Post by representforuwm on Apr 1, 2005 16:33:11 GMT -6
Doherty: Pearl Of Wisdom
The road to college basketball's center stage has been long for Bruce Pearl
March 24, 2005
By Matt Doherty
Special to CollegeSports.com
From the earliest stages of his career in basketball, Bruce Pearl demonstrated the commitment to his program that, many years later, has brought his Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers to the NCAA Tourney's Sweet 16.
As a student at Boston College in 1978, Pearl -- a decent prep player -- was cut by Tom Davis following walk-on tryouts. But the future Iowa head coach admired Pearl's enthusiasm and passion for the game, and invited him to stay involved with the program as sort of a personal assistant.
Pearl's duties ranged going door to door around campus hawking tickets for Boston College's games at the Rollins Center, to recruiting (trying and failing to bring Patrick Ewing to Chestnut Hill) to, for one NCAA tournament game in 1981, dressing as the team's feathered mascot.
But 24 years later, Pearl's Panthers plucked those same Eagles -- fourth-seeded and heavily favored -- in last weekend's Round of 32, setting up Thursday's Sweet showdown in Chicago with top-ranked Illinois -- the latest team picked to declaw the Cats.
Even those sympathetic to Cinderellas have a hard time picking UWM against the Illini, the two-time Big Ten champs, and winners of 34 games in 35 tries. The Panthers have won by using a swarming full court press -- harassing first round opponent Alabama into 19 turnovers, while forcing his alma mater into a season-high 22 miscues. But such an up-tempo strategy would seem tailor-made for Illini's athleticism. No strangers to a high-octane pace, Illinois will welcome Pearl's challenge.
But the coach -- whose basketball career is, in itself, a Cinderella story of sorts -- remains focused and determined.
Pearl followed Davis to Iowa as an assistant in 1982, later landing a head coaching job at Southern Indiana. He won a Division II national championship in 1995 -- and won at least 22 games during each of his nine years in Evansville. He landed the UWM gig in 2001, where his teams have amassed a 86-37 mark, advancing to the postseason in three of the last four years.
This year's Sweet 16 was the first in program history -- but, despite what the pundits would say, the season isn't over yet.
"We've got 15 guys sitting in the locker room that think we have a chance to win," said Pearl in an interview this week. "I'm not sure anybody else does.
"I said, `Don't let it change who we are.'"
Matt's Last Column: Doherty: Final Four Fever (Mar. 14)
Matt Doherty is an analyst for men's college basketball on CSTV and contributes to CollegeSports.com on a weekly basis. Doherty was previously the head coach at the University of North Carolina and Notre Dame. The 1984 graduate of North Carolina played on the Tar Heels' 1982 NCAA Championship team and also won two ACC regular season and tournament titles in his four years.
Men's Basketball Home
Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Joah Tucker