ESPN.com – NCB – Katz: Tough jobs:
“Hollow words. Coaches have heard them before many times at Tennessee, and other high-major jobs like Rutgers, Seton Hall, Kansas State among others.
“You’ve heard the rhetoric: This coach is going to turn the program around. He’s going to get tremendous support. A new practice facility will be built. There will be more money coming into the program. You wait and see. It will happen.
“Four years later there is a coaching change. After another four years there is another coaching change. And the cycle continues and continues.
“Look at Tennessee’s track record of late: Wade Houston, five seasons and no NCAA Tournaments before he was fired. Kevin O’Neill, three seasons and no NCAA Tournaments before he left for, of all places, Northwestern. Jerry Green coached for four seasons and went to four NCAA Tournaments and he was still sacked. Buzz Peterson just completed his fourth season without an NCAA berth before he was canned. Now it’s Bruce Pearl’s turn.
“So, why should we believe Pearl can get Tennessee turned around when the others (save, perhaps, Green) couldn’t replicate the successes of Don DeVoe’s 11-year run (six NCAA berths from 1979-89)?
” ‘I can’t put my finger on why it’s been one of those jobs here but it starts and ends with players,’ Pearl said. ‘We’ve got to get Tennessee kids to believe that you can go to Tennessee and win. They think they’ve got to go somewhere else and win.’
“Heard this before? …”