If you are University of Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton how can you not love Bruce Pearl?

Since becoming the head coach of the Tennessee men’s basketball program in 2005 Pearl has guided the Volunteers to five straight NCAA tournament appearances, one SEC regular season conference championship and Pearl has been named SEC coach of the year twice.

Bruce’s resurrection of Tennessee basketball is truly astounding. The UT men’s basketball head coaching job was once considered a “graveyard job” meaning a job that ends the careers of up and coming young coaches. Flash forward five years later though and the Tennessee men’s basketball program is wrestling with Kentucky and Florida for position as top dog in the SEC.

So with all of that success why is Mike Hamilton cutting Pearl and his assistants salaries by 25% and imposing off campus recruiting restrictions on the coaching staff over the next year?

The sanctions on the coaching staff by Hamilton come after Pearl admitted to lying to the NCAA during their investigation of the men’s basketball program. The NCAA investigation looked into whether the coaching staff violated rules by making excessive contact and calls with recruits as well as using unauthorized phones to make the calls.

Bruce Pearl was present at the Volunteers press conference earlier today and he admitted to initially lying to NCAA officials before eventually telling the truth. Pearl described the actions of him and his coaching staff as something that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

"It's serious what we did," Pearl said.

The 25% salary cut means that Pearl will forfeit $1.5 million of what he was scheduled to make as part of his contract. While I’m sure Bruce doesn’t enjoying forfeiting $1.5 million, the off campus recruiting restrictions are what really sting. These recruiting restrictions mean that Pearl and his three assistants can’t begin recruiting on the road on September 24th as planned. Instead Pearl and his assistant coach Steve Forbes won’t be able to travel as part of recruiting trips for the next year and associate Head Coach Tony Jones won’t be able to travel for nine months.

At the end of the day this salary cut won’t leave Bruce Pearl strapped for cash and while his assistants may feel the monetary sting from this punishment the salary cut isn’t the harshest part of the punishment. These recruiting restrictions will definitely impede the coaching staff’s ability to sign top talent and they will have to make the most of the small amount of recruiting time they have left. For athletic director Mike Hamilton he couldn’t afford to take this misconduct regarding his coaching staff towards the NCAA lightly. Along with investigating the men’s basketball program the university is fresh off an NCAA investigation of the football program for violations committed under the Lane Kiffin regime. So it was very important that Hamilton cross the t’s and dot the i’s and unfortunately for Pearl and his assistants that meant some tough love had to be handed down.

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