The following is a special presentation of WTCI, Chattanooga, North Georgia, and the Tennessee Valley.

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.

This week on the A-list, I sit down with the University of Tennessee's men's head basketball coach, Bruce Pearl.

That's the way.

Straight ahead, find out just how long he plans to stay in Tennessee.

Coach Bruce Pearl, born in 1960.

This Boston, Massachusetts, native, had quite a coaching journey before ultimately making his way to the volunteer state.

He launched his career in his hometown as an assistant coach with Boston College.

Then it was on to Stanford in Iowa, eventually becoming the head coach at southern Indiana.

Next, he moved on to Milwaukee and in 2005, he accepted his very first job in the NCAA Division one basketball program.

But there's much more to this man than what you might see in the media.

Coach Pearl, thank you for joining us on the A-list.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

So I have to ask, what's a nice Jewish boy like you doing in a coaching job like this?

Well.

It's a it speaks a lot about our country and how far we've come that a nice Jewish boy like me could be coaching in the Southeast conference and feeling very comfortable spiritually and and with my family and being in Knoxville, Tennessee.

So I've worked my whole life to be at a place like Tennessee and play for a championship.

So I'm really pleased to be here.

When you first got contacted about this opportunity, what's the first thing that went through your mind?

Oh, I guess jumping on basketball wise was, you know, why haven't they been as successful on the men's side as they have on the women's side?

Certainly Pat Summitt and and all that she had done to establish bask, I said they must love basketball.

Knowing Coach Fulmer and the tradition of the football program and and just wondering, you know what?

Why so many empty orange seats?

Because you'd seen them on TV a little bit.

Maybe Kentucky's too strong.

So my first thought was, you know, can we do it?

And it had been since Ernie and Bernie that they had done it last.

So I guess that was my first thought.

And what about when you got the job?

When I got the job, my first thought was, why couldn't we do it?

Everything is here.

You got unbelievable fans, great support.

A university that's committed to excellence in everything that they do.

You know, Coach Summit was was a great colleague and an ally.

And Mike Hamilton, the athletic director who brought me here, really believed that if we could win and play a style of play that was going to be attractive, they would come.

How is the SEC different from all of your other experiences?

Well, I mean, it's the top.

I mean, it's the best.

And the athletes and the coaches and the fans.

The national television exposure, it's just it's still 94 feet and the baskets are, you know, still 15 feet higher, a ten foot high, 15 feet free throw line.

And just but just the stakes are higher and the competition is is better.

And, you know, you bet you've got to be good.

You got to stay on top of your game if you're going to be successful.

I read somewhere that you really you like being loved, but you also like being booed by your fans.

No, not by my fans.

My point in saying something like that was, I want our Tennessee fans.

I want to connect with them.

I want to serve them.

I go to work every day, you know, rewarding them for giving me this opportunity.

But I really don't care if the opponents dislike me because if they liked me, then I'd be easy to beat.

And I think that's the way I think with a lot of successful coaches.

Let's talk about your relationship with Pat Summitt.

To me from the outset, as just, you know, a fan of, you know, a bystander, it seems like a pretty unique and special, special relationship considering you're the fifth men's basketball head coach that she's seen in her career.

Right.

Well, I think the significant thing about it is I think if you go back and look at Pat Summitt and over her career, she's had a pretty good relationship with all the coaches that are there.

And Pat's the common denominator.

She reaches out now, some may be close to another because that's what the the men's coach was willing to accept.

And so maybe I've been willing to accept her friendship and her support.

So I've benefited greatly by her friendship and her knowledge.

Now, she might have a great relationship with all the head coaches on the men's side, but I don't know of any other men's coach who painted their chest and showed up at one of her games.

When when my first year, Pat traveled to Duke to take on the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor, which of course is famous for their for the Cameron crazies and their students.

And it's probably one of the more intimidating places to play.

And Pat went there with her team.

They didn't perform well.

And the fans there were really, really hard, really, really rough on Pat and her girls.

And so the next year, we're preparing to play Duke at our place.

And I'm like, you know, Pat and I were on a radio show together and I said, You know what, folks?

We got to get out there.

We have sell that thing out.

Talked a little bit.

What about what happened last year with Pat and said, in fact, you know, I'm going to I'm going to and I think I actually said I'm going to be just like those Cameron crazies.

I'm going to get out there and I'm going to paint myself orange and I'll be sit right there in the front row.

Well, I said it right there on the radio.

It was it was a weak moment, if you will.

And then and then what happened was, after it was over, I had either put up or shut up.

And since I said it, I went and backed it up.

And she returned the favor.

Yet the next year, she, I think, was the next year for maybe it was later on that season.

I'm not really sure.

It was pretty special.

Peyton won the Super Bowl.

He was the MVP and he was at our game in Florida, ESPN in college GameDay was there, and Pat got dressed in a cheerleader outfit and sang Rocky Top.

The difference between Peyton, that is she has talent and I have none.

There's no question.

And a great respect and love for Tennessee.

And Pat's been so very, very loyal and she's done so much for the university.

And all I'm trying to do is hold up my end all I'm trying to do is get our men's basketball program to a level where it's also competitive and well-respected.

And and that's my mission.

It's obvious this mission is not impossible.

Coach Bruce Pearl finished out his first season with Tennessee 22 and eight.

One of the very best in the school's history and was lauded for signing a top ranked recruiting class.

By his second season, the volunteers made it to the Sweet 16 and by his third season as head coach in Knoxville, the men's basketball team achieved a number one ranking for the very first time in the school's history.

Now, in his fifth season, the Tennessee volunteers will compete for the fifth straight year in the NCAA tournament.

Looking at the continual rise in popularity for UT men's basketball with Pearl at the helm, it's hard to believe this sport may not have always been his first choice.

Let's go back a little bit.

I understand that basketball really wasn't your first passion.

I understand football was your first passion.

It really was.

Oh, gosh.

It even started at age 14, believe it or not.

I was the best athlete in town.

I don't mind saying it because I was just 14.

I was the first kid picked and something happened that changed my life forever.

I had almost a career ending knee injury.

So it changed my life in a very positive way because I found out that there was more there had to be more to me than just whether or not I could take you on the court and kick your butt.

Who was your mentor back then before you met Tom Davis, when it must have been so devastating and disappointing, though, to think your whole career is about playing, and then it's kind of goes off a different path.

I'd say my dad was probably, you know, my mentor or the guy that I looked up to the most.

You know, I always believed him to be very successful in what he was doing and a good man.

And so he was there for me in that regard.

But I mean, that was difficult to go through as a as a younger person because you had to do what you do, tend to deal with adversity a little better when you've had some experience.

I had no experience with something like that, but I just found other areas to spend my time in and I think it just made me a more complete person.

So how do you motivate your players?

Well, that's a we don't have enough time in the show to talk about that.

I think you got to see something in each individual that they don't see in themselves.

You've got to give them a path where they can take something one day at a time and build on it.

I try to I try to care for them a great, great deal and love them as best I possibly can, treat them as badly as I treat my own children.

Just make sure that the toughest opponent on our schedule is not Tennessee.

That that that I want them to be the greatest that they can be as an individual.

But at the same time, understanding that that they've got to make some choices and some sacrifices and understand that when we as a team are successful, they as an individual will benefit far more than if they as an individual are successful.

You know, but the team fails.

So I've got a chip on my shoulder.

I want them to have a chip on their shoulder.

It fits.

Tennessee is not the premier men's basketball program in the SEC.

We had a long way to go to get there.

There are several others like Kentucky or Florida, just right off the bat that you could say they are.

And let's be hungrier than they are.

Let's work harder than they do and then be proud and realize when we accomplish something, it's pretty special.

Do you have a relationship with your players off the court?

Well, I think anybody that's successful in this profession does.

We have them over the house as often as the NCAA will allow.

My players don't care how much I know until they know how much I care.

And I haven't actually said that in a while.

It's call that a line that I've used before, but I believe it to be true.

And so you have to do lots of things to demonstrate that I care, you know, stay in touch with them and you know, these things about them that have nothing to do with basketball.

They read that and say, either coach must care or at least he's acting like he cares.

And then, you know, you you then I feel like if you can give to somebody, then you can ask for it in something in return.

And so that when they missed the mark and young people will they'll miss the mark and they'll miss it sometimes more often than I would want.

I want them to worry that I'm going to be disappointed in them, not just angry.

And to do that, you've got to have a relationship with them.

What would your players say is the best thing about you?

Maybe it is that I try.

I think maybe that I think they feel like I'm doing the doing as well as I can or close to it.

I hate to say I'm doing the best I can because I can always do better, but I think they respect that we're giving a really solid effort and and that we're doing with integrity.

We're trying to do it the right way.

What about coaching your son, Steve, and how has that been for him and for you?

It's been it's been wonderful at times.

It's been difficult at times.

I mean, I am blessed with having two sons with good hearts and good souls.

They're good boys.

And I try to tell my players good men are hard to find.

And so if you could be one, you know, you'll be separating yourself in many, many ways.

And a lot of ways.

Steve is a great role model.

More so off the floor than sometimes on the floor.

He's like me.

He's got a little temper and he doesn't always control himself as much as I'd like, But he competes.

He's physical, he's tough.

Do you think coaching has made you a better parent?

I don't know.

I think being a parent has made me a better coach because like I said, there's so much there.

I, I have a responsibility to carry on the good works that are going on at home.

And I take it it's a real responsibility.

And I try to have a good relationship with the parents, my players.

I do with most of them sometimes.

Look, their job is to love their children and want what's best for them.

Five guys get the start, you know, nine guys get to play and two or three guys are going to come off the bench and maybe not play a lot.

And so oftentimes their success, you know, has a lot to do with how much they're playing.

But I just think being a good parent has helped me be a better coach.

It seems Bruce Pearl, the coach, also tries to be a constant teacher and mentor for his players.

He takes this philosophy of coaching beyond the hardwood and into everyday life, imparting a wide variety of lessons.

He hopes his players will carry with them throughout their lives.

I loved reading about in I think it was 2007, you took your team to Europe and not only to Europe, but Terezin, to one of the concentration camps.

Well, why did you do that?

Well, you know, there were because we were there and we took a history professor with us to study the history of the region.

Many of my players are African-American and very often when there's when there's discrimination, they'll say, Coach, you don't know what it's like.

And then I have the opportunity to tell them, Sorry, I know what it's like.

6 million of my brothers and sisters were killed just because of how they worshiped and how they prayed and and because they were Jewish.

And so I know slavery was really rough, but it happened a lot longer ago.

And and believe me, I understand.

I understand your pain.

I feel your pain.

However, we're not going to let that be an excuse for our failures.

And I'm not going to let you guys let that be an excuse for your failure.

I think that part of the message for me was, number one, that it happened.

And number two, if something is wrong and it's going on right there in front of you, be somebody that will stand up and say, no, this isn't right.

Even if it's not popular.

And I'm not saying that that everybody is in position to be able to do this.

But I think when when you've got a basketball team, these guys all got a chance to be leaders.

And and as leaders, they're going to go wherever they're going to go.

And I want them to stand up for what was right, What was wrong.

That was wrong.

Not enough people stood up and did enough about it.

And and so there were lots of lessons that we learned.

And I think it brought them closer to Stephen.

They saw Stephen's emotion.

They saw my emotion.

Did it have the effect on your players you hoped it would?

I mean, I think it did, and I didn't do it just for the effect for them.

I you know, I did it, you know, because it felt like it was my responsibility as as a coach, as a teacher, you know, as a Jewish-American, for them to have to have that experience.

And it was it was really, really good.

We were there for, you know, two weeks.

And that was one of the things that we did, and that was one of the things that they needed to learn about.

And it seems Coach Bruce Pearl knows from experience that doing the right thing may not always be easy.

As an assistant coach with the university of Iowa in the late eighties, he found himself in the middle of an apparent recruiting scandal.

When you talk about always doing the right thing, I have to bring up the recruiting scandal.

In 88-89, when you were an assistant coach at Iowa.

Can you tell me a little about that?

And that may not be a memory you want to bring up, but.

Well, it's okay because, you know, I was I was witness to a crime and it was along those lines of of doing the right thing, at least in my mind.

And if you see something that you think is wrong, try to do something about it.

And so I cooperated in an NCAA investigation that was very damaging to my career at that time.

And I had conversations with with the prospect and other people that led me to believe that things were going on the wrong way.

And when I was asked a question by the NCAA, I provided my answers that were honest and accurate, and I provided them with some evidence that supported what I had to say.

Knowing that that that could be a setback for my career.

So it's not something that I really glad I went through.

I don't know that I'm proud of the whole thing.

However, that was back in the day, you know, before Enron, before the things that take place on Wall Street.

Now, I think there's a higher level of self-government and ethics now, and there's no longer a code of silence.

There's more of a code of ethics.

While the NCAA investigated recruiting violations, they did not find the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign guilty of wrongdoing.

Yet that same investigation uncovered other violations, which resulted in several recruiting restrictions and a one year postseason ban.

The immediate outcome for Coach Pearl, a division one blackball by many coaches.

And while some saw his actions back then as a career killer, those words are a distant memory in this arena today.

So looking back 20 years ago, admittedly on the brink of career suicide, now, you know, you're like a superstar.

Is there anywhere that you can go where people aren't saying Coach Pearl?

Coach Pearl.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've not traveled the Soviet Union, and so I don't think they knew.

No, no, it's here's what I would say about that.

I'm 49 years old.

For about 45 years, I was, you know, an assistant coach in the division two coach.

And people that followed college basketball may have known me.

So really, only for the last four or five years have I been in this.

So people that have only known me for the last few years, you know, they think I'm a rock star and they think I should be used to being a rock star.

I'm not.

I spent 45 years being somebody else.

And, you know, as far as working to get here, it was really to be able to coach the game at the highest level, not necessarily for all the things that are going along with it now.

I mean, look, I didn't get into coaching and teaching because it was a very well-paid profession at this level.

Now, at the end of my career, fortunately it is, but that's not why I got into it.

I got into it because I love the game.

I love to be in the gym.

I love to make a difference in young people's lives.

And so I have a hard time, a little bit, you know, with some of the notoriety and everything and just I just look at it as part of my job.

How do you balance everything out there between the four kids and the brand new wife and, you know, this great team and wanting to excel even more than you already have and then you obviously don't turn down many speaking engagements.

How do you prioritize?

Well, part of it is, is I, I don't know that I have the right balance in it.

I try to take my family with me as much as possible and have them be a part of this.

It's not my job.

It's really our job.

I can't do it without Brandi.

I can't do without my kids.

I don't know that I've got it in balance, but I do know this.

and I think it's as with different stages in people's lives.

When I was younger and I was raising children, it was important.

Even more important, I think, that I was there more often than not.

And so I stayed nine years in Division two.

I won a national championship in 1995, three years after I got there.

And I had opportunities to leave.

But I knew what the jump to Division One was going to be like.

And and so I stayed at the Division two level for another six years until they got a little bit older.

And then I said, okay, I'm 40.

It's time to get on that Division one coaching carousel.

The kids have, you know, I've I've, I can still do it, but since I've been at the Division one level, I would know there is not a balance.

I was probably a better dad a few years ago than I am now.

What have you given up that you wish you didn't have to?

I just wish I could be.

I just wish there wasn't as much traveling.

Here's the deal.

You have these boundaries and.

And you have all these third parties and my.

My wife and my children have to know they do at this time in my career, have to share me probably with more people.

I have responsibility to players.

I have responsibility to their families.

I have a responsibility to university to be able to recruit and compete.

And, you know, I have to those who are given much, much as expected, I have a responsibility to not only give back with my with my financial resources, with my time, but the message to take to other young people.

So I guess it's out of whack.

But but that's that's the time of my life Im at right now.

So if a young athlete is watching this right now and says, I want to be Bruce Pearl when I grow up, what's the best piece of advice you can give him or her?

Oh, you know, I don't know.

It's it's for me, you know, hard work, you know, won't guarantee success.

But without hard work, I guarantee you won't have success.

It's your choice.

If you decide you want to be successful, then you've got to choose to have discipline support in your life.

You've got to try to make some some decisions and prioritize.

And I don't have many other distractions between my family and my job.

It's what I do.

And so, you know, that's what I would say, work hard and be passionate about it.

Hard work, dedication and passion.

Together, they produced the kind of results that truly engage fans and that keep this coach energized.

And it's his close ties to family, faith and those who share his love of the game that keep him grounded on one home court.

How long do you think you'll stick around in Tennessee?

I hope to be here for the rest of my career.

I would like to be the all time winningest coach in the history of Tennessee basketball, and it would be great if I could finish my career here.

There's no place I'd rather be.

Is it all about winning?

Well, it's all about winning, but it's also about winning the right way.

Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil, but there is a right way to do it.

And there is a wrong way to do it.

And I think I feel very strongly about this, that that there are some last bastions before we send these young people out there and to the world to do this on their own.

Sometimes that can be in the church or in a synagogue, and sometimes that can be in a school.

And so they've got to get out there and make their own decisions.

Personally, socially, ethically, as far as how they're going to operate their businesses, so on and so forth.

I think if I compromise myself to the point where they know I'm not doing it the right way, what message are my sending them as we now send them off with their degrees to go ahead and make their own decisions?

I do try hard and recognize my failures and I want my players to to recognize their their their failure failings as well and just try to do better.

It's all we can do.

You said you have literally been working your whole career to get to this point.

Is that everything you thought it would be?

Oh, it's more than I ever dreamed.

It's more than I ever dreamed it would be.

Both in how how it how it is to handle.

And then and just, you know, how it how well it's been received.

I mean, people genuinely, genuinely enjoy it when it's good and appreciate what we're doing.

And, you know, so, no, I know I never dreamed it could be, you know, either this much fun or or necessarily that we would have this much success and and really consider ourselves a top 20 program.

I think we're there and now we just need to maintain that level of excellence.

I guess the only thing left to say is go Vols.

Go Vols.

Thanks, Coach.

Thank you.

Coming up on the next A-list.

What's it mean to be green and how does a community get there?

We actually could be fighting for something.

Join me next time as I sit down with green activist Majora Carter.

I'm Allison Leibovitz.

See you soon.