CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bruce Pearl was hoping to enhance his chances of remaining the head coach at University of Tennessee with a valiant showing in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, his team seemed to quit on him as Michigan dominated Tennessee 75-45 yesterday in a West Region game.
The ninth-seeded Vols, who finished 19-15, were in the game at halftime, trailing 33-29. But No. 8 seed Michigan opened the second half with a 19-2 run that put Tennessee in a deep hole it could not escape.
“We just didn’t play with no heart out there,” Tennessee forward Tobias Harris said. “Michigan came out, made shots, and we just did a terrible job of trying to cover them. And on the offensive end we rushed too many shots and basically we just quit.”
The Tennessee program is under NCAA investigation for recruiting violations. Pearl was suspended for eight games earlier in the year for giving false and misleading statements to investigators. Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said during a radio interview aired Wednesday that Pearl’s status would be evaluated at the end of the season.
“We’ve got to go before the Committee on Infractions in June and it’s going to be difficult,” Pearl said. “We made mistakes. We’re going to try to be accountable for those mistakes, but my goal and desire is to be the basketball coach at Tennessee next year and for a long time.”
Pearl has led the Volunteers to the NCAA Tournament in each of his six years at the university. But yesterday’s blowout will be an ugly lasting impression.
“I don’t think the people at Tennessee are evaluating me based on whether or not we won or lost this game,” Pearl said. “I think there’s a lot more to it than that. And I have great faith and trust in our leadership.”
Michigan (21-13) advances to play top-seeded Duke, which defeated Hampton 87-45. The Wolverines became the first team in tournament history to win despite not making a single free throw, going 0-for-1. But they connected on 64.3 percent from the field in the second half and had four players score in double figures led by Zack Novak’s 14.
The Michigan-Duke matchup will be spiced up by the recent documentary about the Fab Five and the critical comments Jalen Rose made about the Blue Devil program.
“All the stuff coming out, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about that, but we’re looking forward to playing the Duke team now,” Michigan guard Stu Douglass said. “It’s a great rivalry in the past, great history, and it’s a new day.”