Bruce Pearl
Bruce Alan Pearl is a former American college basketball coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers men's basketball team for 11 seasons. He previously served in the same position for Tennessee, Milwaukee, and Southern Indiana. Pearl led Southern Indiana to a Division II national championship in 1995, during which he was named Division II Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
In Division I, his teams won four conference championships and four conference tournament championships, and qualified for eleven NCAA tournament appearances and two Final Four appearances. Pearl is the second-fastest NCAA coach to reach 300 victories, needing only 382 games to reach this mark. His 277 wins with Auburn are the most by a coach in program history.
Pearl was named Coach of the Year by Sporting News in 2006 and was awarded the Adolph Rupp Cup in 2008. He also served as the head coach for the Maccabi USA men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2009 Maccabiah Games. In 2025, Pearl was named Co-AP Coach of the Year alongside Rick Pitino.
Early life
A native of Boston, Pearl attended Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts. He is one of the few Division I basketball coaches who never played high school basketball, even at the junior varsity level ; a shoulder injury while playing football in his first year of high school prevented him from further pursuing sports as a player. Pearl is a 1982 graduate of Boston College, where he served as the manager of the men's basketball team.Coaching career
Pearl has also been the head coach at Tennessee, Milwaukee and, prior to that, at Southern Indiana, where he won a Division II national championship. He also served as an assistant coach at Stanford and at Iowa under then-head coach Tom Davis.Against division rival Kentucky and in-state rival Vanderbilt, Pearl chose to wear a brightly colored orange jacket in honor of the late University of Tennessee coach Ray Mears. Pearl also wore the jacket during the 2009 SEC Men's Tournament Final.
Assistant coach (1982–1992)
Pearl served as an assistant coach at both Stanford University from 1982-1986 and at University of Iowa from 1986-1992 under Coach Tom Davis. Davis had served as head coach at Boston College from 1977-1982, where Pearl had served as his team student-manager.Pearl/Thomas incident (1988–1989)
During the 1988–89 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving Illinois. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl called the high school student and recorded a phone conversation with Thomas, which may have been illegal depending on where Pearl originated the call. During the conversation, Pearl asked Thomas if he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins, and Thomas seemed to indicate that he had. Pearl then turned over copies of the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events. During the subsequent NCAA investigation, Thomas denied the allegations and said the story was false, that he was agreeing with Pearl only to try to get rid of him. Thomas later passed a polygraph test in which he denied Pearl's accusation of Illinois's offering cash and a car. The NCAA did not find Illinois guilty of any wrongdoing relating to Thomas's recruitment, finding that the purported evidence provided was not "credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs". Because the investigation uncovered other violations, however, including Illinois's third major violation in six years, the NCAA cited Illinois with a "lack of institutional control" charge and implemented several recruiting restrictions and a one-year postseason ban.When Pearl and Collins were both head coaches for four years in the Horizon League, the two men never engaged in the traditional postgame handshake, reportedly due to lingering feelings over the incident. When Thomas was asked about forgiving Pearl in a 2005 interview, he was quoted as saying, "It's hard to forgive a snake." Thomas went on to become the University of Illinois's all-time leading scorer.
Southern Indiana (1992–2001)
In 1992, Pearl got his first head-coaching job, at Southern Indiana. He inherited a Screaming Eagles team that had won just 10 games in the previous season. Pearl posted a 22–7 record in his first season and led the Eagles to 9 consecutive NCAA D-II tournaments in addition to winning 4 Great Lakes Valley Conference titles.In 1994, USI finished with a 28–4 record in route to a loss in the D-II championship game; in 1995, the Eagles won 29 games and claimed the D–II championship behind National Player of the Year Stan Gouard. A team from the GLVC played for the National Championship every year after his first season at USI. Pearl was named the NABC Division II coach of the year after his national championship. He left USI with a 231–46 record over nine years.
Milwaukee (2001–2005)
Despite Pearl's success at turning Southern Indiana into a major power, it took him almost a decade to return to Division I. Reportedly, he was blackballed by the Division I college coaching fraternity for his role in revealing violations at Illinois by submitting a different accusation.Pearl took over as head coach of Milwaukee in 2001. In just four seasons, he compiled 86 wins and led Milwaukee to their first NCAA tournament appearances in 2003 and 2005. Pearl led them to the Horizon League tournament title in both of those years. He also led the school to its first ever NIT bid, as well as its first-ever NCAA D–I postseason victory, in 2004. Milwaukee's 2005 NCAA Tournament run capped the best season in school history, as the Panthers won both the regular season and conference tournament titles, defeating the Detroit Titans in the championship game. Using an intense full-court press, the Panthers scored two upsets in three days over Alabama and Boston College to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to eventual national runner-up Illinois. The Panthers finished their season 26–6 and were ranked in the coaches poll at the end of the season for the first time ever. Pearl left UWM after the 2005 season, his fourth, as the Horizon League's leader in all-time winning percentage.
Tennessee (2005–2011)
2005–06
On March 28, 2005, Pearl was named as the new head coach at Tennessee, succeeding Buzz Peterson. Tyler Smith had signed with the Vols under Peterson, but decided not to attend Tennessee. Jamont Gordon went to conference rival Mississippi State. Smith opted for a season of prep school before heading to Iowa, though he later transferred to Tennessee and became a starter. Pearl stirred up more controversy when he released Matthew Dotson from his scholarship.Expectations were low for the Vols in Pearl's first season. Having lost their two leading scorers from a team that had been just 14–17 the previous season, Tennessee was picked to finish fifth in the six-team Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. The season started off well, however, and Tennessee entered the national rankings in December 2005 when it routed then No. 2-ranked Texas, 95–78.
The Vols went on to lead the SEC East for virtually the entire season, with other highlights being a win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena and two wins over eventual national champion Florida. But after entering the AP Top-10 in February of 2006, the team lost 6 of its last 9 games and dropped to a ranking of 18th in the AP Poll. Although Tennessee won the SEC East, it was upset in the second round of both the SEC and NCAA tournaments, the latter as a no. 2 seed and being upset by Wichita State in the round of 32. The team's 22–8 record was one of the best in school history. Following the season, Pearl drew accolades from national recruiting services for signing one of the nation's best recruiting classes, featuring three top-50 recruits in Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith.
2006–07
On January 22, 2007, Pearl attended a Lady Vols game with his upper body painted orange. He and a few of his players spelled out "V-O-L-S". Pearl stood in front of the student section and cheered for the Lady Vols as they came out. Pearl's actions brought national media attention to the Tennessee program, and highlighted efforts to support women's collegiate athletics. Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt returned the favor on Senior Night for the men's team on February 27, 2007. Before the game, Summitt came out as a cheerleader, complete with uniform, and she led the crowd in a rendition of Rocky Top. The seventh-largest crowd in school history also witnessed Pearl's squad rout the then No. 4-ranked defending and eventual back to back national champions Florida Gators.Pearl's team went on to finish tied for second in the SEC East with Vanderbilt, earning a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Vols crushed Long Beach State by 35 points in the first round, then rallied to upset Virginia to reach Pearl's second Sweet 16. The Vols were defeated in the Elite Eight by the nation's top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, losing by a point despite the Volunteers being ahead for the majority of the game. Tennessee's 24 wins were then ranked third in the program's history. Pearl was rumored as a candidate for the head coaching position at Iowa, but indicated on March 27, 2007, that he was not interested in leaving Tennessee.
2007–08
On February 23, 2008, Pearl led the second-ranked Vols into in-state, undefeated rival Memphis to play the # 1 ranked Tigers. After a back and forth, emotionally heated contest, Tennessee defeated Memphis 66–62, handing Memphis its first loss of the season and its first home loss in 47 games. The win also cemented UT with a # 1 rank the following week—the first No. 1 ranking in the school's 100-year basketball history. One day after the rankings were posted, however, the # 1 Vols were upset by the Vanderbilt Commodores 72–69.On March 5, 2008, Pearl's team defeated the Florida Gators 89–86 to claim Tennessee's first outright SEC Regular Season Championship in 41 years. On March 16, 2008, Tennessee was chosen as a #2 seed in the East region of the 2008 NCAA basketball tournament. Pearl's Volunteers advanced to the Sweet 16 of the East Regional, beating Pearl's former Horizon League rival and 7-seed Butler in the second round. They ended their season losing to the Louisville Cardinals by a score of 79–60. The 31 total victories that season are the most in school history.