget their Pearl relationship ever happened. But Vols fans aren’t ready to forget why they loved him in the first place.

Among other things, Bruce Pearl was the best men’s basketball coach the school’s ever had, he brought big time talent to a school without much of a recruiting base, and in Knoxville, he made men’s basketball mean something.

The University of Tennessee has officially announced what everyone has already know today, head basketball coach Bruce Pearl has been fired.

Both Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and Director of Athletics Mike Hamilton made statements on Monday. It was Hamilton’s statement that was most interesting as it makes mention of previously-unheard-of violations that occurred as recently as this month.

Kevin Ware, the No. 56 recruit in the country according to Rivals and the No. 2 player in Tennessee’s 2011 class, has requested to be released from his letter of intent. He also has said Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton told him on March 6 that Pearl would remain the Vols coach “for sure.”

Obvously the matter of that bump violation changed things for Hamilton, but the possibility of losing Ware is going to be another mark in a long column titled The Tennessee Basketball Fan’s Reasons To Insult Mike Hamilton Via Campus Landmark.

One bright side for Tennessee hoops fans: the Lady Vols are still set to warpath through the Women’s Tournament, and now have one of their biggest fans to avenge. That, and Derek Dooley said a bunch of funny things today at spring practice.

For more on Vols sports, visit Rocky Top Talk.

According to Goodman, Pearl “received compensation as a part of the buyout agreement.” How could a coach with no contract receive a buyout, you ask? One popular theory, which surfaced on VolQuest.com, purported that Pearl would receive $2 million in exchange for accepting the NCAA’s charges against him.

More to come on Pearl’s reported firing as more makes its way public.

A bump violation occurs when a coach comes into accidental, unpermitted contact with a recruit. Pearl’s happened on Sept. 14 at Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy. That he did it wasn’t a big deal. The problem was that he didn’t alert the relevant authority.

For more on Pearl and the Vols, visit Rocky Top Talk.

The answer could decide the future of Pearl and the Tennessee men’s basketball team.

We’ll have to wait to learn more about what this means for the future of Vols men’s hoops, but it’s safe to say any joy from last night’s win over Vandy should probably be muted.

For more on Pearl and the Vols, visit Rocky Top Talk.

The Tennessee basketball program picked up a big win on Tuesday night, completing the season sweep of Vanderbilt with a 60-51 win. After the game, though, it was all about the NCAA investigation into the recruiting practices of head coach Bruce Pearl. Tennessee is reportedly set to release the findings to the public on Wednesday, and Pearl may be in hot water because of the results of the investigation.

Pearl’s son, Steven Pearl, had six points for the Vols on Tuesday night, but talked of supporting his father, both as a coach and as family (via Wes Rucker on Twitter).

Pearl has been under investigation for having high school junior recruits over to his house, which was against recruiting rules. He also reportedly told them at the time that he knew their presence was a violation and then misled investigators on the matter.

A major portion of Tennessee’s athletic department is reportedly involved in the investigation, not just Pearl’s basketball program. The football and baseball programs also have serious questions to answer.

Bruce Pearl, head coach of the Tennessee men’s basketball team, has been suspended for this season’s first eight SEC games (half of their league schedule), SEC commissioner Mike Slive announced on Friday.

For plenty more on this, head over to Rocky Top Talk.