The sideshow at Tennessee’s 71-63 victory over Auburn on Saturday was like a song Taylor Swift will write in 20 years when her lyrics have evolved to reflect her status as a middle-aged woman.
Until she writes it though, UT’s recent basketball coaching saga can be understood through a compilation of her current works.
Bruce Pearl is Tennessee basketball’s ex-lover who screwed up a nearly perfect marriage with a stupid mistake that resulted in an emotional divorce for everyone involved.
He should’ve said no when Aaron Craft showed up at his Knoxville home for a barbeque. He really should have thought twice before he let it all go. Instead he ended up begging for forgiveness at the feet of UT and the NCAA.
It was too little too late and his relationship with UT faded into history as a beautiful tragic love affair. And because of trust issuess stemming from the gut-wrenching end of the Pearl era, the Vols rebounded with Cuonzo Martin, a cliché “safe guy” incapable of the mistakes Pearl committed.
But Tennessee and its family members – the fans in this case – struggled to embrace Martin like they did Pearl.
Martin was fine. He never did a thing wrong. Sure, he didn’t come in riding a white horse, but those who arranged the marriage knew he would never leave teardrops on the banjos that played “Rocky Top” when the Vols made the Elite Eight with Pearl in 2010.
But the UT family missed Pearl and the screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain that he brought.
So even though the team was content with Martin, 36,000 or so family members staged an awkward intervention by openly petitioning the Vols to give Pearl another chance.
Though athletic director Dave Hart did not publicly declare his loyalty to Martin in the wake of the petition, the tune he spun in regards to a potential Pearl return sounded a lot like Swift’s 2012 hit, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
But soon, the athletic department and fans were left going back to December all the time and wishing they had realized what they had when Martin was theirs.
Martin never said it – he was too nice – but he probably wondered why UT fans had to be so mean. And when push came to shove, the chauvinistic gesture of a contract extension and raise was not enough to keep him with a program had been rather cold towards him for three seasons.
The photo of Hart hugging Martin after the Vols defeated Mercer to advance to the Sweet 16 became just another picture for Martin to burn as he departed for California.
Tennessee was left with a blank space in its head coaching slot and chose to write Donnie Tyndall’s name in it.
Ironically though, Tyndall reminds everyone of Pearl, and perhaps a little bit too much because of the current NCAA investigation into Tyndall’s former program at Southern Mississippi.
But Tennessee seemed convinced that it could make this (allegedly) bad guy good for more than just a weekend.
You can tell me when it’s over if the high was worth the pain.
David Cobb is a senior in journalism and electronic media. Contact him at [email protected].
