Bruce Pearl took serious liberties with his television time before and during the NCAA Tournament, particularly in lobbying for his son Steven's Auburn Tigers to make March Madness despite a 17-16 record after the SEC Tournament.
Former Illinois Fighting Illini basketball player Deon Thomas, who Pearl famously snitched on to the NCAA and got suspended for his freshman season in 1989, believes his character should get him removed from broadcasting.
Thomas was seemingly unapologetic about his gripes with Pearl and didn't seem to hold back with his true feelings.
“I really do my best not to think of that person,” Thomas said. "Because if I allow him to occupy any space in my brain, it’s not gonna be positive for me ... I am a person of second chances. But I don’t understand why you should get a third, a fourth, a fifth. I think character matters. So you ask if I think he should be on television? No.”
Bruce Pearl's first year in broadcasting couldn't have gone worse for his image. Or better for CBS.
Pearl's been a major storyline all March, and his Illinois history ties in well with the Fighting Illini's run to the Final Four. CBS probably has no intentions of taking him off the air because of all the extra eyes on the product he's brought.
Pearl has never gone below the belt on-screen and has made several good points in his analysis, one big one being that the SMU Mustangs might not have been fit to make the field. That would bear out with SMU's 89-79 First Four loss to the very same Miami (OH) Redhawks that Pearl initially said didn't deserve to make the dance, but eventually reneged on after the Akron Zips stole the MAC auto-bid.
Pearl will always have his enemies from his misdeeds from a long coaching career, though particularly from that period when he was an Iowa Hawkeyes assistant and he took away a year of Thomas's life in Champaign, Illinois. Reactions to his next act should be expected to be the same scrutiny as his previous one.