University of Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton came under fire after he made comments regarding the future of Volunteers’ basketball coach Bruce Pearl prior to Friday’s NCAA tournament game against Michigan.
In an interview with WNML-AM in Knoxville, Hamilton said that he, University of Tennessee Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and school trustees will evaluate Pearl after the season ends.
“We don’t know the answer today,” Hamilton said when asked if Pearl would be coach next season. “We’ve done a lot of soul searching about the direction of our program, and we’ll continue to do that, and we’ll decide after we’re out of the NCAA tournament what direction it is that we’re going to go next.
“The jury is out with what’s going to happen on that. He knows that, by the way,” Hamilton said.
Although he apologized to Pearl for the ill-timed comments, Hamilton sounded like a man who had an agenda, almost as if he was predisposed regarding his decision.
Perhaps Hamilton was looking for a reason to justify his decision to fire Pearl, and he got it when Tennessee was blown out by Michigan on Friday.
But Hamilton didn’t need any more reasons to fire Pearl considering he already grounds to terminate him.
After the Vols basketball coach admitted he lied to NCAA investigators regarding recruits visiting his home, Hamilton could have fired Pearl immediately.
Hamilton essentially sabotaged the Vols chances of beating Michigan by casting a cloud of uncertainty over Pearl’s future.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that making comments about the future of your coach was going to have an adverse effect on the team.
Not only did Hamilton create more controversy with his remarks, he’s now drawn the ire of Tennessee fans who are more interested in his termination than they are Pearl’s.
Hamilton’s future as the Vols athletic director should be in question too because whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, everything that happens within the Vols athletic department is his responsibility.
If Pearl and former Vols football coach Lane Kiffin are going to be held accountable for their mistakes, Hamilton should be accountable as well.
Hamilton is setting up a situation where he’s going to make Pearl the scapegoat, hoping to reduce the sting of possible NCAA sanctions when the Vols go before the infractions committee in June.
Kiffin did Hamilton a favor when he bolted for Southern California, and it appears the Volunteers football program may not receive harsh treatment from the NCAA.
But Hamilton knows that the infractions committee isn’t going to take Pearl’s lying to investigators lightly, and the eight-game suspension he received – in addition to the $1.5 million salary reduction – may not appease the committee.
Firing Pearl won’t lessen the blow, but firing Hamilton would definitely send a message to the NCAA that the university is going to move in the right direction.
If the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees want to regain the confidence of Volunteer fans, they’ll worry about finding a replacement for Mike Hamilton instead of Bruce Pearl.
Mike Hamilton seems to have followed bad decisions with even worse decisons. Phil Fulmer with the California joke. Now the Bruce Pearl decision.
Sometimes it just makes sense that maybe a spring cleaning should take place and that should include you too Mr. Hamilton mabe Tennesee might get back on track again.