By Bob Markus



Every so often, like maybe once a century or two, there occurs something so delicious, so right, that even a confirmed atheist might have to admit "maybe there is a God." This kind of near-epiphany happened for me a few weeks ago when I saw Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl blubbering like a baby on national TV. Perhaps Pearl was crying over the $1,500,00 that Tennessee is going to deduct from his paychecks over the next five years. Or was it just a reaction to his being exposed as a liar and a hypocrite? Pearl has admitted to lying and deliberately misleading the NCAA in its investigation of alleged violations in his basketball program.

This is the same Bruce Pearl who, two decades ago, sent a memo to the NCAA accusing Illinois basketball coaches of several violations in the recruitment of Chicago high school phenom Deon Thomas. Chief among the allegations was the charge that Jimmy Collins, then an assistant to Lou Henson at Illinois, had offered the 6-9 Thomas a car and $80,000 to play for the Illini. Pearl, then an assistant at Iowa, also sent a tape that he said he had made during a telephone call to Thomas after the Simeon High star had signed with Illinois.

"What has never been told," says Collins, "is that there were 18 phone converstions and out of all that he sent four inches of tape to the NCAA and the tape was spliced." After 16 months of investigation the NCAA cleared Collins of the charges, but found the school guilty of the dreaded "lack of institutional control," a catchall phrase that means, "we know you did something but we can't figure out what."

Neither Collins nor fellow Illinois assistant Mark Coombs shed any crocodile tears over the plight of Bruce, who, in addition to the lost income will be restricted to on campus recruiting for a year-- and that's just the punishment doled out by Tennessee. The NCAA has yet to conclude its own investigation. "I'm not angry anymore," says Collins, "but for me to say, 'I'm going to take the high road and say I feel sorry for Bruce,' my nose would grow like Pinocchio's." If anything Coombs, who spent the last 13 years of his coaching career as an assistant to Collins at Illinois-Chicago, is even more bitter about Pearl's role in the Thomas affair. "Justice will be served," Coombs says. "You don't want to wish ill on anybody, but what he did had a devastating effect on our program and on my professional career."

The professional paths of Pearl and the two former Illinois assistants were destined to cross again when Pearl became head coach of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which is in the same conference as Illinois-Chicago. In the four years Pearl coached in Milwaukee before going on to Tennessee he and Collins never shook hands after a game." "It was very tense," Coombs remembers. Pearl was immediately successful as a head coach and took Wisconsin-Milwaukee as far as the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. There his journey ended in a loss to, ironically, Illinois, but it was Pearl's springboard to the Tennessee job.

I was covering Illinois basketball during the recruitment of Thomas and never felt there was any substance to Pearl's charges. Why would Thomas not want to go to Illinois where two of his former Simeon High school teammates already were playing for Henson? I admit I was somewhat biased because I had a personal relationship with Henson. My wife, Leslie, and I played bridge with Lou and Mary Henson and sometimes spent week-ends in their home. Leslie attended the wedding of one of the Henson daughters and I drove down to Champaign for the funeral of their son, Lou Jr. During the investigation, Henson and I often walked together in the morning, going inside the Assembly hall to walk during inclement weather. During one such morning constitutional I asked Lou whether there was any chance there was any truth to Pearl's charges and as best as I can recall, his answer was: "I don't think so. Jimmy tells me there isn't and I believe him." And I believed Lou. To those who don't know Henson the first impression might be, "would I buy a used car from this man?" and the answer is "yes." I have never met a sports writer who didn't like and trust Lou Henson, even the most cynical among us.

During the NCAA's investigation, Illinois hired a lawyer named Mike Slive to represent it. Slive and his partner, Mike Glazier, specialized in representing institutions under NCAA investigation. Glazier is still in the business, but Slive moved into athletic administrtion and is currently the commissioner of the Southeast Conference--of which Tennessee is a prominent member.

Collins says he didn't see Pearl's tear-filled mea culpa on national TV, but "five or six coaches called me right away. It's just ironic how a person who preached integrity and said it was his duty, that he had a calling and a need to turn us in, now says it's not good to tell the truth most of the time. I've known Bruce fo many, many years. He didn't just start doing what he got caught doing. He's a master of deception. I think he's a really good coach, but if you look up the definition of the word 'honesty' Bruce Pearl's picture definitely will not be there."