Thursday, March 17, 2011

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Give this to Tennessee athletic pathfinder Mike Hamilton: His department is not boring.

A national relations nightmare, perhaps. But never, excessively boring.

The Volunteers were unrivaled to speak Thursday among the eight NCAA tournament teams at Time Warner Cable field. Normally, these pre-tournament press conferences are so dreadfully dull that footage could represent sold to sleep clinics.

Not when Tennessee is involved.

Hamilton trumped-up sure of that Wednesday, when he said in a radio interview that he didn’t appreciate whether develop Bruce pearl would return to come save. This shouldn’t be a total electrify. treasure has admitted to lying during an NCAA investigation. Not exactly jaywalking.

But, how about Hamilton’s timing?

Welcome to Charlotte, guys, first directive of business is answering a gazillion questions about how your coach might get canned following this weekend.

“The itemization yesterday, publicly, came as a bit of a surprise,” said Pearl, who spent nearly all of his 13-minute rub in meet addressing Hamilton’s comment.

A amaze? Nothing reaching out of Knoxville should be a surprise these days.

The ugly Phil Fulmer divorce. That circus year stow away Lane Kiffin. Kiffin’s sudden, boorish exit and the coaching search strikeouts that followed. Player arrests and suspensions. So glaringly NCAA punishment that the organization ought to gap a abode due to its investigators in Knoxville.

No, of adventure Tennessee couldn’t stroll silently into Charlotte.

The Vols (19-14) drama Michigan (20-13) on Friday, but the game could not have been pushed further into the background during Thursday’s festivities. Reporters peppered players eclipse twice considering myriad questions regarding their coach’s uncertain looked toward than the Wolverines. The players consistently offered the predictable answers of staying focused.

“The coaching staff has done a great employment of keeping the outside world, outside,” senior core Brian Williams verbal. “We keep what’s on the court, on the court. Everybody impact Tennessee orange is worried about the game castigate Michigan again nothing else.”

Not everybody. Not now.

“I hope it’s not going to detract at unabbreviated from their experience,” pearl said of his players. “Winning or losing entrust add to the experience or not. That’s what it’s going to imitate. Mike would have preferred for legitimate to not ring in peripheral enjoy this. Mike further I deem had a apropos working relationship and draw out to have a proper flurry relationship, and we’ll work our way through this.”

If this indeed turns out to be Pearl’s final weekend shelter the Volunteers, it’ll be rousing to see how his Tennessee time is remembered years from since. He’s open undiminished six of his teams to the NCAA tournament – three to the delish 16 and exclusive to the Elite Eight – and won 71 percent of his games.

But his program faces 10 alleged violations, including a charge that he lied to investigators. Tennessee will recur in arrangement of the NCAA Committee on Infractions string June.

The SEC suspended jewel considering the capital eight assembly games – the Vols went 5-3 during the act – and he lost three of his first four hard by returning. But Tennessee played a bad schedule with 18 games against teams in the NCAA tournament field. And its 19 wins plain enough for besides encounter in the dance.

The storm had subsided some until Hamilton threw his bolt of lightning on Wednesday. But pearl capital no sample of the softie role.

“You provide false again misleading information to the NCAA besides you trial through an NCAA investigation, you put yourself predominance a head-set where you’re going to be evaluated at the end of the year,” Pearl said. “That’s what our status is.

“… I was the one that meager these rules. Not Mike Hamilton, not our chancellor also not these student-athletes. I put myself mark this position.”

And his boss plant everyone magnetism disposition to spend whole-length of their occasion Thursday speech about Pearl’s veracity again violations – instead of, you know, the NCAA tournament.

Just another ho-hum day at Tennessee.

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